Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

Category: Tips & Tricks

  • Show week numbers in iOS calendar

    Many places refer to week numbers, as well as dates. This makes it a bit annoying not to be able to check what week it is on your phone. Luckily, there is now a setting to enable displaying week numbers. Here’s how you activate it: (more…)

  • #TBT: Making changes to critical (and less critical) system files

    This post originally ran in April 2008. I am reposting it now, as part of my throwback thursday project, to give some of my older quality posts some love. The practice outlined below is one I follow to this day, and I still recommend it to anyone who cares to listen. It has saved my hide more times than I care to remember, and for that reason alone deserves getting dusted off.

    (more…)

  • Changing permissions for all subfolders (Windows)

    A user called in, saying that his unit had been moved to a different department, and that they had all lost access to their work folders. I knew of the change, and moved the folders to the new unit file share. That should have been it, and would have been, except for one thing; when moving folders, you do not change the permissions. As a result, the users were unable to open the folders. Luckily, this is simple enough to solve. Here’s how I did it: (more…)

  • Changing primary SMTP address

    A user called in, and wanted to have a different address as their primary email address. After making the change, when I tried to apply it, I encountered the following error message:

    (more…)

  • TeamViewer on Windows: Elevate session to have administrative permissions

    One of the Support Analyst’s most powerful tools is the ability to remotely view and control the end user’s computer. One of many tools that lets you do this, is TeamViewer. If User Account Control (UAC) using secure desktop is enabled, that secure desktop causes remote sessions without administrative privileges to go black when the UAC prompt pops up. To get around this, you need to launch TeamViewer with elevated permissions. Here’s how: (more…)

  • Citrix: Resolve SSL Error 61 on Windows

    Some weeks ago, I had a user call in, saying that she got the following error message when trying to launch applications from our Citrix farm:

    (more…)

  • Unable to uninstall Citrix Receiver or Online Plugin

    From time to time, users call in, reporting problems opening applications or desktops in Citrix. One of the many items in a support technician’s bag of tricks, is the old uninstall and reinstall routine. There are many reasons why this can be a good idea, among them that removing legacy applications that have been superseded by new versions can help resolve conflicts. Sometimes, however, the MSI files are damaged or just plain missing.

    (more…)

  • Disconnect non-mapped drive

    From time to time, I have been unable to connect to the UNC path of a network share. The error message I get is:

    (more…)

  • Managing expectations

    Some years ago, I wrote about Tom Peters‘ Formula for Success, which hinges on doing two things; promising less than you can deliver, and delivering more than you have promised. I can’t foresee a future when this will not be true, however, I think it bears expanding on. Simply put, by telling the user what to expect, we not only set their expectations, we manage them too, particularly if the user’s expectations are wildly unrealistic.

    (more…)

  • Hiding the scroll bar in Word

    So, you’ve minimized your menu ribbon. Now, let’s get rid of that pesky scroll bar. You’ve got a perfectly good scroll wheel on your mouse, and just don’t need it. It’s simple; here’s how:

    (more…)

  • Hiding the Office Ribbon menu

    For most of my time as a computer user, my main text editing tool has been Microsoft Office. I have grown accustomed to using, and even sort of liking the ribbon menu. However, as I often work on a laptop with its severely limited monitor real estate, I needed to find a way to hide it when I am not using it. Luckily enough, that is very simple.

    (more…)