Windows 7 Networking Issues – cannot access shares after Update KB4480970 January Cumulative Update

I ran into an issue with some Windows 7 PCs at a client’s site. The PCs could not access network shares. Further investigation showed that PCs were online, and connected to the network. They all had internet access and could ping each other and the gateway.

However, when trying to access a share on these PCs, we received a “Handle is Invalid”, or “the network resource is not available”. Access the share via “\\computername” or “\\IPaddress” would not work.

The issue appears to be caused by KB4480970 – Monthly Cumulative Security Quality Update 2019-01. Various threads on Reddit indicated that there were issues.

Apart from a rollback and uninstalling the patch, a workaround for this issue appears to work. This involves adding the following registry entry.

  • Browse to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  • Add DWORD LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy = 1
  • Reboot the PC

Come on Microsoft! Test your patches more thoroughly!

Remote Desktop Issue: “An authentication error occurred” “This could be due to CredSSP encryption oracle remediation”

You may get this error when trying to connect to a Terminal Server from Windows 10 or Windows 7.

1475272411_CredSSPissue.png.edcaf3deca9f340128ef49dc5c3849f5.png

The workaround is to add the following Registry key on the affected client PC.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\CredSSP\Parameters]
“AllowEncryptionOracle”=dword:00000002
This is NOT a fix. Doing this will bypass the fix for the security vulnerability. But it will get your users going while Microsoft readies a fix.

References:

Windows previous versions documentation

This is the archive for older Windows 7, 8, Server 2012, 2008, 2003, R2 information that was previously on TechNet.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/

Meltdown and Spectre

 

Happy New Year … Not!

With the New Year comes a new class of malicious attack that can impact IT systems. This time, the attack is hardware based, affecting mostly Intel based systems, and to some extent, AMD systems as well.

Here is a list of resources that highlight what it is all about and how to mitigate against this new threat. In the words of Microsoft, “Don’t panic.”

How to convert a disk from Master Boot Record (MBR) to GUID Partition Table (GPT) format

Microsoft has released a tool to convert from the MBR format to GPT in in order to enable users to take full advantage of the newer and more secure features built in to modern computers.

Information on the tool can be found here – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

Check the pre-requisites before running this tool.

MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure that your device supports UEFI before attempting to convert the disk.

Fix Outlook and Office 365 problems with Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant

Microsoft have released a tool to diagnose and fix issues with Outlook and Office 365.

It is updated regularly, and should be the first step when you experience issue in connecting to Office 365.

The tool is available here – https://diagnostics.outlook.com 

Windows 10 black screen after reboot after installing updates

Some OEM factory images have been experiencing a black screen after installing updates and reboot. Particularly when installing a Windows Store application update. Currently, there is a workaround as documented in this Microsoft Article – https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4043345

The workaround involves deleting sub-registry keys beginning with any of the following names from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\AppxAllUserStore\Applications.

  • Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.
  • Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.
  • Microsoft.VCLibs.

 

How to download Office 2013 from Office 365 after 1 March 2017

Support for Office 2013 versions of Office 365 has ended. It is no longer available for download from the portal.

However, there are good cases when you do require Office 2013, ie. if your current line of business does not support Office 2016, or if you have older macros that are not supported on Office 2016.

HowTo-Outlook has posted some links on downloading Office 2013 if you still require this. The article can be found here – https://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/download-office-2013-office-365.htm

Here are direct links to the 32-bit English US versions.

And you can also use the Office 2013 Deployment Tool for Click-To-Run here – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778

Outlook known issues in the June 2017 security updates

Some issues in the latest updates from Microsoft – https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Outlook-known-issues-in-the-June-2017-security-updates-3f6dbffd-8505-492d-b19f-b3b89369ed9b

The following issues have recommended workarounds until the issues are resolved.

ISSUE #1

This issue affects Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010.

When you open an attachment in an email, contact, or task formatted as Rich Text you get the following error:

“The program used to create this object is Outlook. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Outlook or ensure that any dialog boxes in Outlook are closed”.

Program not installed

You may also see:

“This item contains attachments that are potentially unsafe. You may not be able to view these attachments after you close them”.

Potentially unsafe

ISSUE #2

This issue affects Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016.

When opening an attachment that includes consecutive periods (…), or an exclamation point (!), the files are blocked and you receive an Opening Mail Attachment warning.

Attachment window

Or if an email message includes an attached email message, and the attached email message’s subject line ends with an unsafe file name extension as listed in the Blocked attachments in Outlook, the email attachment will be blocked for recipients.

ISSUE #3

This issue affects Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016.

If you set ShowLevel1Attach to allow Outlook to display Level 1 attachments, you may see the error: “One or more objects in this file have been disabled due to your policy settings”.

WARNING: Typically, Level 1 attachments are blocked. If you have enabled this policy, users can see Level 1 attachments in Outlook. If you use any of the workarounds to open the files, please make sure they are safe to open. See: Information for administrators about e-mail security settings in Outlook 2007.

Outlook error

If you set ShowLevel1Attach to allow Outlook to display Level 1 attachments, and you send an email with an attachment you may see this message: “This item contains attachments that are potentially unsafe.  Recipients using Microsoft Outlook may not be able to open these attachments.”

Outlook unsafe attachment warning

ISSUE #4 (No workaround or fix)

This issue affects Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016.

When you use a custom form that you have created for Outlook, you see the following two symptoms:

  • VBScript does not run.
  • You get a malicious code warning:

    Outlook Error

Issue #5

This issue affects all Outlook versions on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10.

When searching in Outlook, you get this error: “Something went wrong and your search couldn’t be completed.”, or “Search results may be incomplete because items are still being indexed“.

Outlook Error

And you’ll see this Event Log warning:

Outlook Event Log Warning

Issue #6

iCloud fails to load properly in Outlook 2007.

When accessing Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks in Outlook 2007, you get the following error:

The set of folders cannot be opened. MAPI was unable to load the information service C:\PROGRA~2\COMMON~1\Apple\Internet Services\APLZOD.dll. Be sure the service is correctly installed and configured.”

Outlook Error

Issue #7 (no fix or workaround)

This issue affects all Outlook versions on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10.

When you print a specific iframe or frame in a web page, the print output may be blank, or text is printed that resembles the following:

Outlook Print Error

NOTE: A frame is a part of a web page or browser window that displays content independent of its container. A frame can load content independently.

This problem has also been observed in both Internet Explorer 11, and in applications that host the IE Web Browser Control.

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