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showing posts tagged with 'windows'
About Network Connectivity Status Indicator (NCSI) in Windows
edited by on April 8th 2016, at 16:16

Windows checks its access to the internet by performing an HTTP GET to the following URL:

http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt

If the request succeeds, Windows determines that the connection to the internet is up. The mechanism uses whatever has been set up as an internet connection and will also use any configured proxy.

 
Enable Remote Desktop and Remote Management on a Windows Core Server through scripting
edited by on March 17th 2016, at 13:30
There are a variety of methods to enable Remote Desktop and Remote Management from a script. This is particularly useful if you have many Core Servers and no SCCM or some other deployment system.

Powershell:

(Get-WmiObject Win32_TerminalServiceSetting -Namespace root\cimv2\terminalservices).SetAllowTsConnections(1,1)Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -ForceEnable-PSRemoting -Force

This enables Remote Desktop with NLA (first param), adjust the required firewall rules (second param), and finally, enables Remote Management.

Batch:

cscript %windir%\system32\scregedit.wsf /ar 0cscript %windir%\system32\scregedit.wsf /cs 1

Like the PS variant, this enables Remote Desktop while the second line   ...
 
Cannot map a drive letter to a redirected folder in RDP
edited by on March 14th 2016, at 09:51

It is currently not possible to directly map a drive letter to a redirected folder when connecting to a server using Microsoft RDP. Most programs do not require a drive letter but in case you do need a "local path", you can create a symlink in order to achieve this.

MKLINK /D C:\MyFolder \\tsclient\MyFolder

This will create a "symlinked" folder on your C-drive, which you can then use to work with files and folders of the redirected folder. The symlink is persistent across reboots.

 
Error 1325 when uninstalling HP Client Security
edited by on February 18th 2016, at 14:55

You may get the following error when trying to uninstall HP Client Security:

Error 1325: Hewlett-Packard is not a valid short file name.

The solution, albeit a very odd one, is to disable all CD/DVD drives on your HP system through Device Manager (Start → Run → devmgmt.msc).

After the uninstallation, you can re-enable the device.

 
Turn off highlighting of new programs in Start
edited by on February 11th 2016, at 15:08

You can turn off the highlighting of new and recently installed programs in Start menu/Start Screen. There's no direct group policy but you can use a GPP to insert a registry value that does the same thing:

  • Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
  • Name: Start_NotifyNewApps
  • Type: DWORD (32-bit)
  • Value: set to 0 to turn off highlighting, set to 1 to turn it back on.
 
No NLA support when connecting to an RDS with Windows XP SP3
edited by on February 11th 2016, at 12:42
Windows XP SP3 and the latest supported Remote Desktop client update should support Network Level Authentication (NLA). But, when connecting to an RDS server with NLA enabled, you may still get the following error:

Remote Desktop Connection
The remote computer requires Network Level Authentication, which your computer does not support. For assistance, contact your system administrator or technical support.

NLA support requires the following on your computer:

Windows XP Service Pack 3

The latest version of the RDC: Remote Desktop client v7.0, although the 6.1 update will also work.

The component which takes care of NLA, called Credential Security Support Provider (CredSSP) is not enabled  ...
 
BusinessMessaging.exe Qt5Widgets.dll error after uninstalling Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
edited by on January 22nd 2016, at 11:53

After uninstalling Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from a domain-joined computer, you may get the following error each time the computer reboots:

BusinessMessaging.exe - System Error
The program can't start because Qt5Widgets.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

To resolve the issue, you need to manually remove a registry key using regedit:

  • On 32-bit, navigate to the key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  • On 64-bit, navigate to the key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Remove the value with name Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

 
'Microsoft.Policies.WindowsStore' already defined after ADMX Central Store update
edited by on January 12th 2016, at 10:22
When updating the ADMX Central Store from Windows 10 to Windows 10 v1511, you may encounter the following error when attempting to view or edit group policies:

Administrative Templates
Namespace ‘Microsoft.Policies.WindowsStore’ is already defined as the target namespace for another file in the store.

File \\domain.fqdn\SysVol\domain.fqdn\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\WinStoreUI.admx, line 4, column 80

A similar problem is referenced in KB 3077013 but basically also applies to this issue:

On a domain controller, using Explorer, navigate to the ADMX Central Store:...\SYSVOL\domain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions

Delete the file WinStoreUI.admx and all occurances of WinStoreUI.adml (under eac  ...
 
'Microsoft.Policies.WindowsStore' already defined after ADMX Central Store update
edited by on January 12th 2016, at 10:20
When updating the ADMX Central Store from Windows 10 to Windows 10 v1511, you may encounter the following error when attempting to view or edit group policies:

Administrative Templates
Namespace ‘Microsoft.Policies.WindowsStore’ is already defined as the target namespace for another file in the store.

File \\domain.fqdn\SysVol\domain.fqdn\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\WinStoreUI.admx, line 4, column 80

A similar problem is referenced in KB 3077013 but basically also applies to this issue:

On a domain controller, using Explorer, navigate to the ADMX Central Store:folder containing SYSVOL\SYSVOL\domain\Policies\PolicyDefinitions

Delete the file WinStoreUI.admx and all occurances of WinSt  ...
 
Disable sticky keys shortcuts through group policy
edited by on December 7th 2015, at 12:58

You can disable the keyboard shortcuts, the so-called sticky keys, through a group policy. This is a user setting, and although there's no true policy for this, you can disable it through a group policy preference registry entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys\Flags="506"

Navigate to:

User Configuration → Preferences → Windows Settings → Registry

There, create a new entry:

  • Action: Update
  • Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
  • Key path: Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys
  • Value name: Flags
  • Value type: REG_SZ
  • Value data: 506
 
Increasing the service kill timeout on a Windows Server
edited by on November 26th 2015, at 15:52
By default, when rebooting a server, Windows will wait for 20 seconds for services to shut themselves down, after which Windows will kill the service. For most systems, this "kill timeout" is sufficient but some applications require more time to do a graceful shutdown (e.g. Quest Rapid Recovery is one of them).

You can change this timeout value by adjusting the string value WaitToKillServiceTimeout in the registry, located at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control

WaitToKillServiceTimeout sets the timeout value in milliseconds. You can change it to whatever you like. For example: for 10 minutes, set the value to 600000.

Note that increasing this value does not mea  ...
 
Properly scheduling a Powershell script using Task Scheduler
edited by on November 26th 2015, at 15:10
When scheduling the run of a Powershell script through Task Scheduler, it is highly recommended to set up the task to run accordingly:

powershell.exe -NoProfile -NoLogo -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "path\to\script.ps1"

Scheduling Powershell scripts in this manner will prevent the dreaded 0x1 exit code from happening.

-NoProfile prevents loading of the user's profile, speeding up the startup of the script and preventing the script from depending on user-specific settings and scripts.

-NonInteractive will allow a script to exit rather than waiting indefinitely when a user prompt occurs.

Setting the -ExecutionPolicy to ByPass or Unrestricted will allow unsigned s  ...
 
Stopping users from installing Google Chrome
edited by on November 18th 2015, at 12:44

From an IT management point-of-view, Google Chrome does not play nice: users that have limited rights on the computer system they work on (a standalone computer or on a Terminal server) can simply install Google Chrome without an admin's consent, totally bypassing any kind of approval. Luckily, this can be countered by setting up software restrictions through a group policy.

I found this article explaining how: http://windowsitpro.com/windows/how-stop-users-installing-google-chrome

 
Fix Outlook 2010 (and newer) Tasks Jump lists
edited by on November 4th 2015, at 15:04
Outlook 2010 and newer have a "Tasks" Jump list, allowing you to quickly create new items by right-clicking the Outlook icon in the taskbar.



Sometimes, the jump list doesn't work properly or disappears altogether, usually after updates or a re-install of Office/Outlook. There are two workarounds to resolve this, both through the registry:

Unpin the Outlook icon from the taskbar.

Exit Outlook.

Open regedit.

Navigate to the key:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook

Delete the registry value LastUILanguage. You can optionally rename it to have a backup.

Start Outlook again.

Re-pin the Outlook icon to the taskbar.

Replace the number in blue with the numeri  ...
 
Move the quorum disk in a 2008 R2 Failover Cluster
edited by on October 19th 2015, at 14:06
In a Windows Failover Cluster, you can move roles from one node to another node using the Failover Cluster Manager. Unfortunately, the GUI in 2008 R2 does not provide a way to move the quorum disk to another node. For this, you need to use the cluster command-line tool. This tool allows complete management of the cluster and its roles from the command-line, and this also includes moving the quorum disk.

Note that the cluster command-line tool no longer exist on 2012 and up. In that case, you need to use the Powershell cmdlets for Failover Cluster.

Each 2008R2 failover cluster comes default with two resource groups that are always present:

Available Storage contains all storage that hasn't  ...
 
Disable automatic start of Server Manager on Windows Servers
edited by on September 23rd 2015, at 14:16
Since 2008, when a (local or domain) admin logs on a Windows Server, Server Manager is automatically started. This is often unwanted and tedious, especially with later versions, which take time to load and cannot be closed until they're done loading.

You can disable automatic startup of Server Manager through a group policy. Apply this to all your servers will prevent Server Manager from starting up, even on new servers and users logging on a server for the first time.

Create (or open an existing) group policy which gets applied to your servers.

In the policy, navigate to: Computer Configuration → Policies → Administrative Templates → System → Server Manager

Set Do no  ...
 
Get a list of installed software (Powershell / WMI)
edited by on September 21st 2015, at 12:40

This one-liner will output a list of installed programs, similar to what you get when looking it up through Control Panel → Add/Remove Programs.

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select-Object -Property Name

The advantage of this cmdlet is that you can dump it to a text file:

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Select-Object -Property Name > Software.txt

And through PS remoting, you can also run this on remote systems.

 
Remove DNS, FRS and DS event logs after domain controller demotion
edited by on September 16th 2015, at 17:24
After demoting a domain controller, the related event logs (DNS Server, File Replication Service, and Directory Service) are not removed. While this is technically not an issue, it can potentially confuse monitoring systems (SCOM inadvertently detects a DNS server while there is none). Or, perhaps you should want to be tidy.

Open regedit.

Navigate to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog

This key contains a subkey, one for each event log. Remove the following keys to remove the event logs:Directory Service

File Replication Service

DNS Server

You do not need to reboot the server. The logs are immediately removed from the Event Viewer.

Although the change is effe  ...
 
Group policy item-level targeting 32-bit or 64-bit OS architecture
edited by on September 11th 2015, at 10:15

There are two methods to specifically target 32-bit or 64-bit OS'es in group policies.

WMI filter

  • For x64 (64-bit):
    • Namespace: root\CIMv2
    • Query: SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor WHERE AddressWidth = '64'
  • For x86 (32-bit):
    • Namespace: root\CIMv2
    • Query: SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor WHERE AddressWidth = '32'

Environment variable

Another method is to check the value of the %Processor_Architecture% variable:

  • For x64 (64-bit): %Processor_Architecture% is AMD64
  • For x86 (32-bit): %Processor_Architecture% is x86
 
Certain Windows updates fail with error 0x800F0922 during configuration
edited by on September 10th 2015, at 13:10
Installation of certain Windows updates may fail to complete. Although the installation itself succeeds, the configuration part does not complete, and the changes are reverted, causing all updates to fail. When looking at the update history (Windows Update → View update history), the updates have failed with error code 0x800F0922:



The following updates are known to be affected by this, but there are probably others as well.

Windows 8/Server 2012: KB2756872, KB2770917, KB2955163

Windows 8.1/Server 2012 R2: KB2919355

The affected updates fail to install because the System Reserved partition (not the C:-drive) is full or nearly full.

In my case, a log file in the System Volume Infor  ...
 
showing posts tagged with 'windows'
 
 
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