File system error (-1073740791)
An old customer from Buckingham (Oxfordshire) contacted us with an issue. He could not open any Microsoft Excel or Word files on his personal Windows 10 PC. With Excel, it would simply open an empty Excel Window, with Word, it would pop up a not particularly meaningful error message. Multiple reboots weren’t helping. I connected […]
Disable Windows 10 to 11 upgrade in business environment
Until recently Windows 10 computer within a Windows Server Active Directory domain were not pushed Windows 11 upgrade. This has changed around April 2024 and now even users on domain joined PCs are getting various “dark pattern” prompts clearly designed to maximise conversions to Windows 11. While I have nothing against Windows 11, on business […]
Update Windows Server Group Policy Administrative Templates
Microsoft regularly releases new Administrative Templates (ADMX) for Windows Group Policy. For example, certain Group Policy options that apply to Windows 10 or Microsoft Office 365 will not be available in you are running Windows Server 2016. To rectify this, you need to download relevant ADMX template files from Microsoft and copy them to your […]
Disable “Try the new Outlook” option
We have a few clients in Oxford and Abingdon who use Microsoft Outlook with certain .com plugins. These plugins are incompatible with the “New Outlook” and we regularly get calls from users complaining that their plugins stopped working. What actually happens, is a user clicks “Try the new Outlook” switch in the top right of […]
Synology Active Backup for Microsoft 365 – ErrorAccessDenied
We have a few IT support customers in Oxford and Abingdon who use their onsite Synology DiskStation NAS units to back up their cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 systems. The Synology package required for this is called “Active Backup for Microsoft 365“. It’s free of charge (as long as you have a supported Synology DiskStation unit) […]
Windows 10 installation – We couldn’t find any drivers…
I was setting up a new Dell OptiPlex 7020 (Intel Core i5-14500) PC for one of our customers in Oxford and hit a small issue installing Windows 10 Pro. The PC originally came with Windows 11, however, the rest of the company’s computers were still on Windows 10 and I prefer to keep all devices […]
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions…
I vaguely remember seeing this error in some old versions of MS Outlook many years ago in my previous IT Support workplace, so was a bit surprised when a customer from Oxford emailed me a screenshot above saying that it was popping up when trying to open any link in the latest version of MS […]
MS Office – Couldn’t update license – Error Code: 18
A small business from Oxford recently contacted us with a little IT Support query. They were trying to activate a Microsoft Office 365 license in Microsoft Outlook. However, after entering the user’s login credentials (with an active Microsoft 365 license), the following error popped up: I’ve seen similar errors before and the first port of […]
OneDrive on Mac stuck on “Preparing to upload”
This small issue occasionally affects OneDrive application and it’s not the first time I’ve seen it. In this particular case, it happened on a Mac, but the same can occur on a Windows PC. OneDrive stays in a permanent “updating” status. Clicking on the app icon shows “preparing to upload”. Sometimes it can happen if […]
Virgin Media Business + Static IP prevents modem mode
I have quite a few clients in and around Oxford using Virgin Media Business broadband. I normally don’t recommend Virgin Media as a primary business broadband provider due to inconsistent and somewhat unreliable service (fine if you combine it with another non-Virgin broadband in a dual-WAN setup). Regardless, Virgin Media offers good headline speeds for […]