Windows 8.1 – Errors on modern apps

Oct 02
2014

When installing Windows 8.1 without a Microsoft account, and also when integrating the PC in a Windows domain, very often the apps on the app screen show up with a “X” in the angle, or with “error” after their name.

It seems there is going something wrong in this configuration, as I saw this very often (my customers are all professional users, no home users).

I have found now a solution to this:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_store/all-modern-apps-fail-to-start-after-windows-81/a80793c7-c214-43ec-9ca9-5c758f9ad840?page=2

In short, the solution is the following:

– the owner of the key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\appmodel\repository\packages

needs to be changed to SYSTEM (using the advanced button in RegEdit
– execute the following on an administrative command prompt

Powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml

to fix the Store app
– execute a Powershell with administrative rights and execute this command:

((Get-ChildItem “HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\AppxAllUserStore\InboxApplications”) | Get-ItemProperty).Path | Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode

This was enough – no reboot needed, the store app loaded and also the single other apps.

SHDSL configuration – Italy – Cisco 1841

Oct 02
2014

SHDSL seems a dead tecnology, as it can transfer only 2 MB per cable pair, so if you wish to have 4 MB, you need 2 cable pairs.
Unfortunately here in Italy in some places it is not possible to have more than 640k ADSL, with 64 upstream, so SHDSL Liberty 2 MB seems the only choice for several customers.

Telecom Italia gives a (obbligatory) modem with a V35 to the customer, and would like to rent also a Cisco router – with prices of more than 100 Euro a month. Since SHDSL is a dead tecnology, it should be absolutely no problem to find a used Cisco 1841 router on eBay, for prices of a few 100 Euro. You need also a serial interface in this router (WIC2t interface for 2 serial interfaces) and a cable with a V35 interface on the one side and a serial interface on the other (it is not a classic serial interface with a 9 or 25 pin like on PCs!).
And if you acquire the router, pay attention to receive also the console cable (RJ45 on one side to connect to the router, serial 9 pin on the other side to connect to your PC).

The Cisco router has only a command line interface, and for me worked this configuration (IP addresses and passwords masked):

Using 1190 out of 196600 bytes
!
version 12.3
service timestamps debug datetime msec
service timestamps log datetime msec
no service password-encryption
!
hostname cisco1841
!
boot-start-marker
boot-end-marker
!
enable secret 5 ?????
enable password ?????
!
no aaa new-model
!
resource policy
!
mmi polling-interval 60
no mmi auto-configure
no mmi pvc
mmi snmp-timeout 180
ip subnet-zero
ip cef
!
no ip dhcp use vrf connected
!
no ftp-server write-enable
!
interface FastEthernet0/0
ip address a.b.c.d 255.255.255.248
speed auto
half-duplex
no mop enabled
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
no ip address
shutdown
duplex auto
speed auto
!
interface Serial0/0/0
bandwidth 2048
no ip address
encapsulation frame-relay IETF
no fair-queue
!
interface Serial0/0/0.1 point-to-point
bandwidth 2048
ip address e.f.g.h 255.255.255.252
frame-relay interface-dlci 577 IETF
!
interface Serial0/0/1
no ip address
shutdown
clockrate 2000000
!
ip classless
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Serial0/0/0.1
!
ip http server
no ip http secure-server
!
control-plane
!
line con 0
line aux 0
line vty 0 4
password ?????
login
!
end

a.b.c.d is the address of “default gateway” on the configuration sheet (the second address of the assigned range), and e.f.g.h is the address of point-to-point (Punto Punto on the configuration sheet).

You can find a conversation about this here:

http://www.ciscoforums.it/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=30638