Knowledge Base Archives - YourITDepartment.ca

VPN Connections Extremely Slow in Windows 11

Aug

17

2023

Problem: Windows 11 Update KB5026372 has caused L2TP VPN connections to run extremely slowly, often well under 1Mbps regardless of Internet connection speeds at the VPN endpoints. Solution: Enable and start the “Routing and Remote Access” service on the Windows 11 client computer. Procedure: Open the Run box by pressing the Windows key + R. ...

Rolling Back a Windows 11 Update

Dec

19

2022

Problem: Updating a computer to Windows 11 can sometimes create problems, particularly with file and printer sharing if other computers on the network are continuing to run Windows 10. Solution: Rolling back the Windows 11 update on the computer acting as the file/printer server allows sharing to resume as normal. Procedure: Open the system Settings. ...

Setting Chrome or Edge to Open PDF Files in System Viewer

Sep

28

2022

Problem: Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge attempt to force PDF files to open in the browser rather than in the system default application, ignoring Windows settings. Solution: Manually change settings within the browser to force it to download PDF files so they can be opened in the system default viewer. Procedure: Click on the main ...

Recovering AutoComplete Entries in Microsoft Outlook

May

15

2022

Problem: If a problem arises with an email account set up in Microsoft Outlook, it may be necessary to remove and replace account settings or create an entirely new Outlook profile. This will generally empty Outlook’s AutoComplete cache, its ability to predict possible email addresses from your history as you type them in. Solution: Backup ...

Exporting and Importing Outlook Contacts between Profiles

Nov

2

2021

Problem: When migrating email it is often desirable to create a new Outlook profile for the new account. In some cases, particularly when the original account is set up to use IMAP, certain data including email, contacts, and/or calendars may be stored in data files that cannot be directly imported into the new profile. Solution: ...

Add a New Partition to an Existing Drive

Mar

31

2021

Problem: Occasionally, it may be necessary due to software requirements, company policy, or interoperability requirements to have a hard disk drive partition with a particular drive letter other than the default assigned by Microsoft Windows. Normally, drive lettering works as follows: A: Primary Floppy Disk Drive (this drive letter is typically skipped if there is ...

Add to the Gmail Safe Senders List

Jan

21

2021

Problem: Gmail has an almost entirely automatic spam filter. Sometimes this can create a problem with emails that are not spam but may appear to be to an automatic filter; often this can include machine-generated emails that include little text or do not appear to come from the correct domain. Solution: While Gmail has no ...

Map Network Drives Using Group Policy

Jun

24

2018

Problem: Windows allows mapping shared folders as logical drives, but this is a per-workstation setting. In large organizations, there are often shared folders which must be accessed by many workstations. Adding or changing drive mappings can be highly tedious in this case. Solution: If the workstations are connected to a Windows domain, Group Policy can ...

Dahua DVR Password Reset Calculator

Apr

27

2018

Problem: Dahua security camera surveillance DVR systems have no built-in “forgot password” or factory reset capabilities, so it is possible to lock yourself out of the DVR if you forget the password for all administrator users. Solution: Dahua DVR systems include a secret override password that is calculated based on the system date and time. ...

Change a GPT Disk into an MBR Disk

Jan

29

2018

Problem: Some operating systems only support the older Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, while newer operating systems support GUID Partition Tables (GPT). Sometimes it is necessary to install an older operating system on a disk formatted for GPT, which will not work unless the GPT disk is converted to MBR Solution: Convert the GPT ...