Rick's Blog

I often run into situations where I need to remove all the partitions from a USB stick or a hard drive. This is some reminders for myself on how to do that on both Windows and Macintosh. [More]

I have a new Windows 2019 Server box in the lab, and when I promoted it to a Domain Controller, after the promotion the network adapter was reporting "not connected to the Internet", even though clearly the box was connected to the Internet. I found this Microsoft TechNet post that had the answer for me... [More]

Instructions on how to enable the Dark theme in Microsoft SQL Management Studio (SSMS) 18 and higher. [More]

A quick example of how to use the SUMIF function in Microsoft Excel. [More]

I run a lab Windows 2019 Server that frequently gets rebooted and shutdown. Every time I log in, I get greeted by the Shutdown Reason screen. Obviously for a lab server, it doesn't matter too much. To disable this dialog, I had to add a registry key and value... [More]

Windows 10 is a fantastic operating system. Microsoft has done a really good job at bringing speed and stability to its platform. However, Windows 10 is a bit "cluttered" in my mind. I prefer the simpler times (don't we all at this point?) and the relatively clean interface introduced by Windows 95 and used by Windows NT 4.0. [More]

I was fiddling with a lab computer today installing Windows 2019 Server Standard and configuring it [More]

A good security policy for Active Directory is to have users change their passwords at regular intervals (ie: 90 days). That, combined with password requirements (ie: minimum length, complexity, etc) provides users with a secure environment. As a user, you can find out when your AD password is going to expire... [More]

If there is a problem with your Windows NT 3.51 server or workstation, you may need an Emergency Repair Disk to help restore corrupted or missing configuration files in order to recover your system. The Repair disk can assist you with that task. [More]

WinVICE is a Commodore emulator that lets you run Commodore 64, VIC-20, PET, etc programs on your modern computer. I prefer an older version (2.4) the most as I feel newer versions have too many extra features that I don't require.

I am also interested in Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), and I'd like to set up WinVICE on an older computer and run a Commodore BBS on it. One item has gotten in my way: any versions of WinVICE that I use will not report the presence of a modem carrier tone to the BBS software (DCD). [More]