• Windows 8.1 Wifi showing "limited" or "No Internet Access"

    I finally upgraded one of my laptops to Windows 8.1 and my first immediate problem was the wifi adapter was showing "limited" or "No Internet Access". I know my home wireless is functional cause it works on other devices so I go through the motions of solving it.

    1. Troubleshoot Problems with the connection - works only temporally

    2. Reset wireless adapter - didn't work

    3. Update drivers - no dice

    This blog summarizes the 'workaround' from around the forums and other blogs I've seen.  http://everythingsurface.org/4-ways-to-solve-your-windows-8-1-surface-pro-wi-fi-issues However my issue wasn't solved after trying them out. I know my wireless settings on my router to accept only Wireless-N connections at 2.4Ghz (don't ask why), but I also noticed in Device Manager for the wireless adapter that it is set to 'Auto' for 802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4. I changed it to 'Auto', restarted and the problem went away. Hopefully this adds to the workarounds for whoever is having problems with wireless connectivity on Windows 8.1

    Update: 10/21/2013

    I wanted to highlight Kyle's comment that seems to be working for everyone. Comment is below:

    Kyle 
    Sat, Oct 19 2013 12:39 AM

    Hi guys, i tried all the above methods but none of them worked for me. However i did find smt that worked, which is to revert your network adapter driver back to an older version instead of the one installed by windows 8.1.

    You can do this by going to device manager, right click on your network adapter, go to update driver, then "browse my computer for driver software, then"let me pick from a list of...." , uncheck the "show compatible hardware" checkbox and finally select the older version of current driver (if you dont know which, just use trial and error).

     Update 10/27/2013 Lenovo G780

    Giving love to @WinGuy

    Hey Kyle! You are the man :)  Your method lead me to the solution. But to document for: Lenovo G780 with Broadcom wireless adapter. Follow steps of Kyle till let me pick. Now, don't uncheck "show compatible". You see 2 drivers for the same broadcom adapter. One by Broadcom, the other from Microsoft. Choose the Broadcom one. Install. Springs back to life. (turning off heuristics,rebooting router,manual ip assignment none work)

    Update 10/27/2013 Lenovo G580

    I have fixed mine! What a relief.

    I have the Lenovo G580, which has the Broadcom 802.11n Network Adaptor.

    By the time I was having problems (don't know about previously) Windows was configured to use the Microsoft driver for this device.

    Same fix as others have mentioned but I will provide a bit more detail. Basically I located a Broadcom-supplied driver on my computer, and updated to use that. Immediately wi-fi connected, and all seems well.

    Here's the instructions:

    # Open Device Manager (search Windows Help if you don't know what this is)

    # Select 'Network adaptors' and then open (double-click) Broadcom 802.11n Network Adaptor

    # Go to the Driver tab and click the Update Driver... button

    # Select 'Browse my computer for driver software'

    # Select 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'

    # Select the "Broadcom 802.11n Network Adaptor (Broadcom)" entry from the list, and click Next

    Well, it worked for me.

    Good luck, Matt

     

    --I'll clean it up once other solutions are found, but in the mean time I'll update as confirmation of it working
    --Hope this helps the rest who still have this problem. Cheers.

     

  • Cannot connect to Windows Store (Windows 8.1, 8, RT and Pro)

     While updating the last of my devices to Windows 8.1, I received the following message when accessing the Windows Store. We weren't able to connect to the Store. This might have happened because of a server problem or the network connection timed out. Please wait a few minutes and try again. I attempted to perform the tasks (as referenced below) but none worked for me, so in line with my last post on accessing the internet, here's a few alternatives to the many out there on connecting to the store.

     

    1. Choose Settings on the Charms menu
    2. Choose Change PC settings "In Your account the following may be displayed"

    If it requires account verification, click verify to enter current password

    If verification is not displayed, choose Disconnect.

    Note: Be sure to backup your recovery key before switching to a local account

    3. After backing up your recovery key, choose skip backup.
    4. Enter Current password and select Next

    You'll be asked to create a local account, enter the following:

    User name

    Password

    Reenter password

    Password hint

    5. Select Next
    6. Select Sign out and finish

    Your computer will prepare and sign out, sign in with the information you entered in the local account.

    7. Go back to Accounts and select Connect to a Microsoft account under Your account. It would ask you to Sign in to your Microsoft account, Click Next.

    You may have to enter a code to verify identity, ensure your phone number and/or email is correct on your Microsoft account profile

    8. Select Next on SkyDrive

    9. Select Switch to switch to a Microsoft account from a local

     

     References:

    http://gshaw0.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/fixing-the-windows-8-1-we-werent-able-to-connect-the-store-error/

    http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-8/fix-windows-8-we-werent-able-to-connect-to-the-store-error/

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_store/

     

    Update 01/07/2014: For those who are having problems check this KB if it applies to you http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2787623/EN-US leave a comment to reach out to me.

     

     

  • SharePoint 2013: How to Update the Central Admin URL Desktop Icon Link

    Scenario:

    You provision central administration web site on another server and want that server to be the primary. The new website is available however, when launched from the icon it points to the old url. 

    Resolution:

    You need to update the URL in the registry in every server in the farm.

    1. Backup registry

    2. Go to > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHNE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\15.0\WSS

    3. Edit 'CentralAdministrationURL' to the new url

     

    When you launch the Central Administration website, it'll be pointed to the new url.

  • How to switch to Yammer social from SharePoint social (Office 365)

    As everyone knows (unless you did not get the memo), Yammer can be added onto Office 365. 
    The way it works with Office 365 is that newsfeeds are still available but you won’t be able to post
    to everyone as Yammer is now the default. But not a lot of information exists on how it is setup, so
    I’m going to walk you through the process from start to finish. The default settings is to utilize the
    SharePoint Newsfeed which is pictured below, notice how you can select ‘Share with everyone’.

    The first step is to change the ‘Enterprise Social Collaboration’ settings to use Yammer.
    This setting is in the SharePoint admin center > settings > select ‘Use Yammer.com service’

    Once the change is complete, you’ll notice that the same Newsfeed now says to use Yammer.
    Existing posts are also still displayed and have not been removed.

    And ‘Newsfeed’ is replaced with ‘Yammer’. Click ‘Yammer’ in the header to be taken to the Yammer site.

    A popup window will appear that you’ll be redirected.

    You’re now on the Yammer.com homepage and you sign up with the email address of your company.
    If you have an existing Yammer account you can sign-in. This process assumes that no existing Yammer
    account for an organization has been created.

    One signed up a confirmation page is displayed.

    Check your email for the confirmation email, click on the link in the message.

    Once logged into the Yammer website, you then enter basic information about yourself and select a password.
    Click ‘Next’

    You’re next presented with a screen to add/invite co-workers, input aliases and/or Click ‘Next’

    Welcome to Yammer, I’m not going to dive into the details of how to use it, there’s good how-to videos.
    Now that Yammer is setup, let’s add the feeds to SharePoint.

    The Yammer app needs to be added from the SharePoint Store. You can access the store by opening
    up the SharePoint admin center > apps > Purchase Apps, Search for the ‘Yammer’ app and click on it.

    Click ‘ADD IT’ to install the app. Note: You’ll need to sign-in to a Microsoft.com account to complete the purchase.

    Success, the app has been installed.

    Okay, now that the Yammer application has been installed. It is time to add the ‘Yammer app’ to your
    SharePoint site. In my example, I am adding the app to an existing news site under my intranet. Click on the gear
    icon > Click on Add an App > Select ‘Yammer App for SharePoint’

     

    Popup is displayed asking to trust the Yammer app, Click on ‘Trust It’

    App is being added to you site…

     

    Select the Gear icon, Select ‘Edit Page’. In the Insert tab > Select ‘Web Part’, Under Categories
    Select > ‘Yammer’ Select > ‘Yammer Feed’

    Edit the ‘Web Part’ and a popup is displayed to Auto Sign-in or to enter your Yammer credentials. Click ‘Allow’ when finished
    .

    Login without auto sign-in

    Once signed in, you can select the feed you want displayed on the page.

    Congratulations, you can now have conversations on Yammer integrated with SharePoint

     

    If for some reason the integration is not to your liking, you can always switch back. Go back to the
    ‘SharePoint admin center’ and select ‘Use SharePoint Newsfeed (default).

     

     

  • SharePoint 2013 Gamification Governance

    As a consultant in the IT Service Management Practice here
    at Microsoft, I am sometimes asked about Gamification for SharePoint 2013,
    specifically governance. I wanted to provide some guidance and outlines on how
    to manage from a people, process, and technology perspective. This doesn’t
    cover Yammer, stay tuned.

    For those who don’t know what that is, it is basically
    driving game-like content for non game-like websites. A bunch of websites
    already exist with LinkedIn, Yelp, TechNet Forums, and Foursquare. These
    websites sites utilize concepts such as ratings, badges, checkins, and comments
    to help identify similar answers, experts, and showcase among peer’s who is a
    top contributor. Now, SharePoint 2013 has community driven content that can be
    used to drive adoption to an intranet site by using some of these concepts. You
    can view what is available by viewing Overview of Communities
    in SharePoint Server 2013
    .

    For governance there is no right or wrong to managing this
    type of content as we don’t treat it the same way we treat team site content.
    For example team site content normally has a lifecycle policy attached to it
    based on its classification, but for community driven content is not the case.
    This is because as content is rated, commented, and liked it provides a way to
    find information quickly. Now, the argument can be made that even team site or
    all site content can have this and it can.

    A governance board would need to determine the settings with
    the representatives coming from marketing or communications, I’ve found that IT
    doesn’t know anything when it comes to reputation settings, sorry, and that it
    should be driven by people who know about brand marketing.

    Example policy:

        
      

    Name

      
      

    Rankings, Ratings, Social, Comments, and Community Management

      

    Purpose

    Determine Usage of Social Components

    Defined By

    Strategy Team

    Policy

    Enable multiple social components of SharePoint to encourage community driven content across the intranet portal.

    • Allow content on the intranet portal for news articles, pictures, and blogs to be rated.
    • Utilize the ‘likes’ rating for community driven content
    •  Enable a member achievements point system with the following values for specified activities:
      • Creating a post = 10 Points
      • Replying to a post = 10 Points
      • Member’s post or reply gets liked or received a rating of 4 or 5 stars = 10 Points
      • Member’s reply gets marked as ‘Best Reply = 100 Points
    •  Create an Achievement level points based system with the following levels assigned for points.
      • Level 1 = More than 0
      • Level 2 = More than 100
      • Level 3 = More than 500
      • Level 4 = More than 2500
      • Level 5 = 10000

     

    Below is the Settings for Community Content for Reference