G->TechLink: G->Pointer's Technology Link

Running your servers out of your living room exposes you sometimes to unusual issues, like getting a server OS to run on a TV Panel. Problem: The Windows Server 2016's default video adapter (Microsoft Basic Display Adapter) would inappropriately overscale the screen, so that the borders were invisible. Solution: (Obviously) install the correct video adapter drivers (which are only available for Windows 7 64-bit, but WHQL compatible and thus still installable on Windows Server 2016. Note: Running the setup.exe on the driver gave me the (imho incorrect) message that there would be newer drivers already installed on my system for the Intel drivers. I performed the following Steps: Sever Manager / Tools Computer Management Device Manager / Display Adapters / Expand Microsoft Basic Display Adapter / Right-Click / Properties Tab "Driver" / Button "Update Driver..." Browse my computer for driver software Browse for folder / Select the folder you

"Cold storage tier of Azure Storage is a new tier that is available for Azure Storage for data that needs to be persisted for long time with minimum costs. This tier should be used when data is not accessed frequently." The newly introduced access tiers of hot and cold storage are well explained in the two links below. In short: Availability: Hot tier 99.99% (RA-GRS) vs Cold tier only 99.9% Cost: "HOT storage cost of storage is higher than the Cold one (more than double), but in the same time the transaction cost is almost double for Cold storage." Latency: for both tiers milliseconds Sources: (Part 1) Azure Storage - Cold Tier | Things that we should know (Part 2) Azure Storage - Cold Tier | Business use cases where we could use it

I got so used to getting my office eMails on the phone that I did not know at first how to disable the notifications during my upcoming vacation. But the steps are simple and stored here for later reference (to re-enable the notifications). Settings Notifications Mail eMail Account Vibrations

If you try gpedit.msc or secpol.msc > Security Settings > Account Policies > Password Policy > Maximum password age on a modern Windows Server domain system you will fail: The value (and all the others) are grayed out. The proper way to set the values for Password Policy as a Password Settings Object (PSO): adsiedit.msc Right-click and "Connect to..." and accept defaults ... Note for parameters of type "duration" you may use the so called I8 values or the more easy to read d:hh:mm:ss format. Sources: Configuring Granular Password Settings in Windows Server 2008 Creating a PSO using ADSI Edit Apply or modify password policy

Recently I had to decide for which automation script language to go. As always the simple answer is: What is the use case? Give the most prominent tools a try and see which you like best As the immediate use case at hand is mapping a mouse button to a keyboard key I went for AutoHotkey. Collected below are a couple of URLs worth reading if you're also planning to embark on that journey. Sources: AutoIt VS AutoHotkey (at StackOverflow) AutoIt VS AutoHotkey (at AutoIt Forum) Remapping keys with AutoHotkey Remapping keys with AutoIt (1) Remapping keys with AutoIt (2)

The top 3 Azure links are: Azure portal Azure Billing Azure Pricing Calculator

If you're new to the Azure PowerShell save yourself some hassle and immediately go to PowerShell Version 5. Otherwise you will end up struggling with many issues like: PS C:\Windows\system32> Import-AzureRM Import-AzureRM : The term 'Import-AzureRM' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:1 char:1 + Import-AzureRM + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Import-AzureRM:String) [], CommandNotFoundException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException Windows 7 for example usually has version 3 installed. You can check the version by simply pasting into the command prompt: $PSVersionTable How to upgrade to PowerShell 5? Well, just by installing the WMF 5 . And a general remark for PowerShell: Run as Administrator. Sources: How to install and configure Az

virtual properties "give EF a hook into your plain C# classes and enable features such as an efficient change-tracking mechanism. The EF needs to know when a property value on a model changes, because it might need to issue a SQL UPDATE statement to reconcile those changes with the database." Sources: Professional ASP.NET MVC 5, Chapter 4

"Visual Studio has a useful snippet for creating auto-implemented properties". Type "prop" Tab Specify property's type Tab Specify property's name Sources: Professional ASP.NET MVC 5, Chapter 4

The following steps are helpful to clone a Win 2012 R2 server from an arbitrary image to a new machine (incl. SQL server installation). Power down source image Power up copied, new image Open via ESx console / vSphere Client and first rename workstation to new name and unjoin the domain (e.g. workgroup TEMP), Restart Rejoin domain, Restart (unjoin/rejoin prevents many silly issues with the AD) Access from now on via mstsc Start checking for Windows updates Open SQL Management Studio and add the domain sysadmin user, if not present Now it's safe to delete the <old-workstation-name>\<admin-username> Have all Windows updates installed Create "clean" Snapshot

Very nice way to quickly check a definition in Visual Studio (2015). Alt+F12 Sources: How to: View and Edit Code by Using Peek Definition (Alt+F12)

In Visual Studio (2013) there is the option to enable a visual scrollbar. Tools / Options Text Editor / All Languages / Scroll Bars Behavior / Use map mode for vertical scroll bar

Very nice way to quickly comment and uncomment certain code-parts in Visual Studio (2015). Comment: Ctrl-K, Ctrl-C Uncomment: Ctrl-K, Ctrl-U

Are they the same? Not if there is an article on it: name: identifies the HTML control, if things go up to the server id: identifies the HTML control for client-side scripting Sources: Introduction to ASP.NET MVC (Published: 09 August 2014), Customizing Controllers @~27min

Windows Server 2012/R2 manages the backups itself. It claims to not fill the harddisk and manage itself, which backups to keep and which to replace by others. But maybe there is the need to get rid of more backups than the automatic retention decides. To keep e.g. only 30 backups: Run Cmd as admin WBADMIN DELETE BACKUP -keepVersions:30 Or more general: WBADMIN DELETE BACKUP -keepVersion: -BackupTarget: To delete individual backups see the further examples: WBADMIN DELETE BACKUP -version:03/31/2006-10:00 WBADMIN DELETE BACKUP -backupTarget:f: -deleteOldest Note that the time must be given in UTC. So, while it shows up in the user interface as CEST "16:00" it has to be specified as "14:00" on the command line. Sources: Wbadmin