Category Archives: Windows

Hyper-V, Windows 10, Windows Server

Connecting to Server with Hyper-V Manager without Domain

After installing Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V on a small office network without domain or AD, I had big troubles with managing the server from Hyper-V Manager.

Found a guide from Microsoft that looked that it would solve the problem. But after trying “all” the steps there was still no luck with connecting to the server.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyperv_on_windows/user_guide/remote_host_management

These were the steps that most useful to me:

On the Hyper-V host to be managed, run the following as an administrator:

  1. Enable-PSRemoting
    • Enable-PSRemoting will create the necessary firewall rules for private network zones. To allow this access on public zones you will need to enable the rules for CredSSP and WinRM.
  2. Enable-WSManCredSSP -Role server

On the managing PC, run the following as an administrator:

  1. Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value “fqdn-of-hyper-v-host”

  2. Enable-WSManCredSSP -Role client -DelegateComputer “fqdn-of-hyper-v-host”

  3. Additionally you may need to configure the following group policy: ** Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Credentials Delegation | Allow delegating fresh credentials with NTLM-only server authentication **

    • Click Enable and add wsman/fqdn-of-hyper-v-host

I did not do the last and optional step because I didn’t know how to do it. Of course that was the missing part!

To get to the Computer Configuration you have to start the “Local Group Policy Editor“. You can search for it in Windows or run the command “gpedit.msc“.

Also for those who don’t know, FQDN is “Fully Qualified Domain Name”.

Compact Framework, Software, Windows 10

Windows Mobile Device Center and Windows 10

Upgrading to Windows 10 did not give me any issues with the connection to Windows Mobile with Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) which I need for the software I develop for Windows Mobile and Compact Framework.

Windows Mobile Device Center Stops Connecting

But after having a break from developing for Windows Mobile for a few months, the WMDC just could not connect anymore. First I tried to uninstall WMDC for a re-installation. There was some problems with it but after forcing the uninstall (don’t remember how) it was gone. But then the installation did not work. “The update could not be installed because at least one Windows component required by Windows Device Center is missing.”

Windows Mobile device center #2

 

This is obsolete software that Microsoft does not care about at all, so the information online is rare. The few suggestions online did not work.

Reinstalling Windows

After trying all I could think of for several weeks I gave up and reinstalled Windows. I was thinking about doing a reset of Windows, but Windows warned me that I had to reinstall several “apps” manually — and that list was several screens long! So I installed a new instance on another disk with dual boot to be able to use all my old “apps”.

On that clean installation of Windows 10, I was back on square one. Once again I got “The update could not be installed because at least one Windows component required by Windows Device Center is missing.”

That’s when I realized that I installed the N-version of Windows 10. That does not include the Media Player (that I didn’t want). But for some reason the Windows Mobile Device Center wants that Media Player.

After downloading and installing the Media Feature Pack for Windows 10 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48231, the installation of WMDC worked and my Windows Mobile Devices could connect again!

Now I thought that I had a solution for my original version of Windows, so I booted to that version and tried to install Media Feature Pack. But unluckily I got a message telling me that the Media Feature Pack was already installed. And I cannot find any way to uninstall.

The Fallback

Then during the night the new and working instance of Windows run an upgrade to version 1511.

And now the Windows Mobile Device Center refuses to connect agan! So that’s what happened with my original installation of Windows!

This could be helped with uninstalling the 1511 upgrade, but I don’t know when Windows installs that in the background next time.

The “Complete” Compilation

Before I reinstall Windows, or installs yet another instance on another drive, I want to know exactly what works and what doesn’t work. So I installed three different versions of Windows in VMware where I will try different approaches and see what works.

Windows 10 (RTM)

  1.  Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update (with 1511 upgrade)
  NOT Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update (with 1511 upgrade)
  3. Reverting the 1511 upgrade (Go back to an earlier build)
  Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update (with 1511 upgrade)
  3. Reverting the 1511 upgrade (Go back to an earlier build)
  4. Uninstalled WMDC
  5. Reinstalled the 1511 upgrade of Windows
  6. Reinstalled WMDC
Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update (with 1511 upgrade)
  3. Uninstalled WMDC
  4. Reinstalled WMDC
Working

Windows 10 N (RTM)

  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  NOT Working
  1. Installing Media Feature Pack
  2. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  Working

Windows 10 1511 (from Apr 2016)

  1.  Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update
  Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update with Insider Preview in the Fast Ring (OS Build 14352.1002)
  NOT Working
  1. Installing Windows Mobile Device Center
  2. Running Windows Update with Insider Preview in the Fast Ring (OS Build 14352.1002)
  3. Uninstalled WMDC
  4. Reinstalled WMDC
  Working

I will update the lists when I have more information.

The Solution

The solution to this problem is much easier than I first thought. After the 1511 upgrade just uninstall and reinstall Windows Mobile Device Center. THAT was EXACTLY what I tried, but the uninstall only gave me strange errors. I guess my problem was because there was several months between the 1511 upgrade and when I tried to uninstall WMDC and lots of other updates and development software had been installed after that.

Maybe, in my case,  I should have reverted the 1511 upgrade. Uninstalled Windows Mobile Device Center and then reinstalled upgrade 1511 and WMDC. Unfortunately, since it been several months since Windows installed the 1511 update, the option to revert to an earlier build is no longer available.

Conclusion

The best way to solve this for me is no longer available. The other options are:

  • Reset Windows and reinstall all programs.
  • Clear the disk and do a clean installation of Windows and all programs.
  • Keep using the second installation of Windows on the other disk and install all programs there.

It feel like that the best way would be to start all over with a clean installation of the Apr 2016 release of Windows 10. But I will think about that for a few days. If I knew there was a new upgrade coming soon I could wait for that, but that upgrade seems to be quite far away.

The Future

The question is what will happen with the next upgrade of windows? Will that also crash Windows Mobile Device Center, maybe next time uninstalling the upgrade will not help.

Microsoft is already not caring much for Windows Mobile. So one upgrade in the future will probably stop the WMDC completely.

Compact Framework, Visual Studio, Windows 10

Microsoft.CompactFramework.CSharp.targets not found after Update 10586 of Windows 10

4 Comments

After installing Update 10586.3 from Windows Update the Compact Framework projects could not be loaded in Visual Studio 2008. The error was something like “C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.CompactFramework.CSharp.targets’ cannot be found.”

I haven’t found any explanation of why this file (and some other Compact Framework files was removed during the update.

But the simple solution was to do a Repair/Reinstall of Visual Studio 2008.

Update August 17, 2016

Now Windows updated to Version 1607 (Build 14393.51) and the same problem  is back again.  It looks like we will have to do a reinstall of Visual Studio 2008 after each update of Windows 10.

Update May 22, 2019

I case anyone else than me still does maintenance work in Compact Framework the commenters are absolutely right. The Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=13442) is much easier to install than reinstalling Visual Studio.

But what I’ve done a few times is just copying the files named *CompactFramework* from another computer, that also has Visual Studio 2008 installed, into C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5. Or just save the *CompactFramework* files in another folder or a network drive until the next Windows Update.

Windows 10

Windows 10: App language differs from Windows language

When doing a clean install of Windows 10 all the apps in Windows was using Swedish. Apparently Microsoft thinks that if you use a Swedish keyboard you also want the apps to run in Swedish, even if you selected that you wanted to run Windows in English.

The primary language in Windows 10 seems to be selected from which keyboard you are using.

 

To change your primary language, follow these steps:

  1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings.
    (If you’re using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)

  2. Tap or click Time and language, and then tap or click Region and language.

  3. Tap or click the language that you want to use, and then tap or click Set as primary. The language you choose will appear at the top of the Languages list.

Windows, Windows 10 Preview

Windows 10 activation error 0x8007007B

Windows 10 preview started to nag me because it wasn’t activated. Trying to activate it only resulted in an error. When clicking error details it showed error code 0x8007007b.

The way to solve this was to click change product key and enter this key:

PBHCJ-Q2NYD-2PX34-T2TD6-233PK

I had to enter it twice before the change worked. After this the activation worked. Almost, I didn’t get an success from the activation, I only got a white blank window. But after reopening the windows the activation was ok.

I was running preview build 9926.
And it looks like it is the same problem, and the same solution, in build 10041.

 

Computers, Software, Windows

Not authorized to login to share in Windows 10 build 9926

After automatic update of Windows 10 build 9926 of Windows 10 I could no longer acces the new Synology Diskstation.

“\\share is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The account is not authorized to login from this station”

After lots of searching on the net it turned out that Microsoft has increased the security in this new build. And it seems that there is only a registry hack to let build 9926 connect like any other versions of Windows.

You have to add:

AllowInsecureGuestAuth (DWORD 32-bit) and set it to 1

in

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters

 

That would let me connect as the guest account on my Synology Diskstation again.