dennisgorelik | Entries tagged with microsoft

Since I am now forced to use new Skype (version 8.34.0.78), I discovered new Skype feature: automatic transcription of voice conversations.
Skype shows automatically generated subtitles of conversation that I have.
The transcription quality is decent. There are still many transcription errors, but occasionally Skype transcriber is managing to correctly recognize words that I missed or did not understand (from first try).

So I thought to myself: "Wow - Skype team was able to deliver a nice feature. Now I would have searchable text logs of my conversations".

No such luck.
Clueless Microsoft middle managers were not able to implement this transcription feature correctly, so Skype does NOT save the transcription and I cannot search my transcribed conversations.

So the whole "transcription" feature is just a useless toy.

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/167435.html

Today my Skype Classic client showed me "Dead End" message:
=================
Update Skype today.
It looks like Skype hasn't been updated for some time. It's free, only takes a minute and comes with the latest features and security updates.

What happens if I don't update now?

The next time you sign out or restart your computer, you'll need to update Skype before you can sign back in.[Learn more]

[Update Skype] [Quit]
=================

Restarting Skype no longer helps: 5 seconds after the start Skype shows the same "Dead End" popup again.

Unfortunately I cannot find a good alternative to this deteriorating Skype client.

Discord has good audio, but Discord UI is worse than even UI of the new Skype version 8.34.0.78
Discord screen sharing resolution is only 720px horizontally.
Better resolution costs $10/month ("Nitro" plan).
Discord does not support phone calls and does not support "universal" connections (Discord only supports connections through one of "servers").

See also:
1) Annoying Skype update popup
2) Skype discontinued
3) Microsoft keeps trying to kill Skype Classic

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/167281.html

When I try to connect SQL Server Management Studio from my machine to our new SQL server (Windows Authentication) - it has initial ~30 seconds delay.

I had to spend few hours digging for the root cause.

It looks like the issue is that SQL Server Management Studio is trying to do reverse IP lookup when it tries to connect to SQL Server.
But SQL Server does not have fully qualified name connected to its IP address.
So that causes problems when running SSMS under Windows 10 (but there are no slowness when SSMS runs under Windows Server 2016).

The fix is to extend C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file:
https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/104378/sql-server-management-studio-slow-connection-or-timeout-when-using-windows-authe/222588#222588

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/165163.html

"Skype" <alerts@email.skype.com> emailed to me today:
=========
Subject: A Skype update may be required
We are working to make Skype better for you. With Skype version 8, you’ll be able to record calls, have private conversations, make HD video calls, transfer files up to 300 MB, and more.

Your conversation history will still be available on your device after you update. Check system requirements to make sure you can use Skype version 8 on your device as the list of supported OS versions has changed. If your OS is no longer supported, you should export your history prior to updating. Visit our update FAQ to learn more.
=========

I am skeptical and will try to postpone this Skype upgrade [and if new Skype 8 still sucks too much - switch to Discourse or Slack].

Meanwhile, Microsoft froze the thread where users are asking to Stop Automatic Updates to Skype and deleted users comments.
---------
Does anyone know how I can stop automatic updates to the Skype app for desktop? I have found directions for doing so in older app versions, but not the current one. I'm running Skype version 8.22.0.2

Thank you in advance for the help!

This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.

---------

Fighting against Skype users - what a wonderful idea for a software business that is running Skype.

See also:
Skype discontinued
Annoying Skype update popup

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/162513.html

Microsoft downgraded red alert to blue alert:

Now Skype says: "This version of Skype will be discontinued soon. To continue using Skype in the future, update to the latest version today."

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/160886.html

Microsoft Skype team is pushing new and poorly working version of Skype down to customers throats.

===============
The latest version of Skype is ready to install now.

It won't take long to upgrade - and you'll get all the latest improvements and fixes.

[Install now] [Not now]
===============

They show that annoying message:
1) Every time when Skype Classic starts.
2) Every day.

When I clicked "Install now" - it uninstalled Skype Classic version 7.41 and installed crippled new product "Skype 8.25"

New "Skype 8.25" is a usability disaster and is missing several important features.
For example:
1) In "Skype 8.25" it is impossible to expand screen sharing view to your full screen. This features is important for viewing small details on the remote screen that is being shared.
2) In "Skype 8.25" there is no hotkey for making a call.
In Skype Classic 7.41, I can make a call by pressing Ctrl-Q.
In "Skype 8.25" Ctrl-Q exits from Skype.

Note how Microsoft Skype team is using dark pattern in order to trick users to upgrade to their crippled product:
They declare that this is simply "an upgrade".
They do NOT mention that this is a new product that is missing a lot of important features from Skype Classic.

There is no way turn off that "upgrade" popup.
It shows again and again.

Does anyone know how to turn off that "Upgrade popup"?

Updates:
1) Skype discontinued
2) Microsoft keeps trying to kill Skype Classic

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/159060.html

Several days ago Microsoft released new update to Windows 10.
That update changed how this code works:

new Uri(baseUri, relativeUrl)

The difference is in how this code works in case if baseUri is malformed.

Prior to Windows 10 update this code crashed with System.NullReferenceException
After the update -- the same code no longer crashes.

[Test]
public void CompatibilityTest()
{
	Uri baseUri = new Uri("https://jobs.web.cern.ch/content/cern-jobs-insight/what-are-we-doing-while-you%E2%80%99re-waiting");
	const string badUrl = "https:/jobs.web.cern.ch/content/cern-jobs-insight/what-are-we-doing-while-you%E2%80%99re-waiting";
	var result = new Uri(baseUri, badUrl);
}

Note malformed "https:/" in badUrl.

Currently my Windows 10 machine has .NET Framework 4.7.03056 [1]
With the most recent Windows 10 update this code successfully puts into result variable:
---
https://jobs.web.cern.ch/jobs.web.cern.ch/content/cern-jobs-insight/what-are-we-doing-while-you’re-waiting
---

However on Windows Server with .NET Framework 4.7.02053 the same code crashes with NullReferenceException.

What do you think is the correct behavior for malformed baseUri input: try to guess correct baseUrl path or crash with NullReferenceException?

My guess is that Microsoft finally decided to properly fix this "malformed input" bug (and not longer crash).
If my guess is correct - then in the following versions of .NET Framework this NullReferenceException crash would disappear even on Windows Server platform.

----
[1] You may determine what .NET Framework version installed by running regedit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full

... or by opening: Visual Studio - Help - About Microsoft Visual Studio

[2] .NET targetFramework mess

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/155723.html

Starting from yesterday (2017-12-07) Microsoft opened phone spam floodgates and I started receiving lots of spam phone calls on Skype.
One of the call even had malformed phone number, which Skype recorded.
After that I started getting infamous "List index out of bounds (0)" error message every time when I tried to click on that botched phone "conversation".
That sort of bug is not new for Skype. Several years ago they had similar issue.

So I had to find a solution to that Skype problem again.
The easiest solution is to delete the whole Skype database, but that would lose my Skype conversations history, which is valuable.
Here is the solution that preserves Skype history:
--------
1) Download and install "DB Browser for SQLite" (or similar SQLite database editing tool).
http://sqlitebrowser.org/
2) Exit Skype application.
3) Open your Skype database in "DB Browser for SQLite":
C:\Users\{YourWindowsUsername}\AppData\Roaming\Skype\{YourSkypeUsername}\main.db
4) Find "Conversations" table in "Database Structure" tab.
5) Mouse-right-click "Browse table".
6) Order by "id" column in descending order.
7) Find that bad record that contains malformed phone number (try to find "4: +140404" in "identity" column).
8) Click "Delete Record".
9) Start Skype.
--------

See also: Editing Skype history / messages / database" video

2018-04-15 update: deleted 2 spam messages again.

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/145590.html

Microsoft released "Windows Fall Creators Update" for Windows 10 about couple of weeks ago.
I did not notice anything good about that update, but it screwed up my Web development environment: web sites on localhost stopped working.

-----------
http://localhost/
Service Unavailable

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.
-----------

From Windows Application log
==================
The worker process for application pool 'DefaultAppPool' encountered an error 'Cannot read configuration file
' trying to read configuration data from file '\\?\', line number '0'. The data field contains the error code.
==================

Fortunately the problem was so massive and so bad, that the solution was published pretty quickly:
-----
https://superuser.com/questions/1260805/iis-10-cannot-read-empty-configuration-file/1260830
The issue is related to the temporary symbolic links created for the application pools by IIS/WAS being messed up during the Windows Update process for installing Fall Creators Update.
-----

Crossposts: https://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/144246.html

New version of Skype deleted option to record custom voice mail greeting and deleted my custom voice recording message.

There is no way to record custom greeting now:

https://secure.skype.com/account/main-page?page=callForwarding

Why would Skype/Microsoft team delete that feature? Was it hard to manage?

My guess is that the reason for that feature deletion - is that Microsoft is pushing for new version of Skype: "Skype App".
"Skype App" seems to be designed for mobile phones and does not even have support for hotkeys.

Crossposts: http://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/133918.html

---
http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2017/05/01/just-made-video-conferencing-work/
As long as Skype sucks, it’s pretty clear to everyone that Microsoft is in no danger of pioneering any revolutionary new UI paradigms when you have yet to master getting any of the old ones right yet.
.....
Basic video conferencing with a little audio and a dumb camera are barely functional in the year 2017 and the clowns responsible for it are getting wall-to-wall press coverage about the fairy-tale technology they are contriving to solve tiny irrelevant problems, INSTEAD of making their own multi-billion dollar telecommunications platform work reliably so that I can ACTUALLY stay in my own home instead of having to constantly spend thousands of dollars traveling on businesses.
.....
What if - you just made video conferencing so reliable that you put hotels, rental cars and the airlines completely out of business?
---

To be fair, telecommuting is getting better over time. Mostly because internet channels are getting faster and more reliable.
I do not need video, but I need a screen sharing.
Unfortunately Skype misbehaves when there are multiple people joining conference: screensharing may unexpectedly stop, participants may drop or simply do not hear each other...

Crossposts: http://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/133505.html

I bought NUC7i3BNH.
Then I tried to install Windows Server 2016 Standard on that NUC.
Windows Server installation itself was successful, but several drivers, including Network Adapters(!) and "Multimedia Audio Controller" - did not install.

Search for drivers brought me to:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/intel-nuc-boards/000005628.html
where to my amazement I discovered that most of NUCs do NOT support Windows Server OS.

Further research pointed me to a hack that allows to manually use Windows 10 drivers on Windows Server 2016.
It goes like this:
1) Open C:\install\LAN_Server2016_64_22\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\e1d65x64.inf
2) From this section:
[Intel.NTamd64.10.0.1]

copy these 3 lines:
===
%E15D8NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D8.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D8
%E15D8NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D8.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D8&SUBSYS_00008086
%E15D8NC.DeviceDesc% = E15D8.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D8&SUBSYS_00011179
===

into this section:
[Intel.NTamd64.10.0]

3) Then turn off drivers checks:
bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING OFF
bcdedit /set NOINTEGRITYCHECKS ON

4) And finally install the driver:
pnputil.exe -i -a C:\install\LAN_Server2016_64_22\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\e1d65x64.inf

After that Network (and Internet) started working on my new NUC.

But I do not understand - why Intel does not allow these drivers under Windows Server 2016 by default?

Update: Windows Server 2016 on NUC7i3BNH struggles - part 2.

Crossposts: http://dennisgorelik.livejournal.com/131522.html

Normally, in case of invalid input Uri() code throws UriFormatException. But with really weird input Uri(baseUri, Url) overload can produce NullReferenceException:

[TestMethod]
[ExpectedException(typeof(NullReferenceException))]
public void UriFailureTest()
{
    new Uri(
        new Uri("https://jobs.web.cern.ch/content/cern-jobs-insight/what-are-we-doing-while-you%E2%80%99re-waiting"),
        "https:/jobs.web.cern.ch/content/cern-jobs-insight/what-are-we-doing-while-you%E2%80%99re-waiting");
}

We tried to run PowerShell remotely (in order to automate build deployment).
We managed to make it work on developers' machines, but on production server it just refuses to work:
----------------------------------------------------------------
C:\Windows\system32>powershell
Windows PowerShell

PS C:\Windows\system32> Enable-PSRemoting -SkipNetworkProfileCheck -Force

WinRM is already set up to receive requests on this computer.
Set-WSManQuickConfig : <f:WSManFault
xmlns:f="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wsman/1/wsmanfault" Code="2"
Machine="localhost"><f:Message><f:ProviderFault provider="Config provider"
path="%systemroot%\system32\WsmSvc.dll"><f:WSManFault
xmlns:f="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wbem/wsman/1/wsmanfault" Code="2"
Machine="sv7731"><f:Message>Unable to check the status of the firewall.
</f:Message></f:WSManFault></f:ProviderFault></f:Message></f:WSManFault>
At line:65 char:17
+                 Set-WSManQuickConfig -force -SkipNetworkProfileCheck
+                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Set-WSManQuickConfig], InvalidOperationException
   + FullyQualifiedErrorId : WsManError,Microsoft.WSMan.Management.SetWSManQuickConfigCommand

PS C:\Windows\system32> Enter-PSSession -ComputerName localhost

Enter-PSSession : Connecting to remote server localhost failed with the
following error message : Access is denied. For more information, see the
about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.
At line:1 char:1
+ Enter-PSSession -ComputerName localhost
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (localhost:String) [Enter-PSSes
  sion], PSRemotingTransportException
   + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CreateRemoteRunspaceFailed

----------------------------------------------------------------

Note "Unable to check the status of the firewall." part of the message.
Why would Enable-PSRemoting command try to check the status of the firewall?

Another Windows WTF reported by yatur

Update
Finally we were able to fix this remote powershell issue.
The problem was in Group Policy for IpV4Filter on our production machine.
IpV4Filter was limited to a single IP address (main address of that production machine).
I have no idea why it was setup that way.

This is how I fixed WinRM localhost access problem:

Run gpedit.msc
Local Computer Policy
Computer Configuration
Administrative Templates
Windows Components
Windows Remote Management (WinRM)
WinRM Service
Allow remote server management through WinRM

In "IPv4 filter:" change "208.43.198.72" to "*":
IPv4 filter: *

In the end, PowerShell and Microsoft server tools leave a negative impression due to bugs and pathetic diagnostic.

Consider another PowerShell surprise:
"ls" and "dir" commands produce empty output in case when folder is empty. No headers, no message that says there are no files. Just nothing. WTF?

That was unexpected and I even thought it is a joke. But it is not a joke.

Why would Microsoft buy the largest job board?
Microsoft is in a different business.

Responses:
1) What a terrible time to be burning that much cash, just before the next recession, and on a resume site. I was starting to see some good things coming from Microsoft but this makes me shake my head and question leadership big time.

2) I suspect major LinkedIn investors shopped around the company and financial-engineered a sophisticated kickback

---
From: Bing Ads Support
Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 12:53:47 PM EDT
Subject: SRX1309484828ID - Bing Ads Support Follow Up

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing you today regarding your concern on Universal Event Tracking. UET is one features in Bing Ads that helps you track the behavior of the customer once they visit your website. Pleased be inform that our campaign analytics tool is no longer working. I have prepared a resources for your reference to learn more information about our Universal Event Tracking.

Universal Event Tracking

I will now be closing you service request number 1309484828. You may reply to this email within 7 days if you do not feel that your concern has been resolved or call us at 800-518-5689 and we will immediately re-open your service request.
---

It looks like Microsoft is clueless in running advertising platform on pretty much all levels: product design, engineering, support.