by Matt | Apr 22, 2020 | Microsoft, Software
Yesterday one of our clients encountered a very annoying error in Microsoft Excel 2016, a blank window error. Admittedly there was no actual error message, but when you can’t see any content it’s quite an issue. While we were investigating the issue we found that any Excel file we opened it would be blank or “grey”. However, we were able to open them if we went to File > Open, which was interesting.
We tried to repair, re-install and numerous other fixes but the one that ended up working was ticking a box then unticking it, how peculiar!
Steps to resolve Excel blank window error
- Open Microsoft Excel
- Go to File
- Options
- Advanced
- Under General tick the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)
- Close and open Excel
- Then follow the same steps and untick the box
What is DDE? Click to find out.
Need any help or have feedback? – Contact us
by Matt | Apr 9, 2020 | General
Wow, what a busy and crazy few weeks we have all had and it is terrible the current state of affairs with the Coronavirus pandemic. We do hope all our customers, friends and colleagues are doing their best to stay safe and to keep well.
For us, the last few weeks at TC-IT Services have probably been our busiest to date and it has been pretty stressful at times to be honest.
What we have been doing
- We have been helping the schools we look after by implementing VOIP phone systems, remote access, Teams conferencing and also methods in which they can distribute work remotely to staff and their students.
- We have helped other businesses setup remote working solutions including VPN access, cloud servers, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
- We have also been reaching out to clients in the industries worst effected and have been suggesting/offering them cost savings where we can in these difficult times!
I do however believe that one good thing to come of this is that we have embraced technology recently. So many companies who may have not been that technologically advanced have now been pushed into adopting new methods and are seeing the productivity benefits.
Our Team
I, as the business owner, am so proud of my team at TC-IT Services for the effort they have put in over the last few weeks so thought I should give them a shout out on our blog. My staff have been working longer hours and dealing with so many more calls than usual and have been nothing short of excellent.
Lastly, I would also like to welcome our newest recruit Salma who started with us this Monday and who already has impressed us and our customers.
You can meet the team here on our new website;
https://www.tc-itservices.com/about/
Keep well everyone and if there is anything that we can help with, in these difficult times, please do get in touch.
![Microsoft ends Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 support]()
by Matt | Jan 14, 2020 | 365, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange
The day has arrived and good old Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are finally retiring and support for these operating systems is going to be discontinued. It has been a good run and we have had many years of dependable computing and decent server operating systems. Windows 7 was probably one of my favourite Windows builds but with age and new ways in which technology is doing things it just could not keep up.
What will happen with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2
- No more Bug fixes
- No more security Updates
- No more Malware protection
- Compatibility issues with applications
Seriously though I know a lot of our followers are still using Windows 7, it is not just going to stop working today but using these operating systems will slowly become more and more risky as there will be no more updates or patches plus hackers are surely going to target it and find as many exploits as possible. Remember a few years ago when Ransomware was rife? It came out of nowhere and hit a lot of systems that were not completely up to date, well I can see similar problems in the future for Windows 7 and 2008 R2.
We can help you upgrade from Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2
I know it is different and we do not like change, but Windows 10 has evolved and has got better on every new build and update furthermore TC-IT Services can help make the transition over to this new operating as seamless as possible for you.
If you wanted to do the process yourself you can start by going to the Windows 10 download page;
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
If you are still running Server 2008 R2 or SBS 2011, which runs on Server 2008 R2, you need to act sooner rather than later as having your server attacked could have much more serious consequences.
At TC-IT Services we are cloud service providers so have many options to migrate your server to the cloud. If you are still using Exchange 2010 or higher, we can migrate all your email and other Outlook data seamlessly to Office 365 as well.
OR if you still want the ability to have your own server and control where you data is, upgrading your domain or stand-alone network to Windows Server 2019 is pretty straight forward. We have performed many of these migrations for our customers to date so we can help with this. Once complete we can de-commission your old server or domain controllers properly making the transition seamless.
There are so many advantages of Windows 10, migrating your servers to the cloud or moving to a current server operating system. If you need any more information or just want to chat about it all please don’t hesitiate to speak to one of our experts on 01273 987926 or contact us here.
More information can be found on the following interesting BBC News Article;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/technology-51090407
by Matt | Dec 30, 2019 | WordPress
Today I had to restore a clients WordPress database as it was corrupted.
The issue I had is that the client’s website is on a shared hosting platform with a few other client websites so I was unsure which database was the correct one so I needed to find out the name of the WordPress database.
How to find the name of the WordPress database
To do this you can easily find this out by opening your WordPress wp-config.php file.
You can access it through the File Manager in your hosting, go into the main WordPress folder and then open the wp-config.php file.
Once in look for the following lines:
- define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘Database Name‘);
The entry for Database Name is what you need to find out the name of the the WordPress database.
More info about WordPress databases can be found here
![Microsoft ends Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 support]()
by Matt | Jul 5, 2018 | Microsoft
A client called this morning as they were having issues with their Lenovo webcam. When trying to use the built in Lenovo webcam on their Windows 10 laptop they could not see the image from the camera and all they could see was an image with a grey background and a white camera with a cross through it, image shown below. The same image was seen in Skype and any other camera application.
To fix this I had to do the following;
- From the Windows start menu type ‘Lenovo’ until ‘Lenovo Vantage’ appears and open it (if you do not have Lenovo Vantage installed you can find it on the Windows App Store).
- Expand the window so that the top icons are displayed and click on ‘CAMEARA’ at the top of the window
- Then scroll to the bottom of the settings page and under ‘PRIVACY MODE’ choose ‘Turn Privacy Mode’ to ‘Off’.
