Category Archives: Windows

Fix Remote Desktop Licensing Mode is not configured

Having fully installed Remote Desktop Services (RDS) on a server with the RD Connection Broker and RDS licensing set per user and everything is working with a valid license.

After some time you notice a popup when you connect saying,

Remote Desktop licensing mode is not configured
Remote Desktop Services will stop working in 104 days. On the RD Connection Broker server, use Server Manager to specify the Remote Desktop licensing mode and the license server.

When you open the RD Licensing Diagnoser, you will be prompted with an error saying, The licensing mode for the Remote Desktop Session Host server is not configured.

From the Server Manager under Configure the Deployment and RD licensing, all seem to be configured well.

Open a PowerShell as Administrator on the server and run the following command

$obj = gwmi -namespace "Root/CIMV2/TerminalServices" Win32_TerminalServiceSetting
$obj.GetSpecifiedLicenseServerList()

This will show a parameter called SpecifiedLicenseServerList which would be empty as below.

To populate the parameter, use the following command

$obj.SetSpecifiedLicenseServerList("<full fqdn server name>")

After this is done, the RD Licensing Diagnoser parameter should not report any errors. It is suggested to restart the server after this change.

Alternatively, one could do this with registry with the following PowerShell script

# Specify the RDS licensing type: 2 - Per Device CAL, 4 - Per User CAL
$RDSCALMode = 4
$RDSlicServer = "<server full fqdn name>"
# Set the server name and type of licensing in the registry
New-Item "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters\LicenseServers"
New-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters\LicenseServers" -Name SpecifiedLicenseServers -Value $RDSlicServer -PropertyType "MultiString"
Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\Licensing Core\" -Name "LicensingMode" -Value $RDSCALMode

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Fix: Storage Replica warning Events 10448 Storage Replica has failed an application IO

When checking the logs of the Storage Replica on a Windows Server 2016, 2019 or 2022, using the below command, you get the error saying that Storage Replica has failed an application IO.

Get-WinEvent -ProviderName Microsoft-Windows-StorageReplica -max 20

In this case, the replication is not working and there are no other issues pointing to what could be the problem. In my case the solution was to restart the Storage Replica service from the services.msc. After this, I ran the Get-WinEvent command again and it was replicating again.

 

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Server Manager refresh failed error

When opening Server Manager on the server, in the notifications you will see an error stating Refresh Failed.

At this stage, you will not be able to add any features to the server and you will not be able to add or remove windows features.

A pop-up about collecting inventory data and a refresh error saying “Configuration refresh failed with the following error: Invalid class” will show.

Before proceeding you can take a backup of this by using the command below
winmgmt /backup %computername%_MM_DD_YEAR.WMI_backup

To fix the problem you would need to do the following in a command prompt as Administrator.

winmgmt /verifyrepository
winmgmt /salvagerepository
winmgmt /resetrepository

This will resolve the problem and when you relaunch the Server Manager, you will be able to add the features with no issues.

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Fix: Cannot install July updates KB5004298 and KB5004285

You may have an issue with installing the KB5004298 and KB5004285 on your system. At first, the updates would install successfully, but when you reboot you will get an error saying “Failure configuring Windows Updates. Reverting Changes”

There will not be any error on your Windows machine, only a generic message that the update failed with the error message Code 800F0922 in the Windows Update History.

The error is due to an Acrobat Flash removal issue and the update will fail since it couldn’t find the folders. To resolve the issue, you need to create the following folders with the same case.

C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

Once the above empty folders are created, simply re-run the updates and after a restart, they will be successful. Voila!

 

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How To: Enable Remote Desktop Services RDP remotely

To enable Remote Desktop Services (RDP) you might need to either use Group Policies or by physical access on the computer or server. Remotely you would need to use command line with PSTools which can be downloaded here.

Once downloaded and extracted type in the below

psexec.exe \\ reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server” /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

psexec.exe \\ netsh firewall set service RemoteDesktop enable

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How To: Create local users or admins remotely

You might encounter the need to create a local user, add it to the local admins remotely. Being if the user cannot log in or the local admin is lost.

For the purpose you need to use PSTools which can be downloaded from here.

Once downloaded open a command prompt as Administrator from the server or a machine logged in with a domain administrator and type

PSEXEC \\computername NET USER localadmin <pass> /add

PSEXEC \\computername NET LOCALGROUP Administrators localadmin /ADD

localadmin being the username you wish to use and the <pass> is the user’s password.

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FIX: WINDOWS 10 HOME TO PRO UPGRADE ERROR 0X803FA067

I came across an upgrade issue when I was upgrading Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro using the Change Product Key feature. I first entered the default Windows 10 key from Microsoft VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T to convert the Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro and when I clicked the start button to start the upgrade, I get the error saying that the the installation does not have a valid digital license with the error code Unable to upgrade your edition (0x803fa067).

The solution is very simple

– Boot the computer
– Open the activation screen
– Change the Product Key to VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
– Disable internet connectivity by disabling network card
– Click start for the upgrade

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FIX: RDP ERROR THE FUNCTION REQUESTED IS NOT SUPPORTED

When trying to connect to a server or machine via Remote Desktop Connection you will get the below error which is strange as one would normally connect without any issues.

“Remote Desktop Connection
An authentication error has occurred.
The function requested is not supported
Remote computer: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX”

After some research I found that this is due to a Windows Update patch which was released recently that is CVE-2018-0886 for RDP. So if the workstation was updated and the server was not yet.

There are two options for this.

Patch the server with the CVE-2018-0886 (Recommended)

Update the policy on the local computer (Not recommended but in case of emergency)

On the computer open Group Policy
Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Credentials Delegation
Change Encryption Oracle to Remedition to Enabled
Change Protection Level to Vulnerable

Open MSTSC and you will be able to connect to the server.

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Fix: Windows 10 Home to Pro upgrade error 0x803fa067

I came across an upgrade issue when I was upgrading Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro using the Change Product Key feature. I first entered the default Windows 10 key from Microsoft VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T to convert the Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro and when I clicked the start button to start the upgrade, I get the error saying that the the installation does not have a valid digital license with the error code Unable to upgrade your edition (0x803fa067).

The solution is very simple

– Boot the computer
– Open the activation screen
– Change the Product Key to VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
– Disable internet connectivity by disabling network card
– Click start for the upgrage

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