California Computer Tech

08/05/2025

If you have a computer that needs to be checked please feel free to schedule with me to do a checkup on your computer. I can tell you if the computer can run Windows 11.

08/05/2025

https://betanews.com/2025/06/16/will-windows-10-stop-working-see-if-your-pc-will-survive-the-switch-to-windows-11/

Microsoft reminded users this month that Windows 10 support officially ends on October 14, 2025, but here’s what’s new: for the first time, regular users will

10/12/2023

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-21h2-and-windows-server-2012-reach-end-of-support/

Windows Server 2012 and multiple editions of Windows 11, version 21H2, have reached the end of support with this month's Patch Tuesday.

04/14/2023

Microsoft is working on fixing an issue affecting some Outlook for Microsoft 365 customers and preventing them from accessing emails and their calendars.

"After updating to Outlook Version 2303 (Build 16227.20212) Users may be unable to view or access Microsoft 365 group calendars and email messages in Outlook Desktop," the company said in a support document published on Thursday.

"Affected users are part of a Microsoft 365 group. Some affected users may also notice that impact self-resolves after some time, although impact may also reoccur at a later time."

Outlook users affected by this issue may have problems when trying to perform one of the following actions while using the Outlook desktop client:

Add or access the group mailbox
Add or access the group calendar
Add, remove, or edit group members
Change mail items, such as marking as read, archive, or moving email to other folders
The buggy Outlook version was released to the Current Channel more than two weeks ago, on March 28.

Among a long list of feature updates and bug fixes, it also addressed a known sign-in issue preventing customers from accessing their account since at least October 2022, with "You cannot log in with a personal account. Use your work or school account." errors.

Workaround available
Microsoft says the Outlook Team is working on a solution to address this known issue and shared a temporary workaround until a fix rolls out for those experiencing problems while trying to access emails.

Affected customers are advised to use Outlook Web Access (OWA) if they want to use the Groups feature or revert to Outlook Desktop build 16130.20332, which isn't impacted by this issue.

The detailed procedure required to ever to the previous, unaffected Outlook build requires you to:

Open a Command Prompt (Run as Administrator).

Type/paste the following commands and press Enter after each:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun

officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.16130.20332

In the backstage, disable Updates (File, Office Account, Update Options, Disable Updates).

Set a reminder on your calendar for May 9, 2023, to remember to re-enable updates. The fix should be out sooner, but May 9 is Patch Tuesday, and the fix will be in this update.

01/11/2023

Windows 8.1 support will end on January 10, 2023

As a reminder, Windows 8.1 will reach end of support on January 10, 2023, at which point technical assistance and software updates will no longer be provided. If you have devices running Windows 8.1, we recommend upgrading them to a more current, in-service, and supported Windows release. If devices do not meet the technical requirements to run a more current release of Windows, we recommend that you replace the device with one that supports Windows 11.

Microsoft will not be offering an Extended Security Update (ESU) program for Windows 8.1. Continuing to use Windows 8.1 after January 10, 2023 may increase an organization’s exposure to security risks or impact its ability to meet compliance obligations.

01/03/2022

Microsoft has released an emergency fix for a year 2022 bug that is breaking email delivery on on-premise Microsoft Exchange servers.

As the year 2022 rolled in and the clock struck midnight, Exchange admins worldwide discovered that their servers were no longer delivering email. After investigating, they found that mail was getting stuck in the queue, and the Windows event log showed one of the following errors.

Log Name: Application
Source: FIPFS
Logged: 1/1/2022 1:03:42 AM
Event ID: 5300
Level: Error
Computer: server1.contoso.com
Description: The FIP-FS "Microsoft" Scan Engine failed to load. PID: 23092, Error Code: 0x80004005. Error Description: Can't convert "2201010001" to long.
Log Name: Application
Source: FIPFS
Logged: 1/1/2022 11:47:16 AM
Event ID: 1106
Level: Error
Computer: server1.contoso.com
Description: The FIP-FS Scan Process failed initialization. Error: 0x80004005. Error Details: Unspecified error.
These errors are caused by Microsoft Exchange checking the version of the FIP-FS antivirus scanning engine and attempting to store the date in a signed int32 variable.

However, this variable can store only a maximum value of 2,147,483,647, which is less than the new date value of 2,201,010,001 for January 1st, 2022, at midnight.

Due to this, when Microsoft Exchange attempts to check the AV scanning version, it would generate a bug and cause the malware engine to crash.

"The version checking performed against the signature file is causing the malware engine to crash, resulting in messages being stuck in transport queues," Microsoft explained in a blog post.

Microsoft releases temporary fix
Microsoft has released a temporary fix requiring customer action while working on an update that automatically fixes the issue.

This fix comes in the form of a PowerShell script named 'Reset-ScanEngineVersion.ps1.' When executed, the script will stop the Microsoft Filtering Management and Microsoft Exchange Transport services, delete older AV engine files, download the new AV engine, and start the services again.

To use the automated script to apply the fix, you can follow these steps on each on-premise Microsoft Exchange server in your organization:

Download the Reset-ScanEngineVersion.ps1 script from https://aka.ms/ResetScanEngineVersion.
Open an elevated Exchange Management Shell.
Change the ex*****on policy for PowerShell scripts by running Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned.
Run the script.
If you had previously disabled the scanning engine, enable it again using the Enable-AntimalwareScanning.ps1 script.
Microsoft warns that this process may take some time, depending on the organization's size.

Microsoft has also provided steps that admins can use to update the scanning engine manually.

After running the script, Microsoft says that email will start delivering again, but it may take some time to complete depending on the amount of email that was stuck in the queue.

Microsoft also explains that the new AV scanning engine will be version number 2112330001, which references a date that does not exist and that admins should not be concerned.

"The newly updated scanning engine is fully supported by Microsoft. While we need to work on this sequence longer term, the scanning engine version was not rolled back, rather it was rolled forward into this new sequence," explained Microsoft.

"The scanning engine will continue to receive updates in this new sequence."

Update 1/3/22: Changed to correct maximum value of int32 variable.

01/03/2022

Microsoft Exchange on-premise servers cannot deliver email starting on January 1st, 2022, due to a "Year 2022" bug in the FIP-FS anti-malware scanning engine.

Starting with Exchange Server 2013, Microsoft enabled the FIP-FS anti-spam and anti-malware scanning engine by default to protect users from malicious email.

Microsoft Exchange Y2K22 bug
According to numerous reports from Microsoft Exchange admins worldwide, a bug in the FIP-FS engine is blocking email delivery with on-premise servers starting at midnight on January 1st, 2022.

Security researcher and Exchange admin Joseph Roosen said that this is caused by Microsoft using a signed int32 variable to store the value of a date, which has a maximum value of 2,147,483,647.

However, dates in 2022 have a minimum value of 2,201,010,001 or larger, which is greater than the maximum value that can be stored in the signed int32 variable, causing the scanning engine to fail and not release mail for delivery.

When this bug is triggered, an 1106 error will appear in the Exchange Server's Event Log stating, "The FIP-FS Scan Process failed initialization. Error: 0x8004005. Error Details: Unspecified Error" or "Error Code: 0x80004005. Error Description: Can't convert "2201010001" to long."

Microsoft will need to release an Exchange Server update that uses a larger variable to hold the date to officially fix this bug.

However, for on-premise Exchange Servers currently affected, admins have found that you can disable the FIP-FS scanning engine to allow email to start delivering again.

To disable the FIP-FS scanning engine, you can execute the following PowerShell commands on the Exchange Server:

Set-MalwareFilteringServer -Identity -BypassFiltering $true
Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
After the MSExchangeTransport service is restarted, mail will start being delivered again.

Unfortunately, with this unofficial fix, delivered mail will no longer be scanned by Microsoft's scanning engine, leading to more malicious emails and spam getting through to users.

Microsoft is reportedly aware of the issue and is working on a fix, but there is no ETA on when it will be delivered.

09/10/2021

Windows 11 is an upcoming major version of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. Announced on June 24, 2021, Windows 11 is the successor to Windows 10, released in 2015. Windows 11 will be available as a free upgrade to some compatible Windows 10 devices through Windows Update. Wikipedia
Initial release date: October 5, 2021 Trending
Default user interface: Windows shell (Graphical user interface)
OS family: Microsoft Windows
Developer: Microsoft Corporation
Available in: 110 languages
Programming languages: C, C++, C #, Assembly language
Update methods: Windows Update, Microsoft Store, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)

09/10/2021

On May 18, Microsoft announced the availability of Windows 10 version 21H1, known as the May 2021 Update. But the launch of a major Windows 10 update isn’t the end of a process — it’s really just the beginning. As soon as one of Microsoft’s twice-yearly feature updates is released, the company quickly gets to work on improving it by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features.

05/15/2019

January 14, 2020, Microsoft will stop releasing updates and patches for Windows 7. It's likely that it also won't offer help and support if you encounter any problems.