On our Windows 2012 R2 Remote Desktop Collection, We were receiving the following error:

Log Name: Microsoft-Rdms-UI/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Rdms-UI
Date: 
Event ID: 16393
Task Category: Publishing
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: domain\user
Computer: server.domain.suffix

Description: Publishing Failed for RDSH Collection - RemoteApp name: Sage 50 Report Designer Collection name: QuickSessionCollection Failure: Could not create a published application instance on the server server.domain.suffix.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Rdms-UI" Guid="{GUID}" />
<EventID>16393</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>30</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x2000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-04-19T07:26:59.337215000Z" />
<EventRecordID>7</EventRecordID>
<Correlation ActivityID="{ActivityID}" />
<Execution ProcessID="4996" ThreadID="5604" />
<Channel>Microsoft-Rdms-UI/Admin</Channel>
<Computer>Copland.sircles.net</Computer>
<Security UserID="UserID" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="arg1">RemoteApp name: Application Name Collection name: Collection Name Failure: Could not create a published application instance on the server server.domain.suffix.</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Our issue was expired certificates in the RD server set-up which were interfering with the system even though in IIS they were all up-to-date and the server was working fine.

So under server manager we went into the RD settings and then highlighted the deployment and under tasks chose 'edit deployment properties' and went to the certificates page:

Here we chose the new certificate, one-by-one, to replace the expired certificates:

And then applied each certificate replacement before attempting the next.

Once all the certificates were showing as status OK, we re-published the RemoteApp settings:

And the publish now suceeds:

Make Windows 10 Cortana listen like Amazon Alexa...

By default, Cortana (I don't like the name either) doesn't listen constantly for a prompt, like Alexa and friends do. To have your PC constantly listening for you to address it, open Cortana by clicking the search field in the taskbar and select the Notebook icon in the left-side options pane. Select Settings from the list, then simply enable the Let Cortana respond when you say “Hey Cortana” option. You’ll need an active microphone for this to work, of course.

While you are configuring Cortana’s options, you might want to look into the Notebook menu to fine-tune exactly what personal data Microsoft’s digital assistant can access. Remember, however, that like Amazon Alexa, Cortana’s effectiveness is directly related to how much personal data she has been given (and has subsequently, heartlessly sold on) about you.

Taking Windows 10 to the dark side....

Where is the new dark theme on Windows 10? 

Well it is not so hard to find.

Under the new mobile like settings, look up personalisation then colours remembering to use the spelling from across the Pond of course.

Allow older programmes and applications to run on Windows 10

Most programs created for earlier versions of Windows will work in this version of Windows, but some older programs might run poorly or not at all. You can run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter on most programs to help detect and fix common compatibility problems.

Note
Don’t run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter on antivirus programs, firewall software, backup software, disk utilities, or on system programs that came with Windows. This might cause data loss or create a security risk.

Run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter

In the search box, type run programs.
Select Run programs made for previous versions of Windows, and then select Next.
Choose the program you want to fix. If you don't see the program in the list, select Not Listed.
Select Next, and then follow the instructions in the troubleshooter.
If the troubleshooter can't fix the problem, try changing compatibility settings manually.

Change compatibility settings manually

These steps will not work with apps that come with Windows, or with apps you get from the Windows Store.

In the search box, type the name of the program, right-click the search result, and select Open file location.
Right-click the program icon, select Properties, and then select the Compatibility tab.
Select one or more of the settings (see the table below for more info).
If you want to apply the settings for that program to all accounts on the PC, select Change settings for all users.
Administrator permission required You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.
When you're done, select OK.

This was sourced from Microsoft Support

Microsoft Office Word Keyboard Shortcuts

Select text--- Press Shift+ Arrow Key to highlight text.

To select one word at a time, press Shift+Ctrl+Arrow.

To select to the end of the line, press Shift+End.

Copy selected text--- Press Ctrl+C.

Cut selected text--- Press Ctrl+X.

Paste copined text--- Press Ctrl+V.

Bold text--- Press Ctrl+B.

Search for text in a document--- Press Ctrl+F.

Find and replace text in a document--- Press Ctrl+H.

Got to a page, line, or bookmark in a document--- Press Ctrl+G.

Italicise text--- Press Ctrl+I.

Underline text--- Press Ctrl+U.

Subscript text--- Press Ctrl+equal sign (=).

Superscript text--- Press Ctrl+plus sign (+).

Centre text--- Press Ctrl+E.

Align text left--- Press Ctrl+L.

Align text right--- Press Ctrl+R.

Justify text--- Press Ctrl+J.

Decrease the font size--- Press Ctrl+Shift+less than sign (<). If your mouse has a scroll wheel,
you can also press Ctrl and scroll down.

Increase the font size--- Press Ctrl+Shift+greater than sign (>). If your mouse has a scroll
wheel, you can also press Ctrl and scroll up.

Change the font--- Press CTRL+SHIFT+F, and then use the arrow keys to reach the new
font.

Change font size--- Press Ctrl+Shift+P, and then use the arrow keys to reach the new font
size. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can also press Ctrl and
scroll up or down.

Create a page break--- Press Ctrl+Enter.

Create a new document--- Press Ctrl+N.

Open the My Documents window--- Press Ctrl+O.

Close a document--- Press Ctrl+W.

Save a document--- Press Ctrl+S.

Print a document--- Press CTRL+P.

Preview what you're about to print--- Press ALT+Ctrl+I. In Windows 7, this keyboard shortcut opens the integrated Print and Preview window, which you can also access by pressing Ctrl+P.

Resize a shape (Office 2010)--- Select the shape, and then press Shift+Arrow.

Rotate a shape (Office 2010)--- Select the shape, and then hold the Alt key while you press the Left Arrow key or the Right Arrow key.

Oi Windows 10, give me back my PC !!!!

If you are, like me, a very boring web user who doesn't go to many unknown websites or watch lots of unsubscribed videos etc. then you might be feeling a little annoyed with the new 'compulsory real-time monitor' arrangement that Windows 10 suffers from. It is, of course, a sign that your computer hard disk drive is now performing two or three times the work for many operations compared to how it was functioning on Windows 7. Real-time scanning (as the word real-time is supposed to explain) means that every file your computer needs to open is examined in advance by a proprietary process before the system comes into contact with it. Now there are two reasons why I don't like this thinking. The first is the obvious performance problem (and whether that wastes more time, energy and money than all the viruses in the world put together is another question.) The second is that Windows 10 downloads so many updates of such unbelievable magnitude that they kill the performance of your machine and the internet and so what is the point of Windows Defender anyway? This is further compounded by the fact that Windows Update, like Windows Defender, now appears to be compulsory.

OK so let’ shave a look at all of the components and how we can disable them as Microsoft have recently started to run scheduled tasks to make sure that the most performance hungry Windows processes are restarted and re-enabled at regular intervals such as Sharepoint Sync in Microsoft Office and Defender in Windows 10.

So we will begin by using the simplest and safest way to disable the Windows Defender Components, using the registry editor.

If you press the Windows key and type 'regedit' and press enter you will be presented with the registry editor and you will need to navigate to the following area:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender

This means that under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE you expand the folders (called keys in registry editor, even though they lok the same - they are not folders, they are completely different - )

When you find the correct key, you highlight it on the left and then right click on the right hand side, below the (Default) value and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value 

Give the DWORD the name DisableAntiSpyWare and once it has been created, double click the DWORD and enter the value '1' and press OK so that you have the below:

Now let's try restarting Windows 10....

OK so according to the above view from the taskbar, the Windows Defender application is not running. Let's have a check under the services running by clikcing the start buton and typing services.msc. 

OK excellent, the service has been stopped and is now set to manual. This is going to speed us up nicely. But now how do we stop the automatic updates from hogging all of the bandwidth and disk speed?

Well there are many sites telling me to use metered connections or policies to disable this function, but the Windows update feature can be disabled by opening up the services.msc applet and disabling the service by finding it as follows:

NB This service has already been disabled but your will not have been.

Now double-click the update service and choose the start-up type:

Once it is set to disabled then click OK to confirm.

Now we are back in control of our Windows 10 PC and our Ineternet connection, RAM, Hard Disk and CPU are all our own again.

This is just something to be beware of so that you do not get stuck in a loop.

After a DrayTek Vigor 2830 had been factory reset we still could not login - none of the passwords would work!

As we can see from the above it should be admin and admin but from Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 nothing would work.

After a few tries we did notice that the response from admin/admin was considerably slower than the other options and....

Yes, you guessed it, the Microsoft Edge browser just bounces back to the login page even when the login is correct.

We didn't try adding the router logon site to the compatibility view as an option but no doubt that would work. As it was we just used Google Chrome instead.

As an aside the Google Chrome option doesn't work on the 2830 and older certificates for SAL login so stick to Firefox or good old-fashioned IE for that.