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After completing several updates on Exchange 2013 due to another issue, we found that e-mail messages were going to the Drafts folder instead of the Sent Items folder. In addition the server was not receiving any messages either.

After further investigation we found that the Mail Transport service was failing, not immediately, which was why we didn't notice it after it was started. In this particular case the client had a secondary SMTP port configured for relay messages but that port was setup on both the Exchange 2013 CAS and Database servers but only one of the CAS server actually had the IP address assigned on the NIC. Once the relay SMTP port configuration was removed from the Database server the Mail Transport service ran fine and mail flowed through the system correctly.

Ads by BlockandSurf are typically a sign of severe trouble with your computer. Past releases of this malware could be removed easily by uninstalling the software and sometimes removing some registry settings. However the lastest infection we found on a Windows 8 system was unresolved except by reinstalling the system to the factory default installation.

Signs of Infection

The Ads by BlockandSurf appear as popup ads in the lower left of the browser, on the left as sidebar ads, and in some cases will appear as a floating web dialog box over the main web page. In all cases there is some indication that the popup is being presented by "Ads by BlockandSurf". One of the signs that this is not the easy to remove version of this infection is that clicking on a link on what appears to be a clean web page results in the destination page appearing with the ads and one or more addition tabs or browser windows that appear attempting to display web sites that have malicious content that attempts to install on your computer.

One of our QuickBooks Enterprise users started to get an error whenever they would run payroll and create checks. The process would complete and checks would be created but QuickBooks would display an error message "An unexpected error has occurred in 'Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions: Professional Services 14.0' and then the application would close.

It is suspected that there was an update applied that changed the security settings in the application that caused this issue because when another user that was an administrator of QuickBooks ran payroll the problem didn't occur. In addition the error message in the Windows Application Event log indicated that the failure was related to access to the employee template file, "Failed adding medicare tax item to employee template - Permission error".

After working several days of cleaning up a system that was infected by the Zbot trojan and others, I found that the client's computer would start the Windows Security Center or display the dependancies for any of the services. The message that would be displayed in the Service Dependencies dialog box was "Win32: The specified service does not exist as an installed service." Microsoft knowledge base had no answers so I started comparing the registry of a working Windows 7 system to the one that was failing.

I found that the Windows Management Instrumentation service (Winmgmt) was a dependancy of the Security Center service, but the Winmgmt was not starting because some of the information in its registry keys was missing. Below is what the registry key should have contained.

The Microsoft Surface RT runs a special version of Windows called Windows RT. The Surface RT has an ARM based microprocessor instead of the traditional Intel/x86 compatible processor used with most other Windows based systems. This different processor requires an operating system that is compatible, hence the Windows RT operating system.

One unique aspect to the Windows RT operating system is that malware written for the standard versions of Windows will not run and therfore won't infect a Surface RT device. In addtion, all apps that are capable of being installed on the Surface RT must be downloaded from the Microsoft App store and contain a digital signature that allows them to run. This is another way in which viruses and malware are prevented from running on the Surface RT. This doesn't mean that the Surface RT is immune to viruses, it just means that a virus would have to be crafted specifically for use with Windows RT.

When performing test on a Microsoft Exchange server, some tests will return a transaction time warning. For the most part this is not an issue and nothing needs to be done. This delay is intentional on the part of Microsoft Exchange to help prevent spam. The warnings are typically given when it takes more than 1 second for the SMTP connector to respond to the request. This process of delaying multiple mail requests is called tarpitting.

If this warning bothers you, there is a change that you can make that will fix the Transaction time warnings for Exchange 2007 and 2010.

While cleaning up a client computer I found an issue with Internet Explorer where the proxy seeting could not be changed with out it automatically reverting back to its original setting. This persistant issue seemed related to a typical group policy setting but this was not possible because the system was running Windows 7 Home. Many others on the Internet had reported the issue with only one resolution, editing the registry.

The registry changes didn't seem to be long lasting until I found an article by Philip Turner that provided some additional registry keys that I was missing in my search.

There will come a time when the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) database gets very large and you will want to reclaim the space. Hopefully you have already relocated your WSUS update files to another drive on your server using the SBS Console wizard. If not, you may want to visit the TechNet site for an easy to follow process to complete that.

This process will take an extended amount of time, maybe 24+ hours. One of our clients had only 19 GB of update content and a 14 GB database to clean up and the process ran well over 2 hours. So we recommend you schedule this process to be performed after hours and when no other significant server task might take place, such as backup.

One of our users mistakenly installed Google Chrome when installing an Adobe update and then uninstalled it. However the uninstall did not restore all of the Internet Explorer setting causing multiple problems. One issue was that the user could not use Windows Explorer to view an ftp site.

When the user logged into an ftp site and went to "View" and then "Open ftp site in Windows Explorer" nothing would happen. After searching for this issue we found others had a similar problem and were able to export the registry key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ftp] and then import it into the computer that was having issues. In our case the [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ftp] registry key was missing entirely from the user's computer and needed to be recreated.

A very frustrating situation for our business clients is when they send an e-mail message to a client that has hyperlinks embedded in the message and the link doesn't open in the client's web browser. The issue is typically caused when Google Chrome or another web browser is installed and then later removed. But malware applications will also cause this issue too.

To fix the web links in your Microsoft Outlook application so that they will open, follow these steps.

There are times that you may have a web site that you frequent often that gets updated which causes the site to function in unusual ways or may not work at all. Most likely the reason is that some of the files that are related to the site didn't update on your local computer. To resolve this issue you need to flush or clear the cache files from your browser. The steps below are for Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 but are similar for older versions.

1. Open Internet Explorer or IE as it is often referred to.
2. Select Tools from the menu or the gear icon.
3. Select Internet options which will open a dialog box defaulting to the General tab.
4.  Click the Delete... button under the Browsing History section.
5.  Click the OK button at the bottom and the close Internet Explorer
6.  Reopen Internet Explorer and go to the web site that was having issues.

If the cache of older incompatible files was the issue, then the site should be working now. If this was not the issue, it might be a compatibility issue with Internet Explorer and may need the Compatibility View option enabled for the site. 

When attempting to configure an older HP LaserJet 4000n printer using the Web Admin feature, several messages appear stating, "Your security settings have blocked an untrusted application..." and the Java application shows an error on the web page. Under normal circumstances Java is preventing an application that could be harmful to your computer. In this case we know this older Java application on the HP JetDirect card is likely safe and we want to allow it to run.

Follow these steps to add the website to the Exceptions Site List:

Gateway One GZ7108

If you are experiencing issues with your wireless keyboard and mouse not working properly, perform the following steps to troubleshoot the wireless keyboard and mouse.

We continually get requests for advice on how to reduce the number of spam e-mail messages and robot calls. In some cases, this is hard to combat but you need to start with these steps.

E-mail

The Search Protect malware is often inadvertently installed with other freeware applications. We won't go into the details of this application, there is plenty of information published already. These days you don't get anything for free, it seems many of these free applications come with malware bundled with them, Search Protect being one of them.

We see this application often on client computers and removing it can be difficult. The application is constantly changing so these steps might work or they might not. But it won't hurt to give it a try.

After upgrading to QuickBooks 2014 Enterprise one of the workstations started having issues saving estimate reports as a PDF or e-mailing the reports. The user would see this error from QuickBooks:

Intuit Printer Library Message: The form you are about to print does not fit on the page. You may wish to modify your print settings such as portrait/landscape. Click OK to print anyways, or Cancel to skip printing this form.

Computer security is an important training topic for us with all of our clients, both consumer and business. We know that keeping your financial information safe is as important to you as it is to your bank. Your bank has likely instituted some safeguards according to established security standards which keep your financial information secure and confidential. While your bank works hard to keep your money safe, you also need do your part. The following reminders will help protect your information from online fraud and identity theft.

The first line of defense is you. It is important that you use the tools available to protect your data, which is anything that may describe who you are as well as your account numbers and passwords. Your choice of password, decision to visit a web site, open an e-mail message, or post personal data will affect the security of your personal data.

On day the Send To option lost the Mail Recipient option from a clients Windows 7 system. The client was using Outlook 2010 and the typical solutions posted that suggested creating a new Mail Recipient didn't work.

The following solution did work for our client.

The following error message appears when opening a company file on a Windows computer that is hosted on a Windows Server:

QuickBooks was unable to open the file [path\filename] on the host computer [host name]. Try opening the file with QuickBooks on the host computer or run the QuickBooks Database Server Manager on the host computer and then try opening the file on your computer.

I our case the server was inadvertently rebooted while one or more client systems had their QuickBooks open and connected to the server causing the database to be disconnect improperly. The client was using QuickBooks Enterprise 2013 installed on a Windows Small Business Server 2011. We followed these steps and were able to get the database to open.

The process for upgrading QuickBooks Enterprise 2012 to QuickBooks Enterprise 2013 is fairly easy, but it may take some time depending on the number of workstations and the size of the database file.

In our client's environment, we run QuickBooks Enterprise on a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011, which runs as a Virtual Machine (VM) within VMware vSphere 4.1. The first step in any upgrade is to make sure you have a good back up before proceeding.