From Android to Windows Phone – A decision of decisions

Yesterday, i decided to buy a new phone for my work.
I owned several HTC One/OneX and others in the past, some with custom Mods, some without. I always paid the 600bux for the “newest” phone because it was “necessary” to get the best performance. Well, atleast i thought it was. It was that time, when the first quad core Smartphones came out, and everyone was hyped for it to be the feature, And yeah 1GB Ram ofc, more than my first PC had!
The only thing which bothered me was that you can’t exchange the battery pack. Adding a SD Card worked, but no replaceable Battery Pack. I feared, my batterys would die after 3 years and i would need a new smartphone. But nowadays smartphones taught me one thing:
If your smartphone lasts 3 years, let it die in peace, cause usually you can be happy they last more than a year.

Some casual IT tweaks

Long time no blog, but here I am, kinda overwhelmed with work but i need a short break so i decided to throw some “useful” information in case you didn’t know already.
I will use Windows 7 for my examples since i think its most common. Other Windows Versions may have different folder descriptions, but the main behaviour is the same.

In the past days i worked on many computers of friends, tried optimizing stuff and figured out that there is some general misunderstanding when it comes to computers at all.

Let’s start with quotes:

“My computer is totally full of data i think i need to format the system again, like you should do every 2 years or so” 

~ Well, no! Back in 1999 it was pretty common to format the HDD every now and then, cause Windows managed to crash every now and then refusing to boot the OS again.

Zyxel NSA540 Network Attached Storeage [Review] Part 1

So here we are, again with a review *sigh*
As an IT (yeah that’s a legit term) you’re not only responsible for IT related stuff at work. As soon as you become techy in any kind of business your whole family and friends tend to ask you questions because they assume you are a true IT hero. They immediatly switch from “based pc knowledge” to “how to turn on my pc” and ask the weirdest stuff. Basically you’re responsible for their whole IT infrastructure, from mobile phones up to gaming laptops. Doesn’t matter, they will ask you.
And so i had to find a NAS for a friend.

Can’t connect to network shares due to time problems

You ever had trouble to connect to network shares?

Following situation:
You have several network shares mapped and some of them are highlighted with an X mark saying it’s not connected.

When clicking on them you get the following:
\\serverxyz is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network ressource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. This server’s clock is not synchronized with the primary domain controller’s clock. 

This was based on the following setup:

Domainserver X had wrong time, but every network share to \\DomainserverX\sharexyz worked surprisingly.
Fileserver X had the correct time, but none of the shares to \\FileserverX\sharexyz worked.

The client I was connecting from was a Windows 7 Client – not even in the domain – with the correct time (as the FileServerX)

So first of all I was simply confused cause, why can i connect to the shares of the Domainserver with the wrong time, while i can’t connect to the one with the correct time.

I tried changing the time from the Domainserver manually (knowing i NTP services usually should work…) but i couldn’t connect to the shares from my FileServerX.
I tried using the IP Adress of the FileServerX to connect to the network share. Surprisingly that worked, so i tried ipconfig /flushdns and even restarted the client where i was trying to connect from.

Nothing worked until i found the really simple solution for all the trouble.

Even if the time between DomainServerX and FileServerX was manually changed to match, i tried the following command on the FileServerX:

Net Time \\DomainServerX.FullDomainName /set

for example:

Net Time \\DomainServerX.Domain.Local /set

A message asked me if i want to overwrite the time of the FileServerX (and by doing that show’d me that i typed the command correctly 😉 ) and i pressed Yes~

And it worked! simple as that, now every network share was accessible again.

What it does is simple aswell, the FileServerX connects to the DomainServerX and overwrites his own time with the time from the DomainServerX so its really even again.

Not even a client reboot was needed, the shares just switched back to work again!

Windows 10 will happen

Okay, I’m still a bit confused and i’m also not sure who to trust anymore. Remember Windows 8? Thats why I have trust issues…”
Anyways, i should update what i wrote about Windows 10, cause some things were said and seem to be trustworthy.
Last time, i thought about upgrading to Windows 10 i was wondering what will happen after the first year of free upgrade. Remember? Microsoft offers a free upgrade from Windows7/8.1 to Windows 10 within the first year. I was confused what will happen after the first year. So the answer is: Windows 10 will stay free to use. You will be even able to delete your whole system and still are allowed to upgrade this system to Windows 10 again.
So wait, how do they know where i install the Windows 10 copy? How do they know that i’m installing it on the same system again?
So i fear something even more evil, they will identify your Hardware (using MAC or even more precise adresses of your hardware) and will bind them to your Windows 10 copy.
This would make sense I mean, since they also planned to not release any later Windows copys anymore, you’re still forced to buy new licenses since they bind your license to your hardware. This is what they tried with Microsoft Office aswell.
Too bad the law striked again and forced microsoft to remove this “feature” on Microsoft Office. Every Office 2013 copy i got in the past had a glue’d sign on it with the changed License Agreement sayin that you ARE ALLOWED to use this license on any new hardware aswell, and even be able to sell it! (Wonder how if you bind it on your Windows Live ID but atleast youre able to install it on more than just one hardware).
So what will happen on Windows 10 then? Is the free upgrade some kind of exclusion to the law, since you didn’t buy the right of getting an hardware independend license? You get it for free so Microsoft should be able to bind them on your hardware adress.
(We’re not talking about privacy and security matters here thats another topic aswell~)
Anyways if you buy a real copy of Microsoft 10 they shouldnt be able to bind them on your hardware too.
I fear this should not be legal in any way!
You see, I’m still very sceptical regarding the upgrade, but i will do it, atleast with one of my systems. If something goes wrong i’m still able to downgrade, i can’t think of any way how Microsoft will disallow a downgrade to Windows 7 again.

I just wanted to update a few things i already mentioned in the text:

+ Windows 10 copy from free upgrade still legit after 1 year
+ Even legit to delete Windows 10 and install it again on the same system
+ Upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 Users (Home Versions get Windows 10 Home and Professional/Ultimate get Windows 10 Professional)

– They seem to identify your hardware in any way and bind it to your Windows 10 copy
– Still no clue if they bind your copy of Windows 10 also on legit purchased copys.

Good Bye Office Keycard

This may be a little bit late, but last week i registred my first Office 2013 OEM version. I checked that I really buy a keycard and nothing else. No download link + registration key, no i want a keycard, i want to hold a thing in my hands i know i paid for. I want to decide myself what i register and where i register it. I maybe even want to sell it someday?!

Anyways, i bought this super cool keycard and installed Office 2013. While opening the Office 2013 box i took a deep breath and was slightly afraid of what i will find inside, BUT it was a keycard like i remember them from all the old Office versions. No CD included but okay, i can live with that as long as i atleast have a keycard. So i installed Office 2013 and it asked me to login with my Live ID. Live ID?! Ahhh screw you, in very tiny letters there was a second link “click here if you want to register with a product key instead”, and so i did. No windows live id, you wont get my freedom Microsoft! I inserted the Key and a big green arrow show’d me that Microsoft agreed with my keycard. So everything is fine, Office is registred and the show can start. Lets open Word,….ring ring WHAT?! Some wild message appeared asking me to register my Copy with the Windows Live ID attached to the keycard code. Wh…what?! I didnt registered the key to any live ID. What the hell do you want? Ah anyways…lets type some random E-Mail into. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND it doesnt work~ wow, really? i registred this copy with a legit key and still need a live id? wow….

So i did some research and found out i really have to create a Windows Live ID, register my key there and then type these credentials into my Office Programm. Wow, so i guess i’m not able to sell my keycard anymore huh? Thanks Microsoft, that was one nice troll you did here.

I guess i will try to get a legit 2010 copy then. Where keycard still were keycards….

Upgrade or Not?! It’s a Trap?! – Windows 10 confuses me

Should i upgrade or not?

Quite a deal, free update within the first year from Windows 7, even if its not a legit copy you get a free upgrade (with watermarks)
Wow thanks Microsoft, you’re trying really hard to convince me to switch over to Windows 10. And i even have a FlapFlop (my definition of a Laptop/Tablet combination). So is it worth it?
I’m still scared about the rumors that “Windows 10 will be the last OS” because everything else you get after it are updates…while paying your monthly/yearly fee to Microsoft. And by upgrading youre accepting this quite soon.
But is this really the case? Will something like that happen. I mean, i get a free upgrade guaranteed, they can’t deactivate my Windows 10 copy can they? Or do they just block any later update until i pay’d my fee. I could live with that, as long as i can access the internet. Oh yeah the internet. Microsoft tried to force me to make a Windows Live ID. Is everything i do on the internet now automatically wired to my Windows Live ID? And how about privacy. I’m from germany, and let me assume where my Windows Live ID attached browsing history is stored…..

Microsoft you’re still confusing me, and i doubt i will scream the battle hymn of upgrade when W10 gets his final release in july~

So i’m patient, looking for your next steps, like i would on my biggest enemy, still you’re my best buddy aswell.