Jul 25, 2019

Autopilot White Glove error message We couldn't find any Provisioning Packages

I was testing out the Windows Autopilot "White Glove" feature this week.  This is a new feature of the Intune AutoPilot service that lets you boot into OOBE and then tell the machine to go ahead and download and provision all software that is assigned to that machine.  This will save time for the end user if you have alot of software that needs to be downloaded.  You can run thru this part in your shop and then "repackage" the device for the user and then they don't have to wait very long when running through OOBE since the software will be pre-installed.

Anyway, I was going through OOBE and you are supposed to hit the Windows key 5 times once you get to the "Let's start with region" selection list.  You are supposed to see a window with 3 options - 1) Install provisioning package 2) Windows Autopilot provisioning and 3) Restart device. You then click on option 2 to start the White Glove download process.

However in my case, I didn't see what window. Instead I got a popup window that said "Set up PC? You'll need to install a provisioning package to get things from your work or school".  Then I clicked the "Set up" button on that window.  Then I get another screen with an error that says "We couldn't find any provisioning packages.  Go back and try reconnecting your removable media.  If that doesn't work, talk to your support person".

I couldn't find any reference to this message online so I opened a case with Microsoft Intune support.  They asked what build of Windows 10 that I was working with. This machine is running 1809.  They then informed me that White Glove is only supported on 1903 and newer builds.  DOH.  That's why I was not seeing the expected messages.  

I guess now I have to figure out a way to get Dell to ship me new machines running Win 10 1903. :)

Mar 7, 2019

Office 365 - Can't Display Online Services - Sorry we had a server issue and can't display your connected services. Please try again.

Working with a client running Windows 10 1803 and the latest Office 365 Business software suite with a click-to-run installation.   We've just migrated them from a file server to SharePoint so it's critical that they be able to sign in to their Office 365 account inside of the Office suite.

This user was having problems signing in when trying to save a Word document.  It would prompt for her Office 365 email address but the password screen would never come up.  On the Office Account page in Word, it never showed any "Connected Services" where OneDrive or SharePoint would typically show.

Eventually I went to Settings -> Accounts -> Access Work or School. And I hit "Disconnect" on her company Work or School account.  This deletes the saved Office 365 / Azure AD account from the machine. 



After that, when I went into Word -> Office Account I see the yellow message below.  "Can't display online services.  Sorry, we had a server issue and can't display your connected services. Please try again."




When I clicked on Try again, it then pulled up a different looking sign-in window and it walked me all the way through the sign-in process include email address and password.  (It also prompted me to add a phone number and a PIN, I think because Azure AD had some new security requirements.)

Then she was fine and could open and save to OneDrive and SharePoint with no issues.

Aug 11, 2014

Can't open files in search results from a mapped network drive on Windows 2012 R2 Standard Server with Windows 7 or Windows 8 clients. File icon is blank too.

I recently implemented a new Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard server running the Essentials Experience Role.   The mapped drives are applied to the client machines using Group Policy.   Typically the users go to any mapped drive in Windows Explorer on their PC, type in their search criteria in the search field in the upper right hand corner of the window and then get a list of all matching files on that drive - Word docs, Excel sheets, PDF's, etc.

But occasionally they were having a very strange issue where the search results appeared but they could not open any of the files when they double-clicked on the files.  No error message was given.  Also, they could not right-click on files either.  The other weird part is that the little icon next to the file name that usually shows the file extension icon (Word, Excel, PDF, etc.) was a blank icon.

I did a ton of online research but couldn't find any help for this issue.  I don't think I've completely solved it yet but I do have a way of getting the search results to start working again.  I found that if I go to the Windows 2012 R2 server, pull up the list of Services and restart the "Windows Search" service, that my search results will start functioning properly on the client PC's - they'll display the proper icon and they can be opened as expected.

So something is clearly wrong with my Windows Search service.  I'm still trying to figure out what causes it to fail but at least now I know how to fix the search results issue in the meantime.  

Please comment below if you've run into this issue and found any other fixes.


Oct 9, 2013

Remote Desktop (RDP) connection to Windows 8 login prompts "Connect a smart card". Also for Remote Web Workplace (RWW).

There have been a few hurdles getting users connected into Windows 8 machines via Remote Desktop (RDP) or Remote Web Workplace (RWW) from Small Business Server.

When you try to log in, you may see a message that says "Connect a smart card".  The issue seems to be caused by trying to "push" or "save" your credentials into the remote session as you are logging in.  I know in RWW, you should go back to the "connection options" and un-check the box the says something like "Login to this session as InsertUsernameHere".   This may also effect RDP - try not to save or send your credentials along with the initial launching of the session.  Try to wait and just enter them manually once you get to the Windows 8 login screen.

If that doesn't help, the other workaround is to click on the "Other user" avatar on the Windows 8 login screen, rather than clicking on YOUR avatar.  Then manually enter your username and password.  My users have had success with the "other user" trick if all else fails.

Window Vista laptop gets a "local only" wifi connection from Verizon FIOS router. Can ping router but can't connect to the internet.

I ran into a heck of a time with a Windows Vista laptop and a new Verizon FIOS installation recently.  All other devices in the home could connect to the FIOS wireless network without any issue.  The Vista laptop would see the wifi network, it would accept the wifi password/key and it would show a solid connection in the system tray but the status of the connection would show "Local only", meaning it could not access the internet. This was certainly accurate because even though I could ping the router, I can't access anything on the internet.

After much troubleshooting, I figured out that I COULD access internet sites via their IP address, just not by their domain names. So this indicated that my DNS servers weren't working.  Everything was set on automatic but since it wasn't working, I changed my DNS settings to manual and I entered in two DNS servers used by Verizon FIOS:

4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2

The instructions on how to change these settings may vary slightly depending on your OS, but this method should work:


  1. Hit the Start button and then type in "network connections" and hit enter.  
  2. Now you should see your network device listed here - either Ethernet or wireless. Right-click it and hit Properties. 
  3. Then click on TCP/IP v4 and hit Properties. 
  4. On the bottom part of the window, select "Use the following DNS server addresses:" and enter those two addresses. Or you could try using two Google DNS servers if you like: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
  5. Click Ok
  6. It may require a reboot for those settings to kick in

Aug 22, 2013

Problem uninstalling Internet Explorer - try it in Safe Mode. Can't uninstall IE 9, getting errors.

I was working on a laptop yesterday - Windows Vista with IE 9.  I was trying to uninstall IE 9 in order to re-install it to try to fix some problems but it was giving me errors when trying to run the uninstaller.

So instead, I tried booting into Safe Mode first. Then I had no problems uninstalling IE 9.  Just use the normal steps of going to Add/Remove Programs (or Uninstall Programs) and click on the Show Installed Updates links on the left. Then find Internet Explorer 9 and click Uninstall.

Aug 20, 2013

Can't play embedded YouTube videos in Chrome. Won't load and shows a black box. Try resetting Chrome browser settings.

I've been having an issue with Chrome for a few weeks where it won't play YouTube videos that are embedded in another webpage. It just shows me an empty black box with no thumbnail of the video or playback controls.  If I go directly to YouTube.com to watch the video, I don't have any problem. Embedded videos play fine in Internet Explorer.

I tried manually disabling all of my Chrome extensions and clearing my cache but none of that helped.  Just today (8/20/2013) I see that there is a new Chrome update available. One of the features is a new "Reset browser settings" button.  It resets everything back to the default settings but keeps basic customization like bookmarks, themes, etc.  I thought it would remove all of my extensions but in fact it simply disabled them.

I'm glad to report that this DID fix my issue with embedded videos!  I then went back in and enabled all of my extensions again and the embedded videos are still working! Woo-hoo!  So whatever this reset did, it took care of my problem.

Here's how you do it:

  1. In your Chrome menu, hit the icon with the 3 horizontal bars (called "Customize and control Google Chrome")
  2. Select "Settings"
  3. Scroll to the bottom and hit "Show Advanced Settings"
  4. Scroll to the bottom again and hit the button labeled "Reset browser settings" as seen here...



Autopilot White Glove error message We couldn't find any Provisioning Packages

I was testing out the Windows Autopilot "White Glove" feature this week.  This is a new feature of the Intune AutoPilot service th...