Category: Tips & Tricks

  • iOS: Make the screen darker than the darkest setting

    If you’re like me, your iPhone doesn’t stray far from you at any time, and is on your nightstand during the night. If you’re like me, you might also enjoy reading or something like that before sleep. If you’re like me, you find the darkest setting on the iPhone screen to be a bit too…

  • Change password in a remote desktop session

    Most Windows users will be familiar with using Ctrl+Alt+Del to change their password on a local computer, and that works well for that purpose. However, that command is not forwarded to a computer to which you are connected remotely, as it triggers locally. So how, then, can we prompt a change of our password without waiting for it…

  • Add shortcut to all desktops

    From time to time, you may, as an administrator, find it useful to ensure that all users have some common shortcuts. Luckily, ensuring that shortcuts are distributed to all desktops is easy enough to accomplish. Here’s how: Find or create the shortcut you want to deploy Open Explorer, and navigate to C:\users\Public\Desktop Copy the shortcut into…

  • Citrix: Keyboard input fails on Mac OS X

    A user called in, saying that she was having problems with her email client on Citrix. I quickly established that she was using a Mac, and that she was able to open and read emails, as well as start a reply, but that no keyboard input seemed to show up when she was writing an email. I next…

  • Adding external recipients in Exchange

    A few weeks ago, we looked at groups in Exchange. Sometimes, you need to be able to add external recipients, too. Here’s how we create those: Open your Microsoft Exchange console Browse to Recipient Configuration > Mail Contact In the right-hand pane, click “New Mail Contact”: Go through the Wizard, specifying the OU as appropriate. The address should be…

  • Adding users to Exchange Distribution Group

    Last week, I showed you how you can create distribution groups. Those groups are relatively worthless, however, without any users added to them. How we go about doing this, depends on what console you decide to use. Exchange console: Open your Microsoft Exchange console Browse to Recipient Configuration > Distribution Group Find the group in question,…

  • Creating a Distribution Group in Exchange

    Distribution Groups, commonly referred to as mailing lists, are practical tools to send email to a number of people, without having to grab each address from the address book. They are also pretty simple to create. Here is how it’s done: Exchange console: Open your Microsoft Exchange console Browse to Recipient Configuration > Distribution Group…

  • Enabling or disabling the Switch User option

    Some time ago, a user called in, saying that the Switch User option had suddenly disappeared. I connected to her computer, and sure enough, there was no Switch User option in either the Lock Screen or the Ctrl+Alt+Del-screen, and the option was greyed out in the Start Menu. Luckily, getting it back was easy enough. Here’s how: Start…

  • Setting up Google AdSense on WordPress

    Regular readers may have noticed that ads started appearing on the site back in the beginning of february. While I don’t expect to ever earn a lot of money on this site, it would be nice if it didn’t cost me money. Running a WordPress blog on a hosted domain isn’t all that expensive, and…

  • #TBT: Apt-get FTW or: How I learned to stop worrying and learned to love Ubuntu

    This post originally ran in May 2008. I am reposting it now, as part of my throwback thursday project, to give some of my older quality posts some love. While I still like Linux and, as I have written about last year still use Linux, it is not my main working platform. I love technology and fiddling…

  • Resolving error code 0x9c47 when installing Internet Explorer 11

    A user called in, wanting help troubleshooting an installation of Internet Explorer 11 that repeatedly and persistently failed. The error code was the same, 0x9c47. The error code means that a Windows Update, KB2729094, could not be found on the computer. Because it is listed as a prerequisite for IE11, the installation failed. It did not matter one…