We set up a site in IIS on a Windows Server machine that had been configured with the WSUS/WID role. After the site was up and running, we removed the WSUS/WID role on the server. Thereafter, the IIS site was returning “HTTP Error 500″

Removing the WSUS role on the server removes almost all the files installed by the Windows Update Services but does not undo the changes to the configuration written in the ApplicationHost.config file. The Applicationhost.config file tries to call the .dll installed by the WSUS Server which no longer exists on the system.

From the Applicationhost.config file:

<scheme name=”xpress” doStaticCompression=”false” doDynamicCompression=”true” dll=”C:\Program Files\Update Services\Webservices\suscomp.dll” staticCompressionLevel=”10″ dynamicCompressionLevel=”0″ />

Running the following command will remove all references to the module installed by WSUS.

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /-[name='xpress']

When Windows 10 is acting as a host for Remote Desktop, redirected printers may stop working or cause the RDP client to crash (NT.DLL.)

This can happen when the “Easy Print” driver is installed by the host machine despite there being a proper printer driver installed. This unnecessary substitution can be turned off:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services

Add DWORD key UseUniversalPrinterDriverFirst and set value to 4

(Values are Enabled = 3, Disabled = 4)

In some cases, the host has to be rebooted for this to take effect.

When attempting to attach to a C$ share with proper credentials, it may be rejected as “access denied.”

Example: \\machine\c$

On the target machine with the desired C$, Add/change this registry key and restart the Server service.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
 Value: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
 Data: 1 (to disable, 0 enables filtering)
 Type: REG_DWORD (32-bit)

We were seeing this error when trying to open a mapped network drive on a Windows Server (in this case, the drive was mapped to a share on the same server.) The server did not have Exchange installed.

This can happen if the number of dynamic ports available for assignment is too small, and this limit’s default value can be adjusted.

C:\>netsh int ipv4 show dynamicport tcp will display the current pool like this:

Protocol tcp Dynamic Port Range
---------------------------------
Start Port      : 49152
Number of Ports : 16384

This can be enlarged to the maximum with this:

C:\>netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport tcp start=1025 num=64510

Immediately after this, our problem was resolved. No reboot was required.

More information is here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/troubleshoot/windows-server/networking/default-dynamic-port-range-tcpip-chang

1. Open an elevated command prompt window or PowerShell session
2. Type sconfig and press enter.
3. Select option 5
4. Select “A” for automatically download and install updates, “D” for download only or “M” for Manual updates.

When switching to the 32-bit version of Office after installing the 64-bit version to accommodate a plugin or some other reason, uninstalling the 64-bit version leaves behind the registry entries associated with explorer’s preview pane. Then, Office programs will generate errors like these:

Word: Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable.
PowerPoint: Access denied. Contact your administrator.
Excel: This file cannot be previewed.
Outlook: Outlook could not create the work file. Check the Temp environment variable.

To resolve this, delete the following registry keys (after exporting “just in case”):

[Word Preview]
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{84F66100-FF7C-4fb4-B0C0-02CD7FB668FE}

[PowerPoint Preview]
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{65235197-874B-4A07-BDC5-E65EA825B718}

[Excel Preview]
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00020827-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

After deleting these keys, logoff and login. Windows will now use the preview handlers registered under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\ branch. This should fix the preview issues in Office 32-bit version running on Windows 64-bit

To enable logging of all logon/logoff attempts in the Security Event Log:

1. secpol.msc (as administrator)
2. Local Policy > Audit Policy
3. Audit account logon events policy
4. Check both the Success and Failure check boxes.

This happens sometimes. After a server reboot, clients say they get “Error Code: H202 This company file is on another computer, and QuickBooks needs some help connecting” and you find the QuickbooksDB service is stopped. You start it but it just stops with the error “The QuickBooksDB26 service on Local Computer started and then stopped.  Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs.”

This is happening because of contention over port 55333. The DNS server and the QuickbooksDB service both want to use it by default. If the DNS Server service starts before the QuickbooksDB service, DNS grabs it and QuickbooksDB doesn’t choose another available port and just stops.

You can manually resolve this by stopping the DNS Server service, then starting the QuickbooksDB service, then starting the DNS Server service.

To fix permanently,

1. Stop the DNS Server and QuickbooksDB services
2. Reserve the port using netsh from an elevated command prompt:
netsh int ipv4 add excludedportrange protocol=udp startport=55333 numberofports=5
3. Start both services

Server 2012 Essentials stopped accepting SSTP connections after automatic certificate renewal using Win-Acme. Found many services weren’t starting.

The fix was to:

1. Via MMC, copy new certificate from Web to Personal.
2. In elevated CMD, go to c:\Program Files\Windows Server\Bin
3. WSSPowerShell.exe
4. Add-WssLocalMachineCert

The process takes a while and may produce errors at the end. However, after it finishes and the server is restarted, all was well.

This was developed using this very helpful blog post:

https://windowsserveressentials.com/2013/04/29/windows-server-2012-essentials-an-error-prevented-the-dashboard-from-opening/