Category Archives: tech pit

everything related to technical stuff

tech pit

HOWTO quickly rename folders from _svn to .svn

Once upon a time, someone had the idea to use ‘_svn’ for a Windows SVN sandbox working folder instead of the standard ‘.svn’. I suppose, that the idea was to use a more Windows-aligned folder name. By using TortoiseSVN, it was quite transparent. Years passed, and the idea was dropped, and these sandboxes aren’t working anymore by default. TortoiseSVN still provides a hidden registry setting … Continue reading HOWTO quickly rename folders from _svn to .svn »

tech pit

HOWTO limit MS SQL Server memory usage

Go to the Microsoft website and download MS SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS for ‘friends’), about 0.5Gb to download, and 1Gb of disk space. It is working with almost any MS SQL Server version and edition. Once installed you have to: start the program with administrative access rights elevation connect to the service right-click on root item in Object Explorer, select Properties select Memory from … Continue reading HOWTO limit MS SQL Server memory usage »

tech pit

HOWTO add encrypted disks to your PC

Imagine being a contractor, and you want a secure black box to keep your customer data on your PC. This will come very useful, for example, in case of loss or theft of your notebook. A common approach is to encrypt the whole hard disk, but it has two main drawbacks: the whole system is slowed down by disk encryption. usually, it’s almost impossible to … Continue reading HOWTO add encrypted disks to your PC »

tech pit

HOWTO enforce WindowsXP security

There are dozens of reasons to abandon Windows XP (security, technical, …), but if you have no option, at least you can mitigate them by enabling the PosReady option and installing all MS published security updates. Open Registry Editor and go to: HKLM\System\WPA\PosReady the add/edit the value ‘Install‘ as DWORD and set it to 1. Reboot, and run Windows Update by the following command line: … Continue reading HOWTO enforce WindowsXP security »

tech pit

HOWTO quickly set Safe Mode into Windows 10

Setting safe mode for the next reboot has become quite tricky. Usually, you have to navigate among one-way system options (reset, restore, …). Recently I discovered that you can easily trigger it from Command Prompt with administrator access rights. Type the following command: bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal and reboot. The system will reboot in safe mode as requested this time only. If it will … Continue reading HOWTO quickly set Safe Mode into Windows 10 »

tech pit

HOWTO Setup Hyper-V 2019 Server Outside a Domain

Hyper-V 2019 Server might be a great and free opportunity to host Hyper-V VMs. The main problem is that it’s quite an unfriendly & raw environment not set to live outside a network domain. Setting up a domain server for small labs, or similar realities can be quite expensive and not advantageous. Surfing the web, I found several sources to use it in a private … Continue reading HOWTO Setup Hyper-V 2019 Server Outside a Domain »

tech pit

HOWTO fix Event 455 ESENT

Into my new Windows 10 1903, I noticed several instances of the following error: Event 455, ESENT with the following description: svchost (3124,R,98) TILEREPOSITORYS-1-5-18: Error -1023 (0xfffffc01) occurred while opening logfile C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer\Database\EDB.log. The solution The problem here seems to be that a couple of folders are missing int this path. To fix them, you have to: open Explorer go to: C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local create ‘TileDataLayer‘ folder (if … Continue reading HOWTO fix Event 455 ESENT »

tech pit

HOWTO Set System Unattended Timeouts

I was in the need to change System Unattended Sleep Timeout. It’s the time the system shall wait before switching the sleep mode when it’s into a login or locked page. According to this thread, it is something we can do by the Advanced Power Options. The problem is that it’s hidden by default. Enabling System Unattended Sleep Timeout To switch it back to the … Continue reading HOWTO Set System Unattended Timeouts »

tech pit

Updating Drivers for WU Catalog manually

Starting with Windows 10 Cumulative Update 1904, my notebook started a quite alarming series of BSOD. One of the many activities to solve the problem was to update vital drivers to the latest working version. One good source is the ‘Windows Update Catalog’ site. From here you can download any content distributed by Windows Update itself. One of these contents includes the latest registered device … Continue reading Updating Drivers for WU Catalog manually »

tech pit

HOWTO install Windows features on-demand

Starting with Windows 10 1809, I discovered that RSAT (Remote Server Adminitration Toolkit) was inserted into Windows ‘Features on Demand’ and can be only installed from there. To complete to the task: open a Command Prompt with administrative access rights type the following command line to get all features available: dism /online /get-capabitities select the needed ones (the ones starting with “rsat” in your case) … Continue reading HOWTO install Windows features on-demand »