Not a bug, a feature: This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer

When attempting to open a new document sent form a different computer, Office 2010 and 2013 clients would display an error that says "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer."

Users who saw the above error were also receiving an error in Excel:

"Microsoft Excel cannot open or save any more documents because there is not enough availiable memory or disk space."

 This error would appear even if the user had loads of free memory and disk space.

At first the two errors didn't seem related but it turned out that the same fix resolved both issues.

We found that if we right-clicked on the file and went to Properties we were able to "Unblock" the file and remove the restriction.

However, this was not a practical solution if the user had a lot of files.  The more permanent fix is to turn off Protected View in the applications themselves.

• Open Word
• Go to File/Options/Trust Centre/Trust Centre Settings
• Remove the tick from the three boxes

•  Save the changes and restart Word
• You should now be able to open the document without blocking
• Follow the same procedure for Excel documents

Device Signature Error when attempting to install packages through Casper

When attempting to install printers (and other packages) some Macs (10.9.x) would report an error "Device Signature Error-A valid device signature is required to perform the action."  The helpful folks at JAMF Nation provided the following fix:

In ARD push out the following commands:

launchctl stop com.apple.apsd
rm /Library/Keychains/apsd.keychain
launchctl start com.apple.apsd

After the commands have been applied, Recon the machine again.  You should now be able to install packages.

Windows 2008 Server: Files Locked for Editing

We have been receiving numerous reports that Mac clients were unable to edit files when opened from a Windows 2008 server share.  Clients would receive the following message when they attempted to open files:

If the user copied the file to their desktop they were able to open it but as soon as they saved it back they would get the same lock message.

The file lock issue existed regardless of whether or not the user connected via SMB or AFP (using ExtremeZIP).  Restarting ExtremeZIP and the server did not resolve the issue; nor did closing all open file connections.

We discovered the following work-around:

• On the server open Control Panel/Folder Options/View
• Put a tick in "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
• Remove the tick in "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"
• Apply the changes
• Go to the folder with the locked file
• Look for a temp file with a "~$" in front of the file name.  Examples: ~$filename.xls or ~$filename.xlsx
• Delete the temp files

 After deleting the temp files the user could open the file without a problem.

Note: the issues we were seeing were occurring with Excel files.  I don't know if this same procedure will work if you are seeing the file lock with other file types but it is worth a go.

WiFi Network Dropping Packets on a Mac

A MacBookPro running 10.9.4 was experiencing a problem where it would suffer constant connection drops on some WiFi networks with upwards of 70% packet loss.  Cable connections were fine and not all WiFi connections displayed this problem.

The WiFi router was replaced and a separate WiFi access point was tried and still the drops continued.  Other computers connected to the same WiFi network did not have this problem.

We resolved the issue by following these steps:

• Turn on WiFi on the Mac
• Open System Preferences/Network
• Highlight the WiFi connection and click on the "Advanced" tab
• Click on the "Wi-Fi" tab
• Remove the problematic network.  It might be a good idea to remove ALL the saved networks as long as the user knows the passwords for them!
• Click "OK" and then "Apply" to apply the changes
• Open Keychain Access
• Highlight the "Login" keychain
• Search for "Airport"
• Find the "AirPort network password(s)" that are associated with the problem network and delete them.  Note: there are normally two per network, "System" and "Local Items" Keychains
• Restart
• Log into the WiFi network and enter the authentication details when prompted

After removing the shared networks and deleting the items from the Keychain the packet loss stopped and normal WiFi connectivity was restored.

Outlook 2011: Junk Mail Protection Greyed Out

According to this Microsoft KB, people using Outlook 2011 and Exchange 2013 are unable to access the tool-bar item "Junk e-mail protection" because the item is greyed out.

However, one of our clever system admins in Warsaw discovered that if you first open Outlook Preferences and then go to Tools in the menu bar, Junk E-mail Protection magically comes back.

 

I haven't done thorough testing but it appears that using this work-around does enable client-side Junk mail filtering configuration.

Attempting to enter a Windows Server product key returns "Unacceptable Character"

When attempting to activate a Windows 2008 R2 server we tried to type (and cut/paste) the license key and received an error "Unacceptable Character".  The fix was to enter the activation key through the command line:

slmgr.vbs -ipk [product code]

You can then activate the server with this command:

slmgr.vbs -ato

OS 10.9 Mavericks keeps prompting to unlock "Local Items" keychain

After migrating a machine to Mavericks, or after binding a Mavericks machine to a new domain, we were getting repeated prompts to unlock the "Local Items" keychain.  No password would unlock the items.

The following steps resolve the problem:

• Go to ~/Library/Keychains (user's Keychain folder)
• Look for a folder that is a long series of numbers and letters: "ADS676BB8-CEJD-45..."
• Delete the folder and IMMEDIATELY restart the Mac

You should no longer be prompted for the Local Items keychain password.

Note: after you restart a new folder with a similar name as the old one (a long series of numbers and letters) will appear in ~/Library/Keychains.  Don't panic, this is normal behaviour.  The new folder corrects the problem.

Unable to search the GAL in Lync 14 on 10.9 Macs

We have received many reports that OS 10.9 Macs using Lync 14 are unable to search the Global Address List (GAL).  When a name is entered into the search field no results are returned.

The root cause appears to be two missing files in the user's Microsoft Lync Data/[user's sip name] folder:  GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx

If a computer that was running Lync 14 was upgraded to 10.9 from 10.8 or earlier there is no problem searching the GAL from within Lync.  The problem occurs on 10.9 Macs with fresh Lync installs.

The fix is to copy GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx from a working computer to the non-workign 10.9 Mac.

• Install and configure Lync on the 10.9 Mac
• Log into Lync with the user's AD account credentials
• Close Lync
• On a computer that has a working Lync GAL go to ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data/
• Open the "sip_[user.name]@[domain.com]" folder.  ie: sip_tom.smith@mydomain.com
• Locate the GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx files and copy them to a USB stick or the network
• On the 10.9 Mac with the new Lync install go to ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data/sip_[user.name]@[domain.com] and import GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx files
• Launch Lync and test the GAL search