Microsoft’s decision to stop supporting Microsoft 365 services on Office 2016/2019 after October 2023 (which is this year) can be viewed as a cynical attempt to encourage users to upgrade to newer versions of Office. This can be seen as a ploy to generate more revenue for the company, rather than a genuine concern for its users.

Furthermore, the frequent updates and changes to Microsoft’s productivity tools can be overwhelming for some users. The constant need to adapt to new features and interfaces can lead to frustration and reduced productivity. Users may feel like they are always playing catch-up and never have the opportunity to fully master their tools before they are outdated.

Moreover, the cost of upgrading to a newer version of Office can be prohibitive for some individuals and businesses. For smaller organizations, the cost of upgrading may be a significant burden. This can create an uneven playing field, where only those with the financial resources to upgrade can fully take advantage of the latest productivity tools.

In conclusion, while the announcement that Microsoft 365 services are supported on “modern” apps may appear positive at first glance, the fact that Office 2019 is considered “old” is a cause for outrage. The frequent updates and changes to Microsoft’s productivity tools can be overwhelming, and the cost of upgrading can be prohibitive for some users. These factors can create an uneven playing field and may cause frustration for end users and solutions providers who cannot keep up with the pace of technological advancements.

My two cents: Microsoft is greedy and wants to maximize profit while showing the middle finger to customers and solution providers.

Sources:

ChatGPT helped me out, just a little bit https://chat.openai.com/chat

One or a few users are not able to connect to their mailbox using the newest Outlook version there is? Well the issue might be TLS 1.2 not being active on the user’s side.

Just set this registry key and you should be good to go:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

or

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

DWORD SecureProtocols 00000A80

HEX A80 or decimal 2688 enables TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2, while decimal 640 only enables TLS 1.0 and 1.1.

References:

https://www.anoopcnair.com/disable-enable-tls-1-0-1-1-internet-explorer-ie/

Having odd issues with the task bar/random task bar freezing on Windows Server 2022 RDS? Or explorer.exe using around 10% of the CPU for every user that is logged in? This might save your day. This issue occurs if you have MS Teams installed on the RDS.

First of all, export the registry path HKLM\SYSTEM\Software\Microsoft\TIP\TestResults\27641370 and look at the file size. If it is around 40MB in size, then you have the same issue.

To resolve the issue, delete the key and disable the TabletInputService service (Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service). Afterwards, take ownership of C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip32.exe and C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\TabTip.exe and rename both executables into TabTip32.exe.orig/TabTip.exe.orig.

After that, reboot your server.

References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/909494/windows-2022-server-rds-laggyslow-taskbar.html

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/752491/server-2022-and-teams-bloats-hkey-local-machinesys.html

If you need to renew the Always On VPN IKEv2 server certificate, here are three lines that will help you. Assuming you have the right certificate and the thumbprint, execute the following commands on the VPN server:

$cert = Get-ChildItem -Path Cert:\LocalMachine\My\ | where { $_.Thumbprint -eq “thumbprint” }

Set-VpnAuthProtocol -CertificateAdvertised $cert

Restart-Service RemoteAccess

If these commands saved your day, leave a comment!

Sophos SG/XG Firewalls use OpenVPN to create Site To Site SSL VPN tunnels, but the configuration file is specific to Sophos firewalls. This can be converted to a normal ovpn file though.

Here is how you can manually convert the APC configuration file into an OVPN file.

Take now of these things in your apc file:

Block 1 is the client certificate:

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–

Block 2 is the CA certificate:

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–

Block 3 is the private key:

—–BEGIN PRIVATE KEY—–

—–END PRIVATE KEY—–

Block 4: there is also a username and password:

Just above the private key is the user:

Just below the private key is the password:

So now here is the ovpn file:

client
dev tun
proto tcp
remote insert hostname or IP of the firewall here 443
route remote_host 255.255.255.255 net_gateway
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
auth-user-pass
cipher AES-128-CBC
auth SHA256
comp-lzo
route-delay 4
verb 3
reneg-sec 0
<cert>

Insert certificate here from Block 1

</cert>

<ca>

Insert certificate here from Block 2

</ca>

<key>

Insert private key from Block 3

</key>

Here is a short test with OpenVPN client on Windows. The password has to be inserted manually, but normally the tunnel gets initiated from a firewall/network appliance, in that case you should be able to insert username and password in the command line.