Firstly, find your PDC emulator by throwing up a command prompt and running the command: netdom /query fsmo

Now in a command prompt on the PDC emulator, run: w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:0.uk.pool.ntp.org,1.uk.pool.ntp.org /update /reliable:yes

Finally, we might as well force a sync: w32tm /resync in a command prompt will do this for you.

Now wait a few minutes and your whole network should update to the new (correct) time.

Time issues: resolved.

- James | July 2011

Update: remember to elevate the command prompt – otherwise this won’t work.

By default Outlook will put things you send in your sent items, even if you’re sending via an additional mailbox. This is fine some of the time, but other times it would be great if Outlook could put things I send in the correct sent items…

In fact, this is nice and easy to sort out:

And that’s it for another week. See you again soon.

- James | February 2011

Assuming you’ve already patched Exchange to SP2, one of the next things to consider doing is to increase the soft-limit for the private Exchange store. This is set to 18GB by default (but will let you go up to about 19-20GB before dismounting), but can be increased to up to 75GB. I usually set it to around 50GB, as if it hits this limit you’ve got ample time to get people to archive a few emails.

Remember, if you hit this soft-limit – the mailbox store will automatically dismount and can’t be remounted until you make this change.

To set the limit, do the following:

That’s it! All finished. Exchange is happy, you’re happy and most importantly the client will be happy.

Tune in next time for more IT blogging.

- James | January 2011

Well luckily for you, Office 2010 keeps unsaved documents for a short while. To open/recover one of these documents, simply open the relevant program (Word or Excel are probably the most common) and head into the File menu. Click on the Recent side tab and choose the option to recover unsaved document (or workbook/presentation) at the bottom right. Then choose the unsaved item to recover.

Viola! It’s as easy as that.

Tune in next week for more IT blogging.

- James | January 2011

To be honest, I prefer NTLM authentication most of the time. NTLM doesn’t require users to enter a username/password to connect to Exchange (as they can pass-through with the OS credentials), and it never sends the password in clear text – which I also like (in fairness, as everything is handled over SSL this isn’t as bad as it sounds).

The one time I do use Basic is if my client wants to enter a password to use email, perhaps so that they feel more secure.

Whatever the reason, both are decent – but I’ll stick to NTLM for my deployments.

- James | January 2011

Controllers matter

First things first, hopefully you’ve got yourself an SSD based on a good controller, which essentially links the I/O to the flash memory. I’ve used SSDs based on Marvell (Crucial C300) and Sandforce (OCZ Vertex II) controllers, which both offer excellent performance. If you get a poor controller, it’s likely that you’ll never realise the full speed boost that an SSD can offer.

TRIM

Next, make sure your SSD supports TRIM and that you have an operating system that does too (Windows 7 is a good shout). TRIM addresses an issue with deleted files being left intact on the SSD, which means that when a future write occurs the drive has to erase before it can write. With TRIM enabled, this erasing is done as part of a automated deletion system – so you don’t suffer future performance issues.

Firmware > Software

Most SSD manufacturers are constantly releasing updates to the low-level software that runs on your drive. This is the firmware, and it’s very important to update it to the latest version before you start installing things on your drive. You may also want to update it in the future, as it more offer better performance – but the easiest time to do it is before you’ve done anything with the drive (as later updates can require a reformat/rebuild).

Tweak yo’ SSD

Windows 7 doesn’t automatically tweak itself for SSD drives. In fact, quite a lot of tweaks can be made to speed up the experience. Luckily, if you head over here and download the SSD tweaker application – you can do all the important tweaks in a couple of easy steps. Simply install the program, run it and choose “auto-tweak”. Then restart your computer. See? Nice and easy, isn’t it?

Goodbye defragmenting

SSD drives operate in a totally different way to traditional hard disks. Therefore, they don’t need to be defragmented. Never. Not even once. Surely it’s worth going SSD just for this feature alone?

SSDs are awesome

So that’s it really. Get a good controller, use TRIM, don’t defrag and tweak your system. Do all of these things, and buying an SSD drive is possibly the best device that you’ll have in your computer. It’s fast, maintenance-free and getting more affordable all the time. In fact, why aren’t you buying an SSD now? Seriously, it’s time to go shopping. Crucial 128GB C300 is less than £200 right now. What time is it? It’s SSD time!

- James | Dec 2010

So let’s say that your company’s internal domain name is company.local and their external domain name is company.co.uk. Now most people would create an ADi primary lookup zone for all of company.co.uk and then create A records for each host they want, so you end up with hosts like webmail.company.co.uk and www.company.co.uk all under this one zone.

Instead of this, why not create individual zones for each of your A records? So for example: webmail.company.co.uk should be its own primary zone (not ADi) rather than an A record in the company.co.uk domain.

In most of my deployments, I have about five manually created zones that serve Exchange requests (autodiscover and email) and remote access (SSTP and the like). This makes it easy to make changes to DNS, and also means that I never have to update records for external resources (www for example).

That’s all for this week. Have a lovely Christmas and see you in the New Year.

- James | Dec 2010

Are you getting weird artifacts appearing on the screen, or is something else random happening?

Make sure you’ve completed the list below, to ensure your SLI is happy…

1) Make sure your PSU is powerful enough to run both cards. If you’re trying to run SLI on a cheap 400W PSU, you’re going to have issues. At this point, get yourself a decent 600-700W one.

2) Make sure you’ve connected all the required power cables to your two cards.

3) Ensure the SLI bridge is connected OK.

4) Use the latest Nvidia drivers (not the ones that come with the CD).

5) Certain motherboards require you to actually enable SLI on the board. My old ASUS board required me to invert a little board on the motherboard, otherwise SLI simply wouldn’t work.

6) If you’re still getting problems, flash your BIOS to the latest version. This can usually be downloaded from the website of your motherboard manufacturer.

*WARNING* BIOS FLASHING CAN BE RISKY, IF IN ANY DOUBT PLEASE SPEAK TO SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO IT. *END WARNING*

7) If you are STILL having issues after the above, you’ve probably got either an issue with heat OR your motherboard is doing something it shouldn’t . Either way, you’ll probably need more help than the t’internet can provide. Maybe give Puzzle-IT a ring?

- James | Dec 2010

P.S. Most of the above will work for ATI’s Crossfire too, just change anything that says “Nvidia” or “SLI” for “ATI” or “Crossfire”.

However, for a while now it’s had a challenger to the throne…

Google Chrome

Google Chrome sits next to Firefox on the Taskbar, below it on the Start Menu and is probably open just as often. Recently, I even noticed that I often load Google Chrome before Firefox.

So why do I like Google Chrome so much?

Speed

Well, it’s fast. Really fast. I’m currently working on a laptop with an SSD, so most programs load quickly – but Chrome is instant. Firefox takes a second or two, IE takes about the same but Chrome just appears. I like that. If I want to check the news (in my case mainly IT related), I want to be in and out quickly. Chrome facilitates this. It doesn’t badger me for updates, it just loads. That’s genius.

Features

Chrome seems to get the best features more quickly than other browsers. Right now, I’m running Chrome 8 and they’ve added some fantastic new features. Going into about:flags allows me to enable side tabs, options in a tab, instant URL loading (as I type), GPU acceleration and to be honest lots of features that I don’t need yet. The hybrid URL/search bar at the top is probably my favourite overall feature of Chrome. Fast and easy, it’s something that should probably have appeared in other browsers years ago.

Less is more

The streamlined interface is also perfect for me. I don’t need lots of icons and links. I am a man of the command line and short-cut keys. Honestly, I often consider using the mouse a defeat. The keyboard is my kingdom, and Chrome understands that. It doesn’t clutter up my display with lots of tool bars and useless paraphernalia. It’s right to the point. I want to surf the interwebs. That is all.

Why Firefox?

So I suppose the question is why does Firefox still maintain its winning position? Why hasn’t Chrome usurped it completely? Well, I think for everyday use Chrome probably has stolen the crown. When I turn on my computer in the morning, the first foreground item that I load is Chrome. It’s also my browser of choice for any service that I already trust. In fact, I’m often in Chrome without Firefox being open at all. Whole web sessions fly by without Firefox getting a look-in.

However, where Firefox is still important is for websites that I do not trust, or haven’t been to before, or even sites that I know have some undesirable components. You see, Firefox has NoScript, which is an excellent little script blocking add-in. Its standard blocking ability is fantastic, but it also protects against XSS vulnerabilities and maintains a huge white-list of safe domains, which makes it even more effective for day-to-day use. So if I’m going to a website for the first time, I’ll always use Firefox.

I suppose the only question that remains is when will I move to Chrome full time. Well, if NoScript ever appeared on Chrome I think I’d switch immediately. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen in the near-future, which unfortunately for Chrome means that I can’t make the full switch just yet. Firefox’s future on my computers has been secured not by it’s own brilliance, but by a single add-in. And that should worry Mozilla. A lot.

- James | Dec 2010

Really, really slow.

I had this problem the other day, and tried everything to sort it out. Eventually, I went through the settings for the WLAN card itself, and found that all my performance woes were resolved by changing the BSS mode from 802.11n to 802.11g .

Now it runs brilliantly.

Awesome to the max.

- James | Nov 2010