MS Teams - Open Files in Desktop Apps

Its really annoying to have to open a file in Teams and the click again on Open in Desktop App

Below is a workaround that works very well.

• When you are in teams right click the 3 dots next to General and click "open in sharepoint"
• When in Sharepoint online click on the gear next to your picture or initials (in the top right of the screen)
• Click on Library settings
• Select Advanced Settings in General Settings
• In "Opening Documents in the Browser" Change to Open in the client application
• Go back to the documents in Sharepoint online and copy and paste the entire web address
• Go Back to Teams
• Right Click Documents Library and select Remove
• Select the plus and select website
• Name it whatever you like
• Paste the document library web address you just copied
• Select Save
• It will now open the desktop app as default

Reference

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-ama/open-in-desktop-apps/m-p/300035

MS Teams chat and meetings now support popout windows

https://office365itpros.com/2020/04/10/teams-pop-out-windows-chats-meetings/

How To Automatically Run Excel VBA Macros Daily April 29, 2019 Chris Newman

It is a great shame that PowerApps can run excel macros yet....

Here is a work around

utilize the Windows Task Scheduler application (don’t worry, this comes installed with most Windows PCs) to automatically open an Excel file, run it’s VBA code, save the file, and finally close the Excel file. With this solution, you will be able to customize the frequency and exact time(s) this automation will need to be executed. The ONLY CATCH to this solution, is that the PC will need to be on during the scheduled time.

https://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/blog/how-to-automatically-run-excel-vba-macros-daily

How to Customize Your Background in Microsoft Teams Video Calls

Link https://lifehacker.com/how-to-customize-your-background-in-microsoft-teams-vid-1842838567

Find a spoken word or phrase in Microsoft Stream videos

Using MS Stream you can search transcript text in one video, or across multiple videos.  See this page for more info

Additionally if you type time codes into the description then you can create your own table of contents which can be clicked on to go directly to that section

Eg 02:26 end of intro

03:45 Joe's presentation...

Ths works alongside "Generate automatic captions and a transcript for your Microsoft Stream videos".  (Note Teams admins can turn off this automation if they are worried by GDPR and the like).  The setting for this policy is ....

VTT video transcript files

Microsoft Stream can automatically generates a WebVTT (text) file from what was spoken in a video and uses it for a video's transcript and closed captions.

You can download this file as the owner of the video. 

As well as the transcript text, a VTT file contains time codes, metadata and confidence levels, which makes getting the text transcript out into word or other editor painful

Fortunately Microsoft have a VTT cleaner here.  You can upload your VTV and it removes the data just keeping what was said in text

Another online tool is here 

Hyper-V Gen2 SCSI boot issues with legacy IDE converted machines

I was converting a Windows 2012R2 server from a VMDK to a VHDX, creating a new Hyper-V Gen2 host and struggling to get it to boot.  I could mount the drive, read from it from a safe CMD prompt, tried to make sure the correct partition was active using DISKPART, even used BOOTBCD to try but with no luck.

I eventually found that the issue was because I was creating Gen2 Hyper-V machines rather than the Legacy Gen1.   Whilst Gen2 will support Win2012R2 they do not support the booting of IDE drives connected as a virtual SCSI controllers can only be recognized after installing Hyper-V Integration Services on the guest OS on the VM. If this is not the case then the guest OS cannot boot from a SCSI disk.

Running up a Gen1 machine and connecting the drive to the IDE booted first time...!

References: 

The Differences Between Hyper-V Generation 1 vs. 2 VMs

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/plan/should-i-create-a-generation-1-or-2-virtual-machine-in-hyper-v#windows-guest-operating-system-support

Managing Office 365 Groups With Remote PowerShell – C7 Solutions

O365 groups info and latest update on features from MS

https://blogs.office.com/2016/02/17/updates-to-office-365-groups/
is the latest update to features here.

Managing Office 365 Groups With Remote PowerShell – C7 Solutions:

To add email aliases to O365 groups use...

Set-UnifiedGroup name -EmailAddresses @{Add="name@domain.com"}

Although a central group creation policy for a prefix or suffix seems to affect all Groups, in fact is it only applicable for user created groups – not admin created groups. The prefix is only added when users create groups via Outlook/OWA and not admins via ECP.

Post Windows 10 upgrade - remove Windows.Old another other files

After a Windows Upgrade, by default, a scheduled task is created and will run after four weeks to delete the Windows.Old directory. But if you wish, you can also remove the Windows.old folder manually earlier. If you find that you no longer have any use for it, you may safely go ahead and delete it as follows:

Delete Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup

Open Disk Cleanup Tool and select Files from all users on this computer. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then look for the Previous Windows installations check box. You will need to click on Clean up system files button, in order to see this window.

This takes an age gathering info but its worth it.   I also checked the Windows upgrade log files and the Temporary Windows installation files to remove as well.

install logs Windows.old directory

Reference http://www.thewindowsclub.com/delete-remove-windows-old-folder 

Invoking a PowerShell script from cmd.exe (or Start | Run) or shortcut

With the move to Office 365 we need to use powershell more and more - so a shortcut to invoke a script and keep the shell open is really useful.



Invoking a PowerShell script from cmd.exe (or Start | Run) | Poshoholic:

SharePoint 2013 - Change URL of document library - SharePoint Stack Exchange

SharePoint 2013 - Change URL of document library - SharePoint Stack Exchange: "When you create a document library, it ask you the name for the DL. Once you give it, it will create library with same name and URL. You can change the name of the library any time but cannot change the url. Here are the things i followed to create url accroding to my needs:

Just go to a library trough 'Site Content'
When inside the library choose on the ribbon 'Library' tab.
Then select 'Open with Explorer'.That will open your SharePoint's library in Windows Explorer window.
Navigate one folder up and you will see list of your libraries as folders.
Rename required library's folder name as you want the URL to look like.
Close the windows and refresh the browser or go back to home page and browse the library again.
Credit go to this person long time ago: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12904944/change-sharepoint-library-url"



'via Blog this'

Automatic Site Coverage in Active Directory Domain Services - John Policelli's Blog

We have a number of locations without a domain controller.  For these locations we just grouped their IP addresses into the same site as the Hub site and pointed their local DNS to that Hub Site.

After doing some more research this is clearly not best practice for either AD or DFSR.  The following article gives an excellent workflow of how a DC works out whether to act for a site.  In order for this calculation to work you should have the sites without DC's added with their IP ranges and IP Site connectors setup with relevant weighting metrics to specify which is the preferred AD site to use for logins.

Automatic Site Coverage in Active Directory Domain Services - John Policelli's Blog:

Ahsay OBS getting stuck on reindexing

Our backup store filled up whilst a backup was running.  Its since been enlarged, however OBS kept getting stuck either on an XML error, or running extremely slowly.

The artlicle below show how do delete the index.bdb files from the backup server and then use the OBS Server admin web management page to rebuild (File Validate) the index.  It seemed to work for us.

Ahsay Discussion Forum :: View topic - Issue when upgrading AhsayOBS to version 5.5.3.x:

Windows Server 2012: Does ReFS replace NTFS? When should I use it? -

Having a lot of problems with DFSR between 2008R2 and 2012 windows machines, I was migrating to new Windows 2012 servers and tripped over this new files system type called ReFS which replaces NTFS.

The article link at the end of this post gives an excellent summary of all of its advantages and issues and like most MS new products it doesn't seem quite complete yet - such as lacking data de-duplication and not being able to run it on your system boot drive.

It looks like it is suitable for DFSR as it "Preserves & Enforces ACL's" but needs further testing...Ive found other articles which suggest just using ReFS for Archiving Big Data - but why would Microsoft build a new file system just for archiving ?  ReFS support was included in Windows 8.1 betas but seems to have been pulled for the 8.1 release and is rumored to ship with Windows 9

Note:  to see what features a drive supports run fsutil fsinfo volumeinfo

Volume Name : Files
Volume Serial Number : 0x523a488d
Max Component Length : 255
File System Name : ReFS
Is ReadWrite
Supports Case-sensitive filenames
Preserves Case of filenames
Supports Unicode in filenames
Preserves & Enforces ACL's
Supports Sparse files
Supports Reparse Points
Supports Open By FileID
Supports USN Journal

Windows Server 2012: Does ReFS replace NTFS? When should I use it? - Ask Premier Field Engineering (PFE) Platforms - Site Home - TechNet Blogs: "Hard Links "

JDiskReport for Mac gives TreeSize Pro for PC similar functionality

For the PC I really like Jam Softwares TreeSize Pro which gives a report on how the hard drives are being used for space.

I have converted from PC to a MacBook and am a bit lost with Finder.  My hard disk is nearly full and I found the following program to show me where the disk has gone. JDiskReport Downloads | JGoodies:

'via Blog this'

Sharepoint prompting credentials for Explorer mapped drives

I have lived with the sharepoint explorer link prompting for many years, but found the solution below.  Oh joy.....

Windows 7 | The SharePoint Project: "1.   Click Start, type REGEDIT in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

2.   Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters"

make sire the sites you add start with http://  ie http://your sharepoint site.
Other blogs say you have to put the entries in twice.

Then goto services and restart the web client service.

Hey presto - it works.... (or at least should... and did for me)

Doug Hemminger's SharePoint Musings: Instruction Guide for Installing SQL Server 2012 SP1 for SharePoint 2013

Useful simple start guide to setting up SQL 2012 for Sharepoint 2013 use

Doug Hemminger's SharePoint Musings: Instruction Guide for Installing SQL Server 2012 SP1 for SharePoint 2013:

'via Blog this'

Mimecast outbound connector on new Office 365 portal

Microsoft have changed their interface for Office 365 admin and the Mimecast details have not been updated

Firstly logon to the Office 365 EAC by typing in https://podXXXX.outlook.com/ecp/ where XXXX is your OWA pod number for Office 365.

Click on mailflow and then Connectors from the mid top menu.

• Add a new Outbound connector and give it a name
• Tick Connector type Partner
• Use Opportunistic TLS
• Click on Route mail through smart hosts
• Enter the smart hosts according to the Mimecast MTA documentation here
• Leave the scope unchecked 
• Add the outbound domains you want tho apply to this connector

That should be it for outbound....Test an external email straight away to check all is well.

For more info see

Microsoft Outbound Smarthost settings

Legacy mimecast Office 365 documentation

office 365 - Exchange admin path

Microsoft have hidden the Exchange admin tasks from the main admin screen which is bizarre.  You can find it again by adding /ecp to the end of your outlook owa path as below.  Replace xxxx with your OWA pod number.

https://podxxxx.outlook.com/ecp/

Sharepoint 2010 Hide “All Site Content”

Not blogged for a while..., however back to SharePoint and I wanted to hide the All Site Content shortcuts for read only users.  This keeps things tidy rather than securing areas.

This link is a very concise note on how to hide the "All Site Content" shortcut

Also to hide the Search bar - update the Master Page v4.Master and add the style below in red.

….class="s4-search s4-rp " style="display:none"

Set Up an Office 365 Shared Mailbox

Microsoft have a training video on the right way to setup an office 365 mailbox here

Altnerate reference here: Set Up a Shared Mailbox

Outlook folder Automapping

If you assign permissions to a an exchange user or folder using Powershell to a folder you can define if that Folder should be automatically displayed (or auto-mapped) when Outlook next starts.  . If a user is granted Full Access permissions to another user's mailbox or to a shared mailbox, Outlook, through Autodiscover, automatically loads all mailboxes to which the user has full access. This parameter accepts $true or $false values.

eg:

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity JeroenC -User 'Mark Steele' -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All -AutoMapping $false

Source article

Office 365 script for giving (or recinding) send-as permissions

param($mailboxname,$user)
$mailbox = get-mailbox $mailboxname

#Give user full mailbox rights

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity $mailbox -User $user -AccessRights 'FullAccess'

#Give user send-as rights to mailbox
Add-ADPermission -Identity $mailbox.DisplayName -User $user -ExtendedRights 'Send-as'

--------------

param($mailboxname,$user)

$mailbox = get-mailbox $mailboxname

#Remove user full mailbox rights
Remove-MailboxPermission -Identity $mailbox -User $user -AccessRights 'FullAccess'

#Remove user send-as rights to mailbox
Remove-ADPermission -Identity $mailbox.DistinguishedName -User $user -ExtendedRights 'Send-as'







Article source here

http://www.exchange-powershell.com/ 

Office 365 mailbox and folder permissions (with powershell)

The number of e-mail folder and mailbox permissions possible with Office 365 can be very confusing...  Below are some powershell tips on how to display the permissions followed by some tips on how to add permissions.

Viewing permissions

Using a Powershell linked session (see this post for more info) you can retrieve the permissions set at one of the following three possible hierarchical levels:

a)  Mailbox level
  b) Mailbox Top of Information Store level
    c) A Mailbox Folder level

The above hierarchical levels are hereditary by default, however can be overridden by a specific permission set at a lower level or by using a variant of the switch -InheritanceType (None | All | Descendents | SelfAndChildren | Children )

For level (a - Mailbox) use the PS > get-mailbox | get-mailboxpermission

(add | fl at the end of the command to get a formatted output)

To filter for a particular user  

PS > get-mailboxPermission -Identity username@company.com | fl

For level (b - Mailbox Top Level) use the PS > get-mailbox | get-mailboxFolderPermission

To filter for a particular user  

PS > get-mailboxFolderPermission -Identity username@company.com | fl

For level (c - Mailbox Folder Level) add :<\foldername> to the end of the indentity

PS > get-mailboxFolderPermission -Identity username@company.com:\inbox | fl

Setting permissions - in powershell

a) Adding a Top folder level permission on a mailbox name@company.com for a user "mysec"

PS > Add-MailboxPermission "name@company.com" -User "mysec" -AccessRights ReadPermission

b) Adding a Top folder level permission on a mailbox name@company.com for a user "mysec"

PS > Add-MailboxfolderPermission "name@company.com" -User "mysec" -AccessRights Reviewer

c) Adding a folder level permission on a mailbox name@company.com for a user "mysec"

PS > Add-MailboxfolderPermission "name@company.com:\inbox" -User "mysec" -AccessRights PublishingEditor

Setting permissions - in Outlook

You can set permission for a users mailbox Top Level Folder (b) or Specific Level Folder (c) from a connected Outlook client.

(b) right click on the account name and choose Folder Permissions 

(c) right click on the folder name and choose Properties.  Then click on Permissions and set them there.

 

Windows 8 Enterprise activation DNS error

Windows 8 Enterprise defaults to using a corporate Volume License activation on a business network.  This is supposed to provide a simplified end-user activation experience focused on using the KMS server, however i fyou want to use a MAK key then you are in trouble. This is because Windows 8 Enterprise PC cannot find the appropriate DNS records to determine how to automatically activate.  

So the solution is to enter the MAK key manually from a command prompt:

Hit the Windows+R hotkeys to open the Run box and run the following command:

slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

You can then either wait for Windows to sort itself out - or click on the activate in settings and all should come right.

For MS's explanation see here