Techie Talks

Today, I would like to share my knowledge on how to make bootable USB drive without any third party applications. To begin with, you will need a USB flash drive, any version of Windows OS ISO or DVD and Windows running PC. As part of the process, USB disk will be erased fully. Please make sure that you have copied or removed your important data from USB disk. I will use DiskPart command to make bootable USB disk. Let’s start with the process: Run Command prompt as an administrator. Type DiskPart and press Enter. You will see that command prompt is changed to DISKPART> now. Type List Disk Command. It will show you all available disks in PC. DISKPART> List Disk Next step is to select the correct Disk that reflects your USB disk. To find this out, type below command: DISKPART> Select Disk n ( n should be the number of your disk from previous command) You should see a message: “Disk 3 is now the selected disk.” Now, clean the USB disk using Clean command

One of the followers of my blog requested to explain the basics of Group policy in simple words. Group policy itself is a very wide topic  in this single post. But let's start with basic first. Group Policy is a feature from Microsoft server operating systems. It allows modifying working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. It offers centralized management and configuration of OS, applications and users’ settings in domain environment. You can outline, impose or modify configuration by using the settings in Group Policy Objects (GPO). Once you create relevant GPO, you can link it to site, domain, OU or child OU. You can divide group policies into two categories: Domain based policy : These types of policies are created in AD DS and stored in domain controllers. They are used to manage configuration of domain users and computers. Local group policy : These types of policies are configured locally on a PC. You can configure users’ settings who log on to

I have been asked to help a user with her Excel issue. At first, I thought I may have to write some Excel formula. But I was wrong. When I called her, she explained to me that she was unable to open certain Excel spread sheets. She said that whenever she opens these files, Excel opens with blank window. I thought let me check it myself. Hence, I logged in to her PC remotely and tried to access same files. Yes, Excel window comes up but it does not show any data. User claimed that she had accessed file couple of hours back. Other users can open same files on their PCs without any issues. I asked her to press CTRL + F10 key together while the file is open in Excel. Issue is resolved. It is a shortcut key to maximize or restore the selected workbook window.  Now, she is able to view all files. I would suggest trying some other steps also, they are mentioned below: Check if Excel has been setup as Run as Administrator . Check the box “ Run as administrator ” on Excel shor

During my recent conversation with one of my friends, he mentioned that he had to print a large number of PDF documents. He was frustrated as he had to open each file to send it to a printer for printing. He asked me if there are any ways where he can avoid opening each file before sending it to printer. Yes, it is possible. I did my testing on Windows 7 PC. There are two ways to achieve this. The easiest way is: Select the multiple files of same format e.g. all PDFs or all DOCXs Right click on any selected file In context menu, click on Print In this method, you can print up to 15 files together and cannot mix two different types of file format like one PDF document and one word document. There is another way in which you can print different file formats together. To achieve this, follow these steps: Click on Start and select Devices and Printers Double click on printer to open print queue box Drag files you would like to print into print queue box. Click O

One of my friends asked me to help him with his IT issue. He is trying to connect to a PC using Remote Desktop connection and getting error “Unable to log you on because of an account restriction.” To begin with, I verified that the user account is part of local administrator group and Remote Desktop users on a remote PC. Also, I asked him to make sure that he has enabled Remote Desktop on that PC. He replied affirmatively that user account is part of necessary groups and PC is enabled to accept remote connection. He also mentioned that he can log in locally using same account but receives error message when he is trying to connect remotely. During further questioning about his current setup of a PC, I figured out that, he is using blank (null) password for the user account. If you are trying to log in to a PC remotely with a user account which has been setup with blank password, Remote Desktop connection cannot be established and you receive above error message. There is

Hi everyone, I would like to share my knowledge on how to install Terminal Server role and install applications for Terminal Server users. To explain the whole process in better way, I fragmented it in to three different stages. Installing Terminal Server Role on existing server Configuring Remote connection settings for users Installing Applications on Terminal Server (TS) Installing Terminal Server Role on existing server Let’s start the process. First of all, we have to install Terminal Server Role on a server. Please follow these steps to install Terminal Server role: Log in to server where terminal server role will be installed Go to Server Manager Run Add Role Wizard by clicking on Add Roles Select Terminal Services role, click next twice. Select below Role services to install and click Next Terminal Server On Uninstall and Reinstall Applications for Compatibility option, click Next . On Specify Authentication Method for Terminal Server page, Se

At regular interval, Microsoft stops providing support to their previous Operating System. I am wondering how many people know about it and do they really understand the effect of this on their PCs. Hence, I thought about writing this article. Every Microsoft product has its lifecycle. It starts when it was launched and ends when it is no longer been supported. It is useful to know when your OS is no longer being supported so that you can take decision about upgrading OS and make necessary changes to your applications. Microsoft announces End of Support date for their products that means from that particular date, Microsoft will no longer offer any fixes, updates or technical assistance of that product. As a user, you will have to make sure that you’ve installed latest update or service pack available for that program. Here are some key dates from Microsoft: Operating System Latest update or Service pack End of mainstream support End of extended suppo