Author Archive

Enable & Disable SMB in Windows

// December 21st, 2015 // No Comments » // Computers, Server

Recently, I found myself troubleshooting an issue with SMB connections from an Android application that connects to a Windows 10 file share via SMB. The issue I was chasing was related to the first major upgrade for Windows 10 that Microsoft has been releasing to customers over the last month. Apparently, unpublished changes in that Windows 10 upgrade are causing file sharing problems in a multitude of situations.

During the course of my troubleshooting I thought it would be useful to “fallback” to exclusively using SMBv1 on Windows 10. While Microsoft has been slowly trying to bury the v1 dialect of SMB, it’s still nice to have around for troubleshooting situations when you suspect an unpublished change to a newer dialect (e.g., v2 or v3).

Without further ado, here is a Microsoft Support article that gives you the commands needed to flip the proverbial switches of SMB in Windows.

2013::Independence Day

// July 4th, 2013 // No Comments » // Holiday

4thofJulyLibertyGreetings

Happy Independence Day!

The Internet: 1934 style

// June 7th, 2012 // No Comments » // Computers, Science

How-to: Remove the Windows WebDAV 50MB File Size Limit

// November 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Computers, Server, Windows

Windows limits the file size for WebDAV shares to 50MB per file. Weak. Read on and get strong…

You may have encountered an error message that says, “Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.” Make this change on your computer, reboot, and you’re good for 4GB per file.

Modify or create the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClientParameters

  1. Right-click on the FileSizeLimitInBytes and click Modify
  2. Click on Decimal
  3. In the Value data: box, type 4294967295, and then click OK.
  4. Exit the registry editor and reboot your computer

2010::Patriot Day

// September 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Holiday


Always remembered, never forgotten.

Students: Microsoft will give you the farm for free. Really.

// September 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Computers, Server, Windows

This isn’t exactly news, but is still fairly recent, and under-marketed enough to deserve a mention. The folks in Redmond call it DreamSpark, and it’s a pretty sweet deal for high school and college students. They’ll let you use many of their high dollar enterprise products (e.g. Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL 2008, etc.) for free.

Click here to check out Microsoft DreamSpark…

How-to: Enable Windows Installer in Safe Mode

// July 26th, 2010 // No Comments » // Computers, Windows

The Windows Installer Service is the subsystem that Windows provides for adding or removing software. Many software applications rely upon the Windows Installer Service and they cannot be removed cleanly (or easily) if it’s not working. Most of the time it works fine, but there are always exceptions.

There are many situations that can occur where you may find yourself stuck in “Safe Mode” trying to remove a program (e.g., a program crashes your computer while it’s trying to boot). This is complicated by the Windows Installer Service not running while in “Safe Mode”.

Thankfully, there is a kind gentleman named Harry Bates that wrote a freeware tool called SafeMSI. It will enable the Windows Installer Service to run while Windows is running in “Safe Mode”. The usage of this tool is simple:

  1. Download the tool
  2. Extract the contents of the file you downloaded in Step 1 to a memorable place (e.g., your Desktop)
  3. Run the tool while in Safe Mode

2010::Independence Day

// July 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Holiday

Happy Independence Day!

2010::Memorial Day

// May 31st, 2010 // No Comments » // Holiday

I give thanks to those that have, and will, sacrifice for our freedom.

The Top 15 Google Products for People Who Build Websites

// April 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Computers

Read the excellent article here…