24 Sept 2014

IE11 - blank page, can't browse and many options are greyed out

Issue
When using Windows 8.1, start Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) as usual and you see the following:


The screen is blank (no home page). It is not possible to browse anywhere. Most of the gear menu's options are disabled (greyed out). 


Reason
There appears to be a bug that after running the Developer Tools (press F12) the user policy gets messed up. If anyone reading this article has some more detailed information then please write in the comments, it would be really good to understand this issue more.


Solution
This is the best solution I've found. There do seem to be more (see the References below) but have a go with this first, it's worked repeatedly for me. 

1.  Press the Windows key and R to bring up the Run dialogue box


2.  Type iexplore -extoff and press Enter (as shown above)
IE will load without extensions or add-ons.

3.  Press F12 to bring up the Developer Tools

4.  Press F12 again to close the Developer Tools

5.  Close IE

6.  Start IE normally (use your usual icon) and it should be back to normal


References

22 Sept 2014

Lync 2013 - blank desktop after accepting a Desktop sharing request

Someone wanted to share their desktop with me using Lync 2013. Everything looks fine, I accepted the request, the Lync window grew larger but my colleague's desktop was not there! There was just a blank white space. The colleague sharing their desktop with me did not realise anything was wrong. Why can I not see their desktop?




Solution
I searched on the web and read a few articles and forum messages. It seems to be a problem with object security and you need to remove a registry key to fix this. I found this article:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync_tips_and_tricks/archive/2013/01/11/lync-2013-desktop-sharing-shows-blank-screen.aspx
It has fixed the problem for me. Here are the steps I took:

NOTE1: You must have Administration access permission for Windows.
NOTE2: My example is using Windows 8.1 64-bit and Lync 2013 32-bit.

First start the Event Viewer and look for the Office 2013 alerts, there will be one generated from your attempt to use Lync's desktop sharing - here's how:

Press Windows key and R to bring up the Run dialogue box
Enter eventvwr and press Enter
Expand the Application and Services Logs section

Click Microsoft Office Alerts - see the screen shot below...


In the above screen shot, you'll see I had an alert at 10:23. I clicked on it and in the space below it lists some information. The interesting part is the CLSID number - note this! In my case it's a whole string of zeros.

Start Regedit (press Windows key and R, enter regedit)

Browse the tree to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Wow6432Node
Microsoft
Internet Explorer
ActiveX Compatibility


Select the folder that is named the same as the CLSID number you saw in the Event Viewer - in my case the one with just zeros.

BACKUP: Click File | Export  - save a copy of this registry entry as a backup. If later you decide this didn't help or there's some problem, you can restore it.

Delete the key Compatibility Flags

Now ask someone to connect with you and share their desktop - hopefully it should work!


Conclusion
This is a strange problem and I wonder if Microsoft will roll out a fix for it at some point? From what I can understand it looks like an ActiveX component is blocked. I read on a forum that one person said they could get around the problem by using Firefox as their default browser. Presumably Lync would us Firefox to render the shared desktop rather than IE, as Firefox doesn't use ActiveX then there would be no security issue? I also believe from what I've read that this issue only affects Lync 2013, since there was an update to security for it. Lync 2010 users may not have this problem at all. Whatever the reason for this, I hope that Microsoft fixes it properly at some point. I'll be watching my PC carefully to see whether this issue comes back - after all, I don't know why it happened in the first place, I was previously using Lync 2013 desktop sharing without a problem.

If/when I discover more about this issue I'll update this blog article. In the meantime, feel free to write your experiences in the comments.


Reference
As mentioned above, I found this here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync_tips_and_tricks/archive/2013/01/11/lync-2013-desktop-sharing-shows-blank-screen.aspx (last accessed 22/09/2014)
Many thanks to Joao Loureiro for this.

19 Sept 2014

PowerPoint - Selection Pane

When using PowerPoint, often you may have many objects overlapping one another. This can be a real pain because if you want to edit one that's underneath another, you can't get at it. You have to move the one on top out of the way temporarily and then reposition it after. Well actually you don't! There's an easier way to manage many objects on one slide - use the Selection Pane.


Turn on the Selection Pane
On the Home menu, far right:

Click Select | Selection Pane


The above is an example, it's from a slide I made where I had a number of different objects. I have renamed my objects so they make sense to me. You can do the same.

Opposite each object in the list is a little icon, an eye. The 'eye' is a switch, click to hide or show the object. For example, if things are really busy on your slide, click Hide All. Then click to show (un-hide) the object you wish to work on. 

When you are finished click Show All


Conclusion
It's a bit like layers in Adobe products. The Selection Pane is a life-saver!


PowerPoint Version?
I am using Excel 2013 but I'm pretty sure this feature was available in 2010 and even 2007. Maybe someone can confirm in the comments below, thanks! :-) 



Excel - A PivotTable report cannot overlap another PivotTable report

In Excel 2013 click on an existing pivot table and click Refresh to refresh the data in the pivot table. The following error message may appear:
A PivotTable report cannot overlap another PivotTable report.



Reason
Somewhere in your workbook there are two pivot tables on one sheet that are close together. When you refresh one of those pivot tables 'grows' in size (because of a change in data perhaps).


Solution
The pivot table you clicked refresh on may not be the one that's causing the trouble. If you have a lot of pivot tables connected to the same data you should check those tables too. Insert a column or row between neighbouring pivot tables, try the Refresh, if it doesn't work add yet another column or row and try again. You will find a neighbouring pivot table that was causing the trouble.

For me, I found that I had a Grand Total column off on a pivot table but when I refreshed it turned on, causing it to bump up against another pivot table.

To avoid this issue altogether make sure there is at least a couple of columns/rows between pivot tables or place them on separate sheets if you can.

IMPORTANT: If you click Refresh on a pivot table that is on its own on one sheet and it gives the above error it is because clicking the Refresh button tries to update all pivot tables connected to that one data source. Therefore somewhere else, on another sheet perhaps, you must have two pivot tables side by side and one is growing in size with the refresh and 'hitting' the other one. Therefore if you get this error, look through all your sheets, not just the one you are working with.


Excel Version?
I experienced this issue with Excel 2013 but I presume it will be the same with Excel 2010 and maybe even earlier versions. If anyone has additional information please feel free to add your comments below.


8 Sept 2014

Windows 8 Disk usage at 100% because of the System process

Your Windows 8 or 8.1 computer is very slow. Look in Ctrl-Alt-Del and Task Manager - you find the Disk usage is at 100% or the high 90s constantly. But why? A program might be using the disk too much - you should be able to see it in the list of resources.

I had this situation but when I checked I found the System process was hogging my disk!


In the above you can see my Disk at 94% it's all because of the System process... but what to do?


Possible Solutions
I looked around and there are many possible solutions. A couple I found actually made a difference so I'm going to explain them here. However, don't forget, if what worked for me doesn't work for you, keep searching! I don't have all the answers, I'm just sharing what I've discovered worked best for me.


Change the Virtual Memory
Windows 8 is supposed to work well without changing the virtual memory but I found a tip on the web and it has helped me. You must set the initial virtual memory size to your physical RAM size in megabytes. Set your maximum size to twice your physical RAM. In my case I had 8GB or RAM, so I set my initial to 8192MB and my maximum to 16384MB. You should set yours according to how much RAM you have in your computer. Remember that 1GB = 1024MB. 

Here are the steps to change your virtual memory:
  1. Control Panel | All control panel items | System
  2. Click Advanced system settings
  3. Under performance, click on Settings
  4. Click the Advanced tab
  5. Under Virtual memory, click Change
  6. Deselect (disable) Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
  7. Select C: (where Windows is installed)
  8. Click Custom size 
  9. Set Initial size equivalent to your RAM size in MB (in my example above I set it to 8192MB, that's because I have 8GB of physical RAM) - see the graphic below
  10. Set Maximum size to twice of your RAM size in MB (in my example above I put 16384MB because that is 16GB, double my physical RAM size) 
  11. Click Set
  12. Click OK three times
  13. Restart your system


Windows Version?
My PC is running Windows 8.1 but this will surely work with Windows 8 and I think even Windows 7 would benefit if you are having the same issue.


Disable SuperFetch
SuperFetch is supposed to speed things up (for conventional hard disks, not for SSD). However, I've found that disabling it has reduced the disk activity in my Task Manager! After changing your virtual disk settings (above), if you still have a problem this is worth a try (you could always switch it back on later if it doesn't help).

Press Windows key and R (to get the Run dialogue box)

Type services.msc and press Enter

Find Superfetch in the list, double click on it


Change Startup type to Disabled (as above)

Click Apply and OK

For more details on this and even some other solutions, click this link:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-superfetch-prefetch-ssd


NOTE: I've found that with SuperFetch (SysMain) disabled, ReadyBoost is disabled. Previously when I had only 4GB RAM I had found that ReadyBoost helped (click here to learn more). It seems to be a matter of swings and roundabouts! Now with 8GB RAM it seems SuperFetch and ReadyBoost are not helping. Essentially what this means is that you really need to experiment to find out what works best for you. It depends a lot on the balance of RAM and the applications you are using.



Stop Windows Search
One of those that I found useful was to turn off the Windows Search service. Here's how:

Press the Windows key and X and A (Win+X+A)

The Command window will appear:
Type  NET STOP "Windows Search"  [Enter]

Or you could do it through services.msc where there's more control.



Something else? 
There are a lot of other solutions, here's a link where you can find more discussion:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/windows-8-keeps-slows-down-to-100-disk-usage-and/cd787f8d-e7b4-4872-aecb-6f0cd15ad942



Conclusion
For me changing the Virtual Memory helped a lot. My disk usage is much lower and my PC seems faster as a result. I had upgraded my physical RAM from 4GB to 8GB. I wonder in Windows had not realised and that was the reason? In any case I think changing the virtual memory is well worth a go.

I've also found disabling the SuperFetch has helped but from what I've read this might not always be a solution for everyone. It's something to try.

If you are desperate then try stopping the Windows Search too - as explained above. I did find it reduced my disk usage for a while. This process will restart itself, it could be a temporary measure until you find the real reason.

For more information click the link in the Reference section below. If you can see a specific process is causing the trouble then do a search on Google for it and put the words "disk usage at 100%" and you may find some words of wisdom out there. Feel free to add your experience to the comments :-)



Reference
Many thanks to Arpan Kashyap for this tip!