Author Archives: Kirby Witmer

Restoring Deleted Active Directory User fails with Error 0x2077 Illegal Modify Operation

I was attempting to restore an Active Directory User that was accidentally deleted on a SBS 2011 server using the steps outlined in this Microsoft KB Article, however I kept coming up short with the following error message. [note]”Error 0x2077 Illegal modify operation. Some aspect of the modification is not permitted.”[/note] I was a bit …

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After Windows Update, Outlook 2013 Folder List Pane is Empty

Yesterday Microsoft released a few updates for Windows & Office. One of the updates, KB2817630, appears to break Outlook 2013. The screenshot to the right is what happened to one of our customers after the update was automatically installed. Absolutely no folders appear in the folder pane. At this point it appears the fix is …

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No Internet Access on Windows 7 caused by Bonjour Service

After installing Extensis Portfolio Desktop Client software on a few Windows 7 desktops today, we noticed that after rebooting the computers would no longer connect to the internet. They could access local files & services, but the network connection was local only. After a bit of digging, we discovered that a service called Bonjour was …

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Change SBS 2011 Exchange SMTP Send Connector Port

On several occasions I’ve noticed that Comcast seems to be blocking port 25 on their internet connections. This, of course, is an issue for SBS 2011 networks and outgoing SMTP email. For most cases I use a Smart Host for outbound email such as DynDNS. However, the built in wizard for configuring the Smart Host …

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The module DLL exppw.dll failed to load

A Windows SBS 2011 server at one of our customers locations installed several updates last evening, and when they came into work this morning they discovered they were not receiving any email. Neither was the remote web workplace or OWA working. After some digging around I noticed the following error in the event log. [highlight]The …

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Configure Office 365 Passwords to never expire

One of the biggest complains we get from customers that are using Microsoft Office 365 is the mandatory password expiration. Microsoft has a KnowledgeBase article that explains with a few simple powershell commands how to disable this and set the passwords to never expire. Connect to the Windows Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell …

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Enable Office 365 Auto-discover for Outlook in SBS 2011 Exchange Environments

One of the  issues you will run into when migrating from an on premises Exchange 2010 server on SBS 2011 is that Outlook will not autodiscover the correct Office 365 server settings. Fortunately this can be easily solved with a few simple PowerShell commands. Open an Exchange Management Shell as an administrator. (Elevated PowerShell) Use …

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WiFi on Windows 8 does not support WEP – Shared Key Authentication

  I was troubleshooting a Windows 8 laptop that wouldn’t connect to a customer’s wireless network recently. The wireless network was configured using the WEP – Shared Key Authentication method which is horribly insecure and should never be used. After doing some diagnosing and researching I discovered that Windows 8 has dropped support for WEP …

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