Category Archives: Troubleshooting

Windows 8 App Store won’t open

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Windows 8 StoreProblem: Our customer wanted to update their Windows 8 computer to Windows 8.1. That is simple enough, however when I clicked on the Windows 8 store to download the Windows 8.1 update it would open briefly then crash. I did some searches for this issue, and it seems like other people were running into the same issue. After a few Google searches, I ran across a fix for this issue. This is the fix that worked for me:

Solution: Open command prompt as an administrator.

Step Two: Enter this command prompt: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml

Wait a couple seconds and this command will re-register the Store. Once I ran this command the Store opened just fine and I was able to download the Windows 8.1 update.

This was posted by techspeeder.

Special thanks to Wilson Calabresi for this tip. 

 

“Insert a smart card” prompt instead of administrator credentials option

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I recently worked on a laptop that every time I wanted to uninstall a program or do an administrative privilege on a standard user account it would ask me to “insert a smart card”. I didn’t have a smart card but normally you can enter the administrator credentials. However the administrator login box wouldn’t appear. Insert a Smart Card

This issue was quite annoying but there is a relatively easy fix. 

Restart your computer and tap F8 to get into Safe Mode. You can choose regular Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking. Once you log into Windows using Safe Mode, you should see a Windows Administrator account. Log into the Administrator account.

Click on the start menu and type in “cmd” and right-click on command prompt and run as administrator. Type this command: net user administrator /active:yes  This command will enable the hidden built-in administrator account in Windows.  Reboot your computer.

Log into a standard Windows user account and try doing an administrative privilege. Administrator PromptYou should now have an option to enter the administrator credentials as well as inserting a smart card.

Conclusion: The Windows administrator user account must have been hidden. Since the administrator account was hidden, when I tried to do an administrative task on a standard user account only the “insert a smart card prompt” would appear. I enabled the hidden built-in administrator account and I could then enter the administrator credentials.

This was posted by techspeeder.

 

Outlook 2007 crashes when trying to attach file from network drive

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This issue had me quite puzzled. A customer was running Microsoft Outlook 2007 on a Windows 7 Professional computer. The client told me whenever she would try to attach a file, in Outlook, she would get the following error.

Module Error

The specified module could not be found.

I had never seen this issue before. Here are some of the troubleshooting steps I went through. I thought it could be a virus or malware issue so I ran a scan till I knew that wasn’t the issue. I disable all the add-ins in Outlook that would affect performance, no difference. I created a new Outlook profile, same deal. I repaired Microsoft Office, didn’t fix the issue.

I decided to try disconnecting the mapped network drive. I disconnected the mapped network drive. I clicked “attach file” and it opened Windows Explorer without an issue. I went into the local documents and attached a file just fine. This confirmed in my mind that their had to be an issue between Outlook 2007 and the mapped network drive. I mapped the drive again and boom same error message and Outlook crashed as well.

I disconnected the network drive (R:\\sbs\folder1) and this time I mapped a different network folder (R:\\sbs\folder2). I clicked, attach file and this time I got no error message and Outlook didn’t crash! Now I was confused, one mapped network folder drive worked the other one didn’t. I tried accessing both network folders through Windows Explorer,(without going through Outlook). I could access both folders just fine. I was pretty much at wit’s end.

I called one of my colleagues about the issue. He found a .TVP file on the root of folder one. He removed the .TVP file. He then went into Outlook 2007 and tried attaching a file from that location. It worked. We copied the .TVP file back into that folder and the error came back and Outlook froze. Resolution: We took that .TVP file off the base of that folder and everything was back to normal!!

Some of the most difficult and irritating problems have such a simple fix. I believe this was probably a freak issue.  Apparently, their was a file association issue that was creating that error message and then Outlook would freeze and crash.

Special thanks to Kirby for helping me .

This was posted by techspeeder.

“SSL connection error” when using Google Chrome to access Google.com

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A customer brought in a laptop today that couldn’t access Google.com or Gmail. They could go to all the other sites except those two. So I opened Internet Explorer and I got this error when trying to access Google.com:

                  Internet Explorer Error

When I saw that error I had no clue what was happening. I thought maybe there could be a virus giving us this issue. However I had run a quick scan with Malwarebytes before , and it didn’t find any objects. Also, the laptop was very fast. I decided to try reset Internet Explorer to its defaults (including erasing personal settings) – it didn’t fix the issue. I was practically stomped.

Then I opened Google Chrome and the same thing was happening. Google Chrome’s error message was a lot more helpful.

SSL connection error

I started looking around and decided this error might have something to do with the antivirus software running on the laptop.  The laptop had Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 installed. I started disabling the Antivirus protection and some of the other settings. I saved those settings and opened Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. I went to Google.com and the site loaded in both browsers. I used the process of elimination until I came upon the culprit that was blocking Google.com and Gmail.

Here is the steps I found to work. Attn: This is a workaround, do this at your own risk.

Step One: Close all open Internet browsers. Open your Kaspersky control panel and click Settings. Then go to the Advanced Settings tab and click on Network.  Under the “Encrypted connections scan ” uncheck Scan encrypted connections. Click Apply and OK.

Kaspersky

Step Two: Close the control panel and open your browser. Try going to Google.com, if it works you are good to go. If you can’t go to Google.com, restart your computer and it should take care of the issue.

I tried to reinstall the certificates in the browsers since that seemed to be why I was got that error. When I opened the browser I got the same error. At this point,I believe there is a certificate conflict between Kaspersky and the browsers. If you update to the 2014 version there is a possibility that would fix this issue.

I personally don’t think it is a big deal to keep “scan encrypted connections” unchecked. This only disables that feature. You still have virus protection and a firewall for your computer.

I “Googled” the issue that I was having and Kaspersky has a forum thread full with this issue. Check it out if you want more information.

This was posted by techspeeder.

Server Error 404 – File or directory not found – When accessing Remote Web Access

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Here is a compatibility issue I ran into a couple times. When a someone tries to access their remote web access portal, they get an error. After putting in their credentials the remote web access portal will begin to load then all of a sudden they will get the following error.  Server Error 404Server Error 404Server Error 404Server Error 404Compatibility View SettingsServer Error 404Server Error 404

Server Error 404

Server Error  404 – File or directory not found. The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.    

Sometimes this error indicates something more serious, but recently I have found that you will get this error because of an Internet Explorer 11 and remote web access incompatibility.

The first thing to do is check which version of Internet Explorer you are using. Go to the Gear icon and click about Internet Explorer. Check if you are running Internet Explorer 10 or 11. If you are , add your remote web access URL into the compatibility mode list.

Here are the steps to add the site into Compatibility View. Click the gear icon

Compatibility View Settings

and select the Compatibility View Settings options. Add your website to the Compatibility View list and hit Close. Refresh your tab and see if that makes a difference, it did for me.

This was posted by techspeeder.