Windows Update error 80246002

This error started appearing in Windows 7 a few days ago, some say due to the update KB2982791 (unconfirmed yet).

If you were affected by this error - here's how to fix it (so far).

First of all - what doesn't work:

• Uninstalling the KB2982791 update.
• Deleting the SoftwareDistribution folder contents inside the Windows folder (this used to work for me in previous Windows Update errors).
• Renaming the Download subfolder of the SoftwareDistribution folder.
• Restoring the system to an earlier state may not fix this problem.
• Running the Windows Update Troubleshooter may not fix this problem.
• Applying the KB947821 patch may not fix this problem.

What does work (confirmed by many cases, including my own experience with this error):

You need to manually set the DNS addresses (of a well known public DNS server, such as Google DNS) for your network connection to successfully get rid of the update error. 

1. Go to Network and Sharing center inside Control Panel.

2. Click "Change Adapter Settings" on the left side pane. 

3. Right click the network connection you're currently using to be connected to the internet.

4. Choose Properties.

5. Double click "Internet Protocol Version 4 (Tcp/IPv4)"

6. Change "Obtain DNS Server Address automatically" to "Use the following DNS server addresses" - enter 8.8.8.8 as Preferred DNS server, and 8.8.4.4 as Alternate DNS server.

7. OK all of the windows. 

8. Now either restart the machine and check your updates again, or run the ipconfig /flushdns command inside the command prompt in elevated mode.

After this procedure - Windows Update should start searching for updates, it will take a while, so be patient. Eventually you will be presented either with more updates, or the statement that there are no newer updates.

OneDrive for Business doesn't sync - solved.

Is your OneDrive folder not syncing anymore? Do you get sync errors that won't go away? Do all of the files in the sync folder have a red X on them? If so - here are the answers.

Sometimes you copy a large amount of data into your OneDrive sync folder or you make a drastic change in the folder structure (taking all of the main folders and putting them into one subfolder, for example) - this may lead to major sync problems.

What doesn't work:

Stopping - restarting sync, syncing a new folder, deleting everything in your sync folder and then hoping it would resync, deleting everything on the server and hoping it would resync from your pc folder, running the "repair" function of the OneDrive desktop software, uninstalling and reinstalling OneDrive.

If you've done all of the above and still no luck, read on.
The only solution I've found so far is doing the procedure below (recommended by MS support team) and it actually works.

Important! Make sure that your server-side copy of your files is up to date, because you will lose all of the local data from your computer's Sync folder and your computer will then resync from the server.
If it's not up to date, then backup the data in your sync folder, just in case.

1. Right click on the Windows status bar, select Start Task Manager, and get a list of running processes as follows:
If you’re running Windows 7: Select the Processes tab.If you’re running Windows 8: Select More Details in the bottom left and then select the Details tab.

2. Verify that none of the following processes are running:
groove.exe
msosync.exe
msouc.exe
winword.exe
excel.exe
powerpnt.exe

3. If any of the above processes are running, stop the process by right-clicking it and selecting End Process.

4. Give yourself an administrator role as follows:If you’re running Windows 7: Click the start button and type cmd in the search bar. When cmd.exe appears in the results, right-click it and select Run as Administrator.If you’re running Windows 8: Drag your mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, right click on the Start icon that appears, and then select Command Prompt (Admin).

5. At the command prompt, delete the Office file cache and Spw folders by issuing four commands as follows:
a. Type this and then press the Enter key:
cd %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\ 
b. Type this and then press the Enter key:
rmdir OfficeFileCache /s 
c. Type this and then press the Enter key:
cd %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\  
d. Type this and then press the Enter key:
rmdir Spw /s

6. If you get an error when executing either rmdir command (steps b or d), one of the .exe processes is probably still running. Correct the problem by returning to the Task Manager (step 2), stopping the processes, and then removing the directories as described previously.

7. Start the OneDrive for Business client and re-sync the library.

Sync files remotely to a QNAP NAS

Sync your files remotely to a QNAP drive, wherever you are.

I work a lot with QNAP NAS drives and I enjoy the stable remote access that they provide, be it remote administration and management, or data access.
Here I will be talking about setting up your very own cloud service on your QNAP NAS drive, that will function just like Google Drive or MS Onedrive. It does take some major setting up to do, but after that - things should run smoothly.

In this scenario user data has to be available at all times and synced whenever there's an internet connection available, all data goes to the QNAP drive remotely (this provides backup and data administration by others).
We need our remote folders to be able to let us use Offline Files. So we need to set up a VPN service on the QNAP. If not the use of Offline Files (and the whole point of syncing files that are always available) - it would have been easier to simply run an FTP service from the QNAP drive, which requires less effort. But the Offline Files feature would demand that the QNAP folders be available as if we're accessing them through a LAN - hence the VPN service.

Official QNAP VPN setup instructions are found HERE.

QNAP server-side settings:

• Inside the QNAP web console, head over to Applications > VPN Service.
• You should first forward the necessary VPN ports using the Auto Router Configuration.
• QNAP provides a kind of DDNS called MyQnapCloud which gives you a free dynamic DNS if your server's public IP isn't static. You can also configure the VPN in an easy way using the myQNAPcloud feature inside the Qsync under Network Services.
• Inside Applications>VPN Service> VPN Server Settings - Check the "Enable PPTP VPN server"
• Important! Under the "VPN Client IP Pool" set the IP range, make sure you use a unique IP range not commonly used because you wouldn't want the VPN IP to clash with the local network IP of the client computer.

Client-side (Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 8.1) settings:

• You can install the myQNAPcloud Connect utility which will build the VPN dialup connection for you, or you can manually set it up yourself. I simply installed the utility to let it setup the VPN connection and then removed the utility from start up. The utility is simple, however it will not automatically connect your VPN if you're on a wifi network, and it will not automatically reconnect if the internet connection was disrupted. We are going to fix this flaw by doing some manual settings and powershell scripting.
• In case you decide to build the VPN dialup connection yourself - here are the settings:

1. Inside Network and Sharing Center click "Set up a new connection or Network",

2. Choose "Connect to a workplace"

3. Choose "Use my Internet connection (VPN)"

4. Inside Internet address - insert the public IP of the network on which your NAS is located. Or if you have a DDNS by QNAP or third party - put it here. 

5. Check "Don't connect now..."

6. Insert your VPN username and password (usually it's the main NAS admin by default, but you can add VPN users inside the QNAP VPN Service page inside the web console)

7. Click Create but don't connect yet. Click Close.

8. Inside Network and Sharing center click on "Change Adapter settings".

9. Right click your newly created VPN connection icon and choose Properties.

10. Under the Security tab - make sure Type of VPN is PPTP, Data Encrytpion is set to Optional, and protocols PAP, CHAP and MS-CHAP v2 are enabled. 

11. Under the Networking tab - make sure that only IPv4 is checked, double click on it, choose Advanced, and uncheck the "Use the Default Gateway on remote network" to not use the gateway of the VPN for your internet traffic. 

12. OK all of the windows of the connection properties. 

Now we will write a Powershell script that will run in the background and check for connection drops and reconnect if necessary. 

• First let's create a folder on the C: drive and call it Script.
• Let's create a file in that folder and call it vpn.ps1
• Inside the file let's put the following code (using Notepad or another text editor):

$ip = "10.0.20.10"
$result = gwmi -query "SELECT * FROM Win32_PingStatus WHERE Address = '$ip'"
if ($result.StatusCode -eq 0) {
 Write-Host "$ip is up."
}
else{
 Write-Host "$ip is down."
 Write-Host "Disconnecting..."
 rasdial.exe YourVPN /DISCONNECT Write-Host "Connecting..."
 rasdial.exe YourVPN vpnUsername vpnPassword12345 
}

Make sure you put in the correct IP of the NAS (first line of the script) while it's inside the VPN. If your VPN IP pool starts from say 10.0.10.2 that means the server address is 10.0.10.1

Also make sure that after rasdial.exe you put the name of your VPN dial-up connection, its username and password (where it's stated).

Now we fire up powershell (just type powershell inside the Start menu search and run it in elevated mode), and we need to set it to accept running scripts. First, lets run this command:

get-executionpolicy

If the answer is "Restricted", run this command:

set-executionpolicy unrestricted

This will ask you to confirm, press Y.

After this is done, all that's left is setting up the task scheduler to run this script.

Inside Task Scheduler create a New Task, make sure that it runs with highest privileges and with the user logged on or not. The Trigger should be at Startup, Repeat the task every 5 minutes. Under Actions leave it as Start a program, point the path to C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
add an argument to run the script:
-File C:\Script\vpn.ps1

For the method of a stable VPN connection I used the tutorial posted here.

Now, after we're done setting up a stable VPN connection - it's time to enable Offline Files. (Offline Files are available only on Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows)
Browse to your server using its VPN IP, find the folder you'd like to sync, right click it and choose "always available offline" . It is best to create a mapped drive for this folder, so it's easily accessible when offline. Also make sure no one else is using this shared folder because sync conflicts may happen.
In Windows 8 Pro you might first have to enable Offline Files by going to Control Panel > Sync Center, click on Manage Offline Files, and then Enable Offline Files.

Sync network folders to OneDrive automatically

A few weeks ago I have written a post about synchronizing your OneDrive local folder to a network folder, in this post, however, we will talk about synchronizing server folders to the OneDrive folder automatically using a Robocopy script.

First off let's create sub-folders inside your OneDrive sync folder that will represent your network shares. For example if we have a server named Server and shared folders on it named Folder1 and Folder2 - we shall create them as subfolders inside our OneDrive sync folder, as:
(assuming the system partition is C:)

C:\Users\username\OneDrive\Folder1 (and other shared folders)
or
C:\Users\username\OneDrive for Business\Folder1 (and other shared folders)

Then, after all of our subfolders are created, we create a batch script containing:

@echo off

 robocopy "Source network folder" "Destination OneDrive Sub-folder" /MIR /COPY:DT /MON:1

We will have to create a Robocopy command like this for each one of the network folders that needs to be synced with OneDrive.

If the server requires credentials, you will have to add a line before the Robocopy command:

net use \\servername /USER:username password

After the Robocopy command you might want the script to log out, using the following command:

net use \\servername /d

This is a syncing script, that's why we're using the /MIR switch, this means that if we delete the file in the source folder, the file will soon be deleted in the destination folder. If you wish to copy files and not sync them, you can use /E /COPY (or /COPY:DT) instead of /MIR.

I also should mention that /COPY:DT switch in the above script is optional, it instructs Robocopy to preserve the files' Date and Time stamps but not attributes. I just prefer using it in this situation for better stability.

Now we can save the script as a BAT or a CMD file and run it (preferably in elevated mode) to see how it works. The script will never close unless the command prompt is closed manually, so this may create an annoyance to the user. That's why it may be a good idea to automate it's execution and keep it hidden from the user.

To do that we go into Task Scheduler and create a task to run this script. I recommend the trigger being the user's logon. Because if the trigger is a certain time of day - there may be duplicates of the same process, because the process never stops anyway.

Make sure you set the SYSTEM account as the account running the task, and mark it Hidden. This will allow the script to run invisibly in the background. This starts the cmd.exe and robocopy.exe processes and they only take a few hundred kilobytes in memory.

Windows 8 Single Language image for download

Here you can find a Windows 8 Single Language installation image. This image is in Portuguese (Português) and Spanish (Espanol).

DOWNLOAD Win8_EM_x64.iso

It is possible to change the language later using my post about changing the language of Windows 8 Single Language.

You can use the product key of another version of Windows 8 Single Language to activate this image (for example if you'd like to re-install Windows on your laptop).

Build an energy efficient computer

Here I will show a sample configuration of an energy efficient workstation.

This build, in my view, will provide power efficiency and stability as well as good performance.

PSU - Any 80 Plus (and up - such as Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium)
Top brands include: Corsair, Seasonic, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Antec and others.
I would recommend Corsair AX series power supply (rated 80 Plus Platinum) as it would waste the least power.

CPU - Any Intel 4th Generation CPU which model ends on T.
I recommend i7-4765T as its TDP is at 35W. So at its full power it won't go beyond 35 watts.

Motherboard - Leading low watt brands include Asus, EVGA, Gigabyte and Asrock. A gaming motherboard will typically consume much more power than a mini-ITX motherboard.
I recommend Asus Z87i-PRO - good performance and low power.

RAM - There is a low voltage type of DDR3 called DDR3L which uses less power, also emits less heat. Brands include Kingston HyperX Lovo or Genesis and Adata XPG, among others.
I recommend Kingston HyperX LoVo - Kingston's special line of low voltage ram.

Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Green or Seagate Barracuda LP for HDD, Samsung 840 Series for SSD.
I would recommend a Samsung 840 EVO or PRO series drive.

Optical Drive - most optical disc drives are the same power, however a slim drive version will consume less power than the standard version.

Monitor - Any LED backlit LCD monitor, preferably with high Energy Star compliance. The smaller the size of the screen - the lower the power consumption. Here's a list of 18-22 inch monitors and their wattage.

Turn an IBM X3100 M4 Server into a workstation.

This is a neat little server that comes from IBM that officially doesn't support Windows 7. In this post I will guide you through making it run Windows 7 using the built in LSI Raid controller and a RAID mode.
If you decide to use AHCI mode however, it becomes easier (as it is supported by Windows 7), but you will be missing a performance (or stability) increase you'll get with the RAID.

The LSI raid controller on this server does not have drivers that support Windows 7 - only Windows Server 2008 (R2). There's also a great many driver packages available from IBM for this controller, so choosing the right one is quite time consuming. After 4 different failed driver packages I finally found the right one that would enable the RAID controller inside the Windows 7 installation PE. I have uploaded it HERE.
Just unrar and copy it onto a flash drive and browse to it during the installation (when it fails to find any hard disks).

Once the system finishes installing - most of the drivers will be installed, the only ones that won't be are the Chipset and the onboard video (Matrox G200ER2). Download the driver for it here.
Chipset drivers are available here.