Cannot Open or View PDF Files using Internet Explorer Browser

A very common issue that Internet Explorer 8 and 9 users can face is an inability to view or download PDF files from a secure site (HTTPS).  As an example you will find that if you try to view the PDF in a browser window you will simply see a blank page.  This is due to the use of cache control headers which don’t seem to work correctly with secure sites in Internet Explorer.

If you are having this particular issue then please do the following:

  • Start “regedit” the default Windows Registry Editor
  • Next you need to locate this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
  • Click on the “Edit” menu and then click “New” and then “Dword Value”, you will need to do this twice so that you can setup both the keys below.

Name = BypassSSLNoCacheCheck Type = Dword Data = 1 (Hex or Decimal)

Name = BypassHTTPNoCacheCheck Type = Dword Data = 1 (Hex or Decimal)

  • Close Regedit and Reboot, you should now find that the issue is resolved.

Powershell Execution Policy

Are you having trouble creating or running you Powershell scripts in Windows, remember that you need to adjust the default Powershell Execution Policy to allow the running of your scripts.

You may otherwise receive an error like the one below

File scriptexample.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see “get-help about_signing” for more details.

It’s very easy to adjust so don’t panic, just find your Powershell shortcut and remember to open it by “Right Clicking” and selecting “Run as administrator”

Next simply paste the line below into powershell, hit enter and then press “Y” and hit Enter one final time.

set-executionpolicy remotesigned

Which Printer Driver – PostScript (PS) or PCL [How About Both!]

Printers are probably the biggest source of problems for most IT Admins.  Paper jams, low ink, leaky toner and streeky printing are just some of the joys you will often face.  Another common issue is slow or incomplete printing, what’s the answer to this equally common user woe?

Well your in luck because this is one thing you may be able to ensure is not an ongoing issue for your users.  Most printer manufacturers (i.e. Xerox, Canon and HP) offer Universal Print Drivers (UPDs) to tackle these very issues.

As a rule of thumb PostScript Drivers are best for printing from Adobe applications such as Acrobat (PDF) and/or other complex documents.  PCL Drivers are usually best for priting basic documents, Microsoft Word Documents (doc, docx) and Excel Spreadsheets (xls) to name a few.

You may find it best to install and share your network printer twice, one instance using the PCL Driver and the other using a Postscript (PS) driver.  You then just need to educate your users which printer instance to select from the printer list according to the document type they are dealing with.

Please feel free to comment on your own experiences

Microsoft Exchange 2007 and 2010 – Messages Queued For Delivery Powershell Script

I’ve been getting into Powershell in a big way the past few months and have put together a script to display the number of queued messages on a Microsoft Exchange 2007 or Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server.  Under normal conditions your mail queue should really be empty most of the time so lots of queued messages is indicative of a problem.

 

$GETMQFD = Get-Counter ‘\MSExchangeTransport Queues(*)\Messages Queued For Delivery’

$MQFD = $GETMQFD.CounterSamples |Select-Object CookedValue

If ($MQFD.CookedValue | Where {$_ -eq 0})

{

Write-Host $MQFD.CookedValue Messages Queued for Delivery

}

Else

{

Write-Host “No Messages Queued For Delivery”

}

 

If you are using a Server Monitoring package such as GFI Max Remote Management then you can insert Exit Codes (i.e. Exit 1 or Exit 0).  This is placed after the output (i.e. Write-Host “No Messages Queued For Delivery”) to generate an onscreen error or success if one of the two conditions is met.

IT – Software and Hardware Support Resources