Adobe Reader and Acrobat - Content Preparation Progress: Please wait while the document is being prepared for...

We have a client that is being bugged by this prompt when opening certain PDF files.

Content Preparation Progress

Please wait while the document is being prepared for ...

Status: Processing page 23 of 27 ...

Adobe has a KB article on this:

• Acrobat Help: Message "content preparation progress" when opening a PDF file

The solution is to do the following:

1. Go to Edit
2. Preferences
3. Reading
4. Under Screen Reader Options select Only read the currently visible pages

The dialogue has to do with accessibility.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Netflix to Pay Comcast to Shape in Their Favour

The following link is a Bing New Search:

• Bing: Netflix to Pay Comcast to Shape in Their Favour

We don't shape. We've heard that statement time and time again from ISPs during the "discussions" around Net Neutrality on both sides of the border.

For those of us that work in technology supporting clients in various regions around the world the reality is quite different.

How many of us have been stuck where a client is unable to reach a resource via point-to-point because a hop in between the two sites happened to belong to a competing Internet infrastructure provider that just happened to be in the middle of a spat with the provider at both ends?

How many of us have experienced quality degradation in services we access on the Internet that reside outside our ISP's borders and the ISP just happened to provide a similar _paid_ service?

Unfortunately for us the Internet and its infrastructure is not treated in the same way as our public road systems.

That means that the IPSs have the upper hand. They control what packets go where. They control how fast those packets get from point to point. And, it all remains hidden.

They can 401 their own service's packets (the 401 is a high speed high-volume highway here in Canada) while they restrict packets destined for YouTube, Netflix, and others to 80KM/H or sideline them on a two lane low speed highway.

We here pay quite high prices for our "high speed" access. Our connections are shaped and have quotas assigned to them. We've grown accustomed to this practice however we still have fairly open access to most sites.

The Sad Direction We Are Going In

At some point our regulators need to have ISPs clarify their shaping policies like ingredients in food.

Or, our ISPs could offer "streaming" plans and the like that more than likely will be a lot more expensive but allow the end user to be free to view whatever content they choose with little to no shaping.

Whether either happens will be left to be seen. In the end we lose out.

ISPs have been crying for a piece of the pie for years, now they will get it and more as they hold keys to the kingdom.

• Wikipedia: Traffic Shaping

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Surface and Surface Pro - FreedomCase

This product looks nothing short of awesome!

FreedomCase for Surface and Surface Pro

We will be tossing our 2bits into this project. :)

Their KickStarter site is here: FreedomCase

For those of us that are using a Surface or Surface Pro this product is definitely one not to miss.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Hyper-V Standalone or Cluster Node BIOS Settings

We we set up a new Hyper-V server whether standalone or cluster node we always walk through the BIOS settings on every server to verify that they are set correctly.

We make sure to disable the C States (this BIOS shows C3/C6) as they somehow interfere with performance as well as Live Migration throughput.

We are leaving Hyper-Threading enabled and Turbo Boost enabled for Windows Server 2012 and newer versions as the OS is now more than capable of dealing with vCPU threads being shifted out of parallel by a Core speed change.

If one is experiencing performance anomalies with a cluster setup then the first place to start is the BIOS settings as one of the nodes probably has an incorrect setting.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

CaseWare Working Papers Error: Printer not activated, error code -30

We are seeing CaseWare Working Papers choke on a PDF Batch run with the following error:

CaseWare Working Papers - Activation Error

Printer not activated, error code -30

CaseWare has a KB on the issue: Printer issues with Windows 8.1.

Though in our case the OS is Windows 7 Enterprise x64 with the indicated update (2014.00.072) having already been applied to all systems.

As per the KB article we took a look into the registry with the key mentioned missing completely:

The affected systems have the printer though:

Our steps to get things going:

1. Close CaseWare Working Papers and CaseView
2. Create the required key: CaseView PDF 2014
3. Right click on the new key and left click on Permissions
4. Click the Add button
5. Type: Everyone
6. Click Check Names
7. Click OK
8. Check Full Control
• 
9. Click Apply and OK
10. Leave the Registry Editor open
11. Open CaseWare, a client or test file, and run a PDF Batch

We will now see a successful run of the batch:

Once that process has completed have a look at the registry key we created:

We are not 100% convinced that this is a "fix" or a workaround as things have been operating normally until just the other day.

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business