Posts from 2024

Posts from 2024 (50)

• 

  Published on

  2024-12-31 4:24 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  russiaukrainewaryearreview

  2024 Year Review - and 20 years in business!

  Wow, that's quite a headline for a 30-something to write, right? But the very real side effect of being a weird kid and starting freelancing when I was on 8th grade is that it's now just over 20 years since I finished my first paid website projects. This year everything lined up nicely and I could publish an article on Christmas Eve, and this one on New Year's Eve (in Finland, we do love celebrating everything in advance, and then being hungover on the actual occasion). Anyway.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-12-24 3:38 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  githubgithubactions

  Merging on GitHub Actions fails with "could not read Username for 'https://github.com': No such device or address"?

  This article is going live 24th of December in 2024. That's when we in Finland celebrate Christmas (yes - we celebrate on Christmas Eve, so that we can just chillax on Christmas day, either hungover, playing with our new toys, or both). I'll have you know I wrote this article a few days in advance.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-12-17 8:43 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  copilotmicrosoftedge

  How to close the Sidebar in Microsoft Edge

  This article documents, how to close the Sidebar in Microsoft Edge. Because for whatever reason, Edge really does not make it obvious what the keyboard shortcut is, or if there even is one! I know what you're saying. And believe me, that's exactly what I'm thinking: Back to the "Project Manager" -level blog posts, are we? But when something is grinding my gears, I feel like I need to get rid of it. And this is one of those posts.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-12-10 3:55 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  surface

  How to stop Surface Headphones from autoplaying audio when you place them on the desk?

  This article explains how to fix Surface Headphones autoplaying semi-random things when you remove them from your ears and place on the desk. And by that, I mean autoplaying even when you've explicitly stopped anything from playing. Or even when it first stops playing something else. It's delightfully consistent in the most random way ever! It's simply funtastic that someone actually designed this user experience - I'm sure it works perfectly on a mac, and probably is great even on iPhone...

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• 

  Published on

  2024-12-03 4:51 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  windowswindows11

  "Phone Link" permanently disabled and Windows claiming "Some of these settings are managed by your organization"? (Probably) an easy fix!

  This article explains one possible fix to a problem you might have with Microsoft's "Phone Link" app. Namely, the app might disappear and refuse to come back. Windows might even stop you from trying to re-enable it with an error along the lines of "Some of these settings are managed by your organization". But as usual - let's take a step back and take a 10 000 ft view first, shall we? Problem This problem surfaces in an annoying way.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-11-26 3:09 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Refreshing DefaultAzureCredential in Visual Studio

  This article explains how to refresh the Visual Studio credentials on your development machine to keep your application using some sort of an authentication implementation relying on DefaultAzureCredential working.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-11-19 7:55 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  copilotmicrosoft-teams

  M365 Copilot claiming "You have turned off web search in the work mode"? Easy fix!

  This article explains how to enable Web Search for Microsoft 365 Copilot, when Copilot for Microsoft 365 thinks it's disabled for whatever reason. But fear not! Most of the time there's just a simple switch you need to flip to enable M365 CoPilot to access Web results for you. But let's take a step back, open our Co-Pilot apps and do the unthinkable - ask it to access some forbidden knowledge. On the public interwebs.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-11-12 4:40 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  microsoftexcelonedrive

  "Performing cleanup" - Excel is stuck with an old, conflicted file and will never recover.

  This article explains how to untangle Excel when a worksheet file is conflicted and upload-blocked beyond salvation, thanks to a little demon inhabiting your computer. Don't believe me? Oh, do read on - there's plenty to be said about this particular gremlin. And if you're a regular reader, you probably already know which little fiend I'm talking about here... Background This is a rare case where I use a period in the title of the post.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-11-05 6:55 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  entraidteamstoolkit

  How to add multiple app URIs for your Entra app registration?

  This article explains an issue that you probably shouldn't run into - unless you're doing something a bit dumb. Just like I was. Or still am. Namely, I really needed an app I registered in Entra ID to have multiple "app identifier URIs" for reasons that are not great, but that I'll go into momentarily. Background Well, this was a bit random 😁

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• 

  Published on

  2024-10-29 4:44 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  devopsgithubactionsyaml

  How to access Environment Secrets with GitHub Actions?

  This article aims to clear the confusion around the GitHub Repository Secrets and explain how to successfully use them in your pipelines for fun and profit! Well, mostly for additional security and pipeline parameterization, really... But still - it's a good piece of functionality to wrap your head around and implement in your daily work. Problem When wanting to use Environment-specific secrets with GitHub Actions, the right sequence of steps is - in theory - quite clear.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-10-22 3:08 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  copilotwindows

  Copilot app on Windows refusing to use your Personal account? Easy fix!

  This article explains a quick fix to a very topical issue: Copilot app suddenly becoming hostile to you due to your work credentials, and incredibly, carrying that grudge on and on, even after you've signed out of your work account (as per the bots demands) and signed in with your personal account. What a bitter and unforgiving person this bot is. Won't forget about your past mistakes. But no fear! We'll find a way to calm them down and keep on keeping on.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-10-19 10:27 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  scottishsummitsessions

  Level Up Your Teams Extensibility Game with Blazor - Session materials from Scottish Summit 2024

  This article will contain links, materials, slides (should I get the permission to post them) and other stuff related to my session at Scottish Summit 2024. In case you stopped by my session - thanks! If you're just visiting for any reason - make sure to check the slides out first, and the rest should probably make more sense to you! Right now, it'll have a few missing pieces (everything that has a [TBA] tag will be added later).

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• 

  Published on

  2024-10-15 7:40 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  microsoft-teamsteamsfx

  What do you get from a Microsoft Teams App template in Visual Studio?

  This article explains briefly what the different Microsoft Teams App templates in Visual Studio are for and what capabilities do they come with. It's a lot to wade through, but I hope this article is able to explain the basics. Background Lately, I've been playing around with Blazor and Teams again.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-10-08 4:23 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  blazorintellisensevisual-studio

  Intellisense not working for Fluent components in Blazor project? Easy fix!

  This article explains a couple of easy fixes for an issue, where Visual Studio refuses to properly recognize the FluentUI components you might have used in your Blazor projects. Because apparently that can (kind of randomly) happen! Problem The screenshot below shows a sample from Microsoft's basic Teams tab extension template. For me, Intellisense for FluentUI components didn't work out-of-the-box. Visual Studio would instead simply complain about unexpected markup.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-10-01 10:26 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powershellwindowswinget

  winget is broken again.

  ... because of course it is! Ah well, winget is a great idea with a decent implementation, suffering from an unstable platform it's built on. I've now seen it break down seemingly randomly 3 times - once it was one of the many reasons I had to reinstall Windows completely. But as usual - let's take a step back. How and why did I get started on this via dolorosa? Background A while back I was going to use winget to update my apps to their latest versions, as I've done before.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-09-24 6:37 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  powertoyswindows11

  How to fix PowerToys FancyZones in Windows 11?

  This article explains how to fix an issue where FancyZones (from the fantastic Windows PowerToys toolset) fails to work because it conflicts with the built-in window management in Windows 11. I guess it's too much to ask for a level of coordination here from Microsoft... Oh well.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-09-17 12:23 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  certificatesopensslpowershell

  How to export the whole SSL (or TLS) certificate chain based on the original using PowerShell?

  Every now and then, you run into a situation where you have a certificate for a website or service, but for one reason or another, you don't have the whole chain. You're missing some or all of the intermediaries, and even the root certificate, perhaps. This is something I run into constantly. This article explains how to fix it! Background In my day-to-day work, I maintain a number of customer systems running in Azure.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-09-10 7:08 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  googlechrome

  How to solve keyboard shortcuts not working in Google Chrome on Windows?

  This article explains a fix to a puzzling issue I had with Google Chrome, where my keyboard shortcuts would seemingly randomly stop working and I'd need to click around (or change to another application with Alt+Tab) to get them working again. Luckily, the solution (or I guess it's more like a workaround, as usual) turned out to be simple.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-09-03 2:43 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  onenotewindows

  Search (and secretly, sync) broken in OneNote? A quick fix!

  This article explains how to fix sudden and surprising synchronization problem(s) in OneNote, that first surfaces as search (the one you open with CTRL+E, not the unified/M365-wide top bar search) not finding any results from the page content, even if it might find some from the page or section titles. This exciting story has it all: Manually triggering a job that should be automatic, finding some secret broken files and boldly removing them, and of course a daring registry hack!

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• 

  Published on

  2024-08-27 9:50 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  windows

  "Destination Path Too Long" when copying files in File Explorer? Easy workaround(s)!

  This article explains another situation where you might run into a " The file names would be too long for the destination folder. You can shorten the file name and try again, or try a location that has a shorter path " error, and how to get around it. Don't install "LongPathTool", which is what all the spam comments online tell you to do. Maybe it's even on Google/Bing Ads nowadays. Instead, learn to use Windows the way it was meant to be used - without windows.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-08-20 2:22 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  backupsnetspotwindows

  Where does NetSpot (wifi heatmapping tool) store its project files?

  This article explains where NetSpot Wifi Heatmap software stores its project files. These files contain all of your measurements, pictures, and other files associated with your heatmaps. They're pretty important, but you don't get to choose where to store them. And that might be a problem, unless you're prepared.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-08-13 3:38 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  bitlockergrouppolicy

  How to fix Bitlocker failing to activate?

  Alright, so my months-long via dolorosa to achieve a functioning Windows workstation has now cost me a few weeks worth of hours of work and around $4000. And I'm finally at a point where I have Visual Studio working again, and I'm only missing some totally unimportant and irrelevant things like BitLocker. No biggie, right? What's weird, though, is that I'm only missing it because it decided to randomly break. Let me explain. Problem

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• 

  Published on

  2024-08-06 2:43 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  windows

  Why You (unfortunately) need a Local Administrator account on Windows 🙃

  This article explains why having a local (non-AD) user account with administrator user rights on Windows is a must. I know, I know - this is horrible design from security perspective. You shouldn't use local accounts in the first place, let alone ones with unlimited admin powers! Microsoft has been trying to stop users from creating local accounts on their machines for years now, and in theory, for understandable reasons.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-07-30 1:36 p.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  mvpawardmvpbuzz

  5 Years an MVP - a Humble Reflection

  A few of my friends were already worried since I didn't publish the now-classic " Humbled & Honored " post on LinkedIn - perhaps I had not been renewed this year, dropped out of the program or even been kicked out? But no, reality is much more boring: I've just been on vacation and haven't spent much time near my keyboard 😅 So long story short, I was indeed renewed as Microsoft MVP for the 2024-2025 season. 🥳 This year, I've been able to disconnect quite thoroughly.

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• 

  Published on

  2024-06-18 7:48 a.m.

  Authors

  koskila

  Tags

  certificatesopensslpowershell

  How to generate Certificate-Signing Requests using OpenSSL

  This article explains how to generate a CSR using the OpenSSL CLI toolkit. We'll go through a step-by-step guide to create a private key and a CSR. This should be helpful for system administrators and developers who need to set up secure connections for their servers or applications. In the code samples, you can see how some undefined sausage is made, and it's not pretty. But it works.

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