{"id":5247,"date":"2014-06-27T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5247"},"modified":"2014-06-26T23:29:15","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T22:29:15","slug":"short-takes-hosts-files-c-azure-vms-sleuthing-around-exchange-closing-windows-8-apps-and-managing-tabs-in-google-chrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/06\/short-takes-hosts-files-c-azure-vms-sleuthing-around-exchange-closing-windows-8-apps-and-managing-tabs-in-google-chrome.htm","title":{"rendered":"Short takes: hosts files; C#; Azure VMs; sleuthing around Exchange; closing Windows 8 apps; and managing tabs in Google Chrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another dump of my open browser tabs to the web…<\/p>\n

Unable to edit hosts file in Windows<\/h3>\n

One of the tools (read Excel\u00a0and lots of macros) that I use for financial forecasting said it couldn’t find a server. \u00a0Of course the network’s never broken – it must be the end users’s\u00a0fault –\u00a0so, faced with the prospect of telling an angry admin that there is a DNS\u00a0mis-configuration, I decided to hack\u00a0my hosts file instead…<\/p>\n

Windows doesn’t make that easy (even as a local\u00a0administrator) – so I ran Notepad as Administrator instead<\/a>… being an old skool kind of command\u00a0line guy it was an elevated cmd prompt \u00a0from Start, cmd<\/code>, then shift and click (which dumps me into C:\\Windows\\System32), followed by the cd drivers\/etc<\/code> and notepad hosts<\/code> commands.<\/p>\n

What versions of C# are out there?<\/h3>\n

One thing I wanted to know whilst teaching myself to write in C#\u00a0a few months back (i.e. to select a course that was up-to-date!) was which versions of C# are out there. Of course,\u00a0Stack Overflow has the answer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, one day, I really must have a play with CShell, the open source C# read-eval-print-loop (REPL) IDE<\/a>…<\/p>\n

What Microsoft server software is supported in an Azure VM?<\/h3>\n

Ever wondered what can be run up (and supported) in a Microsoft Azure VM? Quite a lot, but also some big omissions (Exchange, obviously) and some caveats (like no DHCP). \u00a0The formal list is\u00a0in Microsoft knowledge base article 2721672<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finding\u00a0the Exchange Server that actually hosts my email<\/h3>\n

Exchange AutoDiscover means that, most of the time, end users don’t need to know where their email is – just the\u00a0single address that lets the email client find the server – but several times recently I’ve found myself needing to know which server hosts my email. \u00a0One time I was diagnosing intermittent issues with out of office replies and\u00a0access to colleagues’ calendars. \u00a0Another time I wanted to\u00a0use\u00a0PowerShell to list members of a distribution group programmatically\u00a0(and later to rename a distribution group after the\u00a0IT department said it wasn’t possible). Unfortunately, I didn’t have access to run PowerShell commands against our servers (but that’s probably a good thing)!<\/p>\n

Anyway, it seems that the details I needed were available via Outlook Web Access<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Logon to OWA<\/li>\n
  2. Click options<\/li>\n
  3. Click About<\/li>\n
  4. And find the line that reads “Client access server name” – that’s your connection point. \u00a0There’s also a line for “Mailbox server name”.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I tested this with Exchange 2007. \u00a0It may vary for other releases and I haven’t checked.<\/p>\n

    By the way, a couple of links that looked hopeful\u00a0for my distribution group issues (the ones I\u00a0had to find another way to resolve):<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Find all Exchange Server distribution groups managed by a specific user<\/a><\/li>\n
    • Exchange PowerShell: How to enumerate Distribution Lists, managers and members<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Closing applications in Windows 8<\/h3>\n

      Our family PC runs Windows 8.1 but, as my work PC runs Windows 7, I have to admit sometimes there are things I haven’t got used to. \u00a0One of those is closing full-screen apps. \u00a0I usually resort to Alt-F4 but if the kids have left the computer in\u00a0touch format, then it seems that a simple top to bottom drag is what I need (there should also be a close button if I touch the top of the screen)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      Managing tabs in Google Chrome<\/h3>\n

      As I go through my work, I often come across things I’d like to go back to later, or leave side projects part-done, blog posts half-researched (and half-written), etc. Over time, they build up to hundreds of tabs and I my bookmarks folder is a plethora of In Progress yyyymmdd<\/em> folders (another job to sort out one day). \u00a0It also means that, every now and again, my PC slows right down and I need to reboot because Google Chrome is using 14 gazillion GBs of RAM and a Flash plugin (probably serving ads on a website) has gone haywire again.\u00a0Add Symantec EndPoint Prevention and BeCrypt DiskPrevent into the mix and a reboot could be a half-hour inconvenience.<\/p>\n

      Last night,\u00a0I spent hours working through the various open tabs, closing some, pasting some to blog posts (this one… and others still work in progress) and I happened to post a little tweetette, to which Garry Martin (@GarryMartin<\/a>) happened to respond:<\/p>\n

      @markwilsonit<\/a> OneTab. Awesome. http:\/\/t.co\/QmMdRQjstR<\/a><\/p>\n

      \u2014 Garry Martin (@GarryMartin) June 26, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n