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