Somedays . . . IE11 Just Plain Stinks :(

There are times where IE 11's behaviours both in Windows 8 RTM and Windows 8.1 make no sense at all.

Bitly.com is a site we use _a lot_ to manage our links throughout our communications.

Here is what the site looks like in IE 11 on Windows 8 RTM today:

Now top that off with the Compatibility option having completely disappeared from any menu option and we have one frustrated user.

Oh, wait, no, the option has disappeared under the Gear but hit the ALT on the keyboard and:

There it is.

No Joy:

Okay, one last step before throwing the browser right out the window. Add the site to the Trusted Sites list.

Voila:

Jiminy Cricket, this process was frustrating enough for us, imagine what it must be like for users that may not know about Trusted Sites and Compatibility Mode.

What a complete waste of time and productivity to business users that need to jump through these hopes just to go about their daily business.

Yes, Firefox and Chrome (we won't run with Google product. Period.) are "options" but the business world runs on Microsoft products. Once would hope to believe that somehow things could be done in such a way that users are not impacted in such a way as to lose their productivity to this kind of thing. :(

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

Exchange Server 2013: IE10 on Server 2012 and Windows 8 Crashes in /ECP Exchange admin center

In our greenfield deployments getting Exchange 2013 up and running around RTM time was a bit of a challenge give the reality that IE 10 on both Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 just did not work.

To fix that problem the following needs to be installed:

• Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 10 in Windows Server 2012 x64 Edition (KB2761465)
• Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8 x64 Edition (KB2761465)

Note that some security related settings may be reset once this update is installed.

A  prompt to set IE10 security settings is also to be had after the update was installed.

It is good to see that EAC can now be accessed as expected and without interruption.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Internet Explorer: Click On Links And Nothing Happens

We have come across some strange behaviours in IE over the last number of months.

Mainly, the user clicks on a link and nothing happens.

Run the following steps and test after each one. A reboot may be best after each step to reseat things.

1. Step 1
1. Microsoft KB281679 You cannot open a new Internet Explorer window or nothing occurs after you click a link
2. Step 2
1. Microsoft KB555027 Internet Explorer open with a blank page instead of web site
3. Step 3
1. Windows Networking: Internet Explorer is corrupted... how do I fix it?
• Nuke and Pave
• Takes time especially on older units.

In most cases step 3 resolved the problem.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

Favorite Sync Now In Windows Live Essentials 2011

It has been a bit of a struggle to figure out what happened to the Live Toolbar ability to sync Internet Explorer’s Favorites.

After searching around we came upon Windows Live Mesh, now called Sync, that allows is to synchronize our Favorites folder across many different systems.

With the introduction of the Tega v2 we now have_a lot_ of devices to keep shared profile data synchronized across. The Live Toolbar helped to keep things sorted out when it came to IE Favorites.

Now that we have that worked out . . . for now . . . we have some addition profile tweaks to complete such as adding SharePoint libraries to Windows 7’s Favorites list (previous blog post) on the Tega v2.

• Windows Live Essentials Download

Posted via Tega v2 entirely by touch. This will take some getting used to. A small Bluetooth keyboard is now on the To Do list for this week.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Quick IE Search Tips: Blog & MSFT KB Examples

This neat tip comes originally from Mariette Knap which we have modified for our own purposes.

• Internet Explorer IE Knowledgebase Quick Search (ZIP file)
• The above file has the needed registry entry for doing a quick KB search.

After merging the above registry file we may need to restart all IE session for the change to take.

So, just what does the above do?

Well, let’s say we need to get to the Hyper-V Nehalem hotfix page really quick. Since we know the KB number off by heart we type the following in IE’s address bar:

Once we hit the Go arrow or Enter we end up at:

Okay, we now have quick access to Microsoft Knowledgebase articles that we know the article number for.

Now, we search our own blog _a lot_ as it is a knowledgebase for us too. Thus, we would love to see:

Give us:

After tweaking the registry entry a little we figured out how to get the above search results by typing the keyword “mblog” and our search terms.

The registry file can be found here:

• MPECS Inc Download: IE MPECS Inc. Blog Quick Search

Here are a couple screenshots of the registry settings:

Microsoft Knowledgebase Quick Search

MPECS Inc. Site:blog.mpecsinc.ca Search

These little IE tweaks will save us a huge chunk of time!

Susan Bradley also pointed out the following:

• Help Desk Geek: Copy Title and URL Context Menu Extension for Internet Explorer

The above would have been very handy to get that link into this blog post! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Repair IE – Utility to Re-Register _89_ DLL and OCX Files After Malware or Corruption

This kewl little utility will re-register all of those DLL and OCX files that may have been tampered with or knocked out by Malware:

• TechNibble.com: Fix IE Utility – Repair Tool of the Week

The actual tool site:

• The Windows Club: Repair Internet Explorer with Fix IE Utility

This is one little utility to keep handy on the Technician’s Thumb Drive (blog category link).

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2008 – RWW and IE VBScript RDC Errors

We have a client that was having some issues connecting to their desktop via the Remote Web Workplace. Apparently the Connect button was missing (previous blog post).

Once we had realized that Firefox was being used instead of IE, we still ran into a struggle trying to get their remote desktop connection established.

First off, they were getting this error:

VBScript: Remote Desktop Connection

The Microsoft Terminal Services Client ActiveX control (also known as the Microsoft RDP Client Control) is either not available, or is not enabled. Fore more information about installing and enabling this ActiveX control, see the Microsoft TechNet Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=103719).

Now, the above screenshot is showing Internet Explorer 6 since that was the browser that was also installed on their machine when we started the troubleshooting process.

So, we had them run Microsoft Updates until every last update was installed. It took them a while.

Once finished, we had XP indicating Internet Explorer running version 7 with all of the updates applied.

We went back to RWW to try the connection again, but we still ended up with the same puzzling error.

A check in the IE Add-ons manager showed the following:

Microsoft RDP Client Control (redist) msrdp.ocx

Now, take note that the above screenshot was taken on an XP SP2 vanilla install with IE 6. We did not see an Update ActiveX button on the client’s machine. BTW, click on that button in this case, and no update is available!

In fact, when we downloaded the RDC 6.1 Client (KB 952155) from Microsoft’s site, it would not allow us to install it as we received a, “You already have the latest service pack installed so this update does not apply” error.

Indeed, Windows XP Service Pack 3 was installed on this particular machine and the new RDC comes with SP3.

Okay, so we try: Microsoft KB 951607: You cannot connect to a remote computer or start a remote application when you use Terminal Services Web Access or Remote Web Workspace on a Windows XP SP3-based or Windows Small Business Server 2003 SP1-based computer. Nothing applicable here either. Plus, we were trying to connect to the SBS 2008 RWW too.

The key to fixing the problem was found here: Browse Remote Web Workplace from Windows XP SP3 machine on the Technology on the Move blog.

We needed to run the following at the command line after making sure that all browser windows were closed:

Regsvr32 Mstscax.dll [Enter]

After a bit of a pause, a message popped up indicating that the DLL was correctly registered.

Check in the IE Add-ons manager and sure enough the file name has changed:

Microsoft Terminal Services Client Control (redist) mstscax.dll

Once we reconnected to their SBS 2008 RWW, we were able to successfully connect to their desktop.

We used CoPilot for our non-SBS based Remote Assistance needs. This particular client is in the U.S. on the West Coast, so we fired up a one-time session with CoPilot and worked through our troubleshooting process to the above successful conclusion.

One of the main reasons we have stuck with CoPilot is this blog post that has been around for a while on the company’s blog: Customer service as a competitive advantage. They get it.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac!

Windows Live Writer

AntiVirus 2009 on Google's Home Page?!? WinSystems.dll

This is probably one of the more interesting things to see on any given day:

Google has detected unregistered (sic) AntiVirus 2009 copy on your computer.

Now, besides the bad grammar, it is a little surprising that Google would be supporting any kind of A/V product.

If one is careful enough, the so-called IE Information Bar actually hides a bit of bad code that shows itself.

BleepingComputer.com has some great articles on removing the malware.

• How to remove Antivirus 2009 (Uninstall Instructions)
• How to remove Ultra Antivirus 2009 (Uninstall Instructions)

The articles point to a MalwareByte's A/V freeware product that actually does the removal: Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.

In the above screenshot, the malware shows in the tray. The user knew that there was something up on the initial window, but did not realize that the only way to get rid of that window was via the Task Manager. So, clicking on the red X only served to give A/V 2009 a foothold into the system.

So, we downloaded the tool and ran it through. It cleaned out the system, but missed something. After the clean we were still getting the A/V 2009 hook on the Google Web page.

So, back to BleepingComputer.com: Antivirus 2009 Hijacks The Google Web Site. But, the winsrc.dll file mentioned in the article did not exist on this system.

Run IE with no add-ons and Google was clean.

So, a look into the Add-Ons manager in IE turned up:

IE Add-On for Research? winsystems.dll

Disable that add-on, and sure enough there was no more A/V 2009 on Google's home page.

A quick search for the file and a SHIFT+DEL and the file was gone.

The lesson here is quite simple: MalwareBytes is a great tool, but like any other malware fighting tool, it may miss on its searches once in a while. It managed to scan through and find a whole bunch of different stuff like the original A/V 2009 programs, search bars and the like, but it missed the winsystems.dll.

For users with Windows Vista, the UAC lesson is very simple: Cancel.

For users of Windows XP: Do Not Touch. Bring up the Task Manager and kill the software there.

The process in the Processes tab was AntiVirus2009.exe, so it was not too difficult to kill so we could get to the MalwareBytes site and download the cleaner tool as A/V 2009 always redirected to a "Get our product now or else you are doomed" type message page.

We really need to keep on top of training our users! In this case, we are dealing with a new client. So, in time, and with some Internet "Street Smarts" training, our new client's users will be more prone to avoid any malware infections.

Working against malware is one area where our experience, that is our working with the same settings and Internet Explorer Add-Ons, and knowing which Windows processes are the right ones to be there, can pay dividends in finding the source of the problem quickly and efficiently.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

IE 7 - Add-on Disabled for RDP via RWW

When connecting to the RWW and subsequently attempting to connect to a desktop on the SBS network, you may see:

Windows Internet Explorer
This portion of the Remote Web Workplace requires the Microsoft Remote Desktop ActiveX Control. Your browser's security settings may be preventing you from downloading ActiveX controls. Adjust these settings, and try to connect again.

Note that in this case we have already added the RWW site to IE's Trusted Sites zone.

To deal with the issue:

1. Click OK on the ActiveX warning dialogue box.
2. Double click on the Gear with the red circle with the strike through near the bottom middle of the IE window (The yellow info balloon points to it).
3. Click on Microsoft Terminal Services Client Control (redist).
4. Click on Enable in the Settings box at the bottom left hand corner.
5. Click OK.
6. You may get a "For changes to take effect, you might need to restart IE" warning. Click OK.
7. IE will restart itself and bring up the RWW portal menu.
8. Click on the Connect to my computer at work link again and the list of available computers should come up.

This situation seems to be relatively new, but easy to solve.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

IE 8 Beta 1 - Check it out

Want to have a look at Microsoft's new Internet Explorer?

Then, head over to the IE 8 product page.

There you will find product information along with a link to download the beta.

IE 8 is among the rare few browsers to pass the CSS Acid2 Test (Previous blog post).

For Web Developers, check out the IE 8 Readiness Toolkit. This site will provide a quick reference on the features of IE 8 with you in mind.

In my mind, IE 8, and the push to have it standards compliant is huge. For those who know Web coding, and the quirks and struggles one needs to take to get a site to show up properly in multiple browsers, having all browsers standards compliant will alleviate a lot of coding stress ... and ultimately costs.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Windows XP - IE 7 Icon on the Start Menu is Broken

We recently finished installing an XP downgrade on an Acer laptop.

Once we finished setting things up, running all Microsoft updates, installing the unit on the SBS network and finally installing their Line of Business applications we ended up with the following mystery:

IE Icon Broken

It took a while to discover the correct keywords to use in our search for a solution.

Eventually, the solution was actually quite simple:

• Edit the registry
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInter net\IEXPLORE.EXE\DefaultIcon
• Default value: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe,-7
• Change the value to: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe,-32528
• Close Regedit
• Reboot

After the system was rebooted, the IE icon was as it should be.

Here is a screen shot of the registry change:

IE Default Icon Registry Change

Thanks to the Neowin Forums: Start Menu IE Icon for that fix. Fix is near the bottom in a post by leggom.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 - Passes the Acid2 Test...

Folks, for anyone who has worked at coding Web sites on HTML and subsequently XHTML + CSS, the advent of Internet Explorer 7 (IE) was a huge step in the right direction.

Coding sites for IE6 quirks was nothing short of extremely painful ... loss of limb levels of pain. :(

IE7 helped that process along by at least rendering Web pages without too much in the way of painful extra coding. Though, it is still a long way from pure coding pleasure.

The litmus test for properly rendering a properly coded XHTML + CSS based Web site is the Acid2 Web Browser Test.

The Acid2 test is brutal. Check it out with IE7 and see just how far away it is.

In my own experience, the only Windows based browser that can pass the test is the current version of the Opera Browser which is 9.

Today, that has changed!

The Internet Explorer team announced that the IE8 will properly render the Acid2 Test!

Since a significant junk of the world browses the Web with IE, this is a huge step in the right direction and a huge relief for Web site coders everywhere.

As long as Web Standards remain the focus of the IE Team, coders will no longer need to keep such a large stable of coding hacks to make sites work on all browsers.

And, with this announcement there is now pressure on the other browser creators that are not Standards compliant to pick it up and get their browser products compliant.

In the end, we are the winners! As Standards are adopted, Web sites will no longer look different or not render at all on the various Web browsers out there.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Windows XP - IE7 in Microsoft/Windows Update - No Longer There

We are finishing up the setup of two new Acer laptops, and seemingly IE 7 is not available via Microsoft Update. At least, it did not show up when searching for updates on the machines via the Microsoft Update Web Site.

It can be downloaded from here: Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2.

If it doesn't appear on M/W Update again, then it looks like this is one for the Technician's Thumb Drive for sure!

It would be good to store it on the workbench network too.

UPDATE 2007-10-23: The IE7 for XP update has shown up again on Microsoft/Windows Update. It still requires us to run through the setup steps as before but without the validation component.

Thanks to Andy (comments section) for the initial heads up.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Internet Explorer - Surreptitious Entry in the User Agent String

What does the Internet Explorer User Agent String say?

You can check it here: User Agent String.com.

By default on XP IE 7:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30)

Okay, so it tells us that the browser is IE 7, on Windows XP and it has the three versions of .NET installed.

By default on Windows Vista IE 7:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506)

Again, it is quite simple. We have IE 7 as a browser, Vista as the OS, something about SLCC1, and the .NET components.

Now, what do we have here:

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; TheFreeDictionary.com; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30)

We have it seems, some free advertising for a particular Web site going on. Somehow, whether by software install, spyware or malware install, the above .com site is in the User Agent String that IE shows to the world.

The InfoPath entry would have come by an InfoPath install.

To get rid of any unwanted entries, navigate to the following locations in the registry:

Windows XP:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform

Windows Vista:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform

Delete the offending key and close all IE windows. Open an IE session again and navigate to User Agent String.com and verify that it is gone.

It only seems fair that the offending site ask permission for their name to be carried around the Internet. If the offending entry's permission came via some small print in a Terms & Conditions somewhere, then this situation demonstrates why we should be reading them!

This is one more little indicator for us to use to keep an eye on system health and integrity.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

IE 7 Bug on Multiple Monitors - Pop Up Info Doesn't Leave

This info tab from IE is stuck on my right monitor. I have had it happen a number of times now. The last one was for the script warning that happens the first time I click on the Add A Link button while blogging on my main monitor.

I have a multiple monitor setup, and I suspect the bug is tied into that.

It is strange, and so far, the only way to get rid of it is to log off the system and log back in again.

Strange...

It may be possible that it is related to the ATI video drivers. We shall see if the problem disappears with the next Catalyst release.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Office 2007 and IE 7 peformance on XP Pro Versus Vista Business

Is it just me, or does Office 2007 and IE 7 run like dogs on XP Pro SP2?

The reason I ask this is because the XP Pro SP2 based system I run in the Office is no slouch!

• Intel QX6700 Quad Core Extreme


• Intel 975XBX


• ATI X1900 CrossFire & X1900XTX Video


• 4 GB Kingston RAM

It may be possible that I am experiencing some sort of configuration issue, but nothing comes up in the diagnostics for Office that I can see.

The system at Home running Office 2007 and Vista Business is configured as follows:

• Intel P4 650 3.4 GHz. HT


• Intel D925XCEV2


• ATI X850 PCI-E


• 4 GB Kingston RAM

Office runs so smooth, as does IE 7.

When it comes to IE 7, we are running a smaller Internet connection at home, 1.5 Mb/s as opposed to the 4.0 Mb/s here in the office where the XP box is. Makes for even more puzzlement.

Same sites on both machines, XP & IE 7 renders slower than Vista and IE 7.

I can remember hearing at the various Microsoft events that I attended that Vista, Office 2007, and IE 7 were meant for each other.

This experience of mine working with both OS configurations on fairly high end machines definitely puts some truth to that!

By the way, both the home and the office are Small Business Server 2003 Premium integrated with Exchange 2003 SP2.

The big thing for me at this point is to wait until the more exotic components that I have plugged into the system here in the office has Vista drivers that are no longer in Beta. I will then blow away the box and build on Vista Ultimate as we are licensed for it via our Software Assurance.

In my experience, Vista, Office 2007, and IE 7 rock together!

Happy Vista, Office 2007, and IE 7 Operating!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists