Year: 2019

Reboot Loop After KB4525246 Update

Several other sites confirmed recent server failures after running Windows Updates. Here are the basic steps I used to recover.

Attach a keyboard and enter BIOS setup. Make sure Quick Boot is disabled.

Press F8 while restarting the server to open the Advanced Boot Options menu.

I tried Safe Mode, but did not see a successful boot there.

Next I tried Repair Your Computer, which brought me to the “Choose an option” screen.

Select Troubleshoot, then select Command Prompt. Follow the instructions to log in as one of the administrators.

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External Link Security Broken in Excel

Excel Security Warning About Linked Workbooks

After linking two local Excel files by a simple reference to a cell in another workbook, I began seeing an ominous error:

SECURITY WARNING  Links to external sources could be unsafe. If you trust the links, click Update. Click for more details.

This behavior was observed in version 1907 of Excel from the Office 365 software package.

Warnings of this nature should be taken seriously.  In this case, however, the message has been seriously mislabeled.  Clicking into the details brings up an ancient Help page for Excel 2007.  Searching for similar situations online brings up some misleading instructions.

If you are experiencing the situation described above, continue reading below for a simple workaround and more background information.

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