Most of you already have knowledge about the power of SCUP used together with ConfigMgr. System Center Custom Updates (SCUP) gives you the possibilities to include 3rd. party updates in your normal Configuration Manager software update deployments. One of the downsizes to SCUP is that it requires high level of knowledge about each update you want to distribute. Shavlik now offers ConfigMgr. Customers to subscribe to a very rich catalog of 3rd. party updates. Read more about the solution http://www.shavlik.com/scupdates.aspx and to see full list of updates supported - http://forum.shavlik.com/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=15901

When configuring software updates with ConfigMgr. one of the challenges that I run into the most; is hiding software update notifications from some clients while allowing a full notification on other computers. You can solve this challenge in two different ways. Hide all software update deployments and create a package that will display notifications on some clients Allow software update notifications and create a package that will remove the notification on some clients. Configure the Software Update Client Agent In this example I will allow software updates notifications on the agent.  Then i will create a package that removes the [...]

As some of you might already be aware of; MS10-015 (KB977165) might cause a BSOD. As far as I have read the problem is not the update itself, but caused by an existing infection on the computer.  For updates on this issue be sure to check - http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2010/02/11/restart-issues-after-installing-ms10-015.aspx

Its Friday the weekend is coming up and what I don’t want is a day filled errors . On the other hand, errors can be a cool way to start the weekend – if you get them solved! The first 10 minutes at the customer site went according to my plan. I got some coffee and began to distribute a new package. The coffee was black and strong (which is good) but my package never made it to the distribution point (which is not good). The error The status in the console was stuck in Install Pending. I looked at [...]

Looking at the compliance reports I see that most of updates are installing ok but some are constantly saying “Waiting for another installation to complete” The updates won’t install and end-users are constantly getting an error saying the another installation process is already running. It’s not another running process causing the problem, so restarting services won’t help. Information is stored in WMI and most likely is caused by an earlier installation that failed. To fix the problem – two solutions The drastic one – Repair WMI Log on to the client and stop the Windows Management Instrumentation Service – WMI [...]

Just spend a few hours this morning troubleshooting a new Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 R2 installation.  I started to search the Internet for a solution and didn’t really find any good blog entries. Found a few similar errors posted in the Technet forums and thought I would write a post on the subject. The errors After configuring the Management Point I started to receive these errors: Sitecomp.log: Component [SMS_MP_CONTROL_MANAGER] could not install correctly on server Servername. WebDAV on the Windows Longhorn server is not configured correctly. MPsetup.log <12-30-2009 09:00:07>  WebDAV settings is not setup appropriately <12-30-2009 09:00:07>  [Allow property queries [...]

Download a step by step description of customizing and deploying Microsoft Office 2010 Beta 2 with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 [download id="17"]

Adobe has just informed about a critical vulnerability in Adobe Reader 9.2 and earlier versions  - which is well… all Adobe Reader versions :-) An update to fix the vulnerability will be released mid January 2010. You can read the bulletin here - http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa09-07.html Disable Adobe Reader JavaScript manually 1. Launch Adobe Reader. 2. Select Edit>Preferences 3. Select the JavaScript Category 4. Uncheck the 'Enable Acrobat JavaScript' option 5. Click OK Disable Adobe Reader JavaScript with a configmgr. package 1. Create bat file with this entry reg add "HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\JSPrefs" /v bEnableJS /d 0 /t REG_DWORD /F 2. Copy the [...]

 Websites:  http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/default.mspx - SMS 2003 homepage http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/default.aspx - System Center homepage http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/configurationmanager/ - Configuration Manager News groups http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetmms.aspx?tab=webcasts&id=42364 - Configuration Manager webcasts http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/configurationmanager/en/us/default.aspx - Config Mgr. homepage http://www.myitforum.com/ - Great community http://www.smsexpert.com/ - Information about MOF editing http://www.1e.com/ - Config Mgr. addons http://blogs.technet.com/configmgrteam/default.aspx – System Center Config Mgr. team blog http://v-irtualization.com/tag/app-v/ – How to virtualize 3D games using the App V. sequencer http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb892800.aspx – List of Configuration Manager log files http://blogs.technet.com/b/configurationmgr/archive/2010/11/30/configmgr-2007-antivirus-scan-and-exclusion-recommendations.aspx - ConfigMgr 2007 Antivirus Scan and Exclusion Recommendations http://blogs.technet.com/b/yasc/archive/2010/09/18/asset-intelligence-license-wizard-v1-4.aspx - Asset Intelligence License Wizard Tools: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/tools/scripto2.mspx - Scriptomatic http://sourceforge.net/projects/smsclictr - Config Mgr Client Center http://www.myitforum.com/myITWiki/SCCMTools.ashx - SCCM Right click [...]

In order to successfully discover and install the ConfigMgr. clients on workgroup computers you need to configure a few settings. Configure a Server Locator Point Configure the proper client installation settings Configure the network discovery method Configure the Network access account Configure the client push installation account. Site Systems When you are working with clients that are not able to query the Active Directory services for ConfigMgr information you need to create a Server Locator Point – SLP. In my example I have one SLP a the central site. The SLP is used by the client during the site assignment [...]

With this basic report you will be able to monitor any new applications installed and registrered in Add/Remove programs during the last 7 days on a client computer.  Thanks to Claus Codam for helping out The SQL code SELECT TOP (100) PERCENT dbo.v_R_System.Name0, dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.DisplayName0, dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0, DATEDIFF(Day, CONVERT(date,dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0), GETDATE()) AS [days since installed] FROM dbo.v_R_System INNER JOIN dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS ON dbo.v_R_System.ResourceID = dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.ResourceID WHERE (SELECT ISDATE(dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0)) = 1 GROUP BY dbo.v_R_System.Name0, dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.DisplayName0, dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0, DATEDIFF(Day, CONVERT(date,dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0), GETDATE()) HAVING ( (CASE WHEN (ISDATE(dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0))=1 THEN (DATEDIFF(Day, CONVERT(date,dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0), GETDATE())) ELSE 500 END) > 0 AND (CASE WHEN (ISDATE(dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0))=1 THEN (DATEDIFF(Day, CONVERT(date,dbo.v_GS_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.InstallDate0), GETDATE())) ELSE 500 END) < [...]

ConfigMgr. 2007 SP2 was released a few days ago and can be downloaded from - details.aspx-displaylang=en&FamilyID=3318741a-c038-4ab1-852a-e9c13f8a8140 To successfully install the service pack you need to start the upgrade from the central site and then upgrade child sites and administrator consoles. After the sites have been upgraded it’s time to upgrade the clients. You can use various methods to upgrade the client – check the Technet article for detailed information about the methods - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb694166.aspx One of the most commonly used methods is using a ConfigMgr. package to perform the upgrade. It works like a charm but when deploying the client [...]

I recently got a very good question from a student – how can we check the workstations that haven’t restarted during the last 7 days. The intention is to automatically restart the computers. However not until the end-users have been contacted. For that reason I need to create a report and a query. The report The SQL statement Create a new empty report and copy this SQL code into the SQL statement box: SELECT TOP (100) PERCENT dbo.v_R_System.Name0, dbo.v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM.LastBootUpTime0, DATEDIFF(Day, dbo.v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM.LastBootUpTime0, GETDATE()) AS [Days since last boot], dbo.v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM.Caption0 FROM dbo.v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM INNER JOIN dbo.v_R_System ON dbo.v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM.ResourceID = dbo.v_R_System.ResourceID WHERE (DATEDIFF(Day, dbo.v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM.LastBootUpTime0, [...]

Spending some time in other communities often gives me a lot of good ideas to reports and queries. A little while ago in the System Center Technet community I stumbled over a very need report created by a user called Qu4rk. His report shows a status of each update deployment, with a count of the each possible software update states. The only thing I have changed (thanks to Claus) is a new column showing the compliant computers in %. I am not going to take any credit for the report as my work was very limited. But this report is [...]

From time to time you will need to remove one or more software updates from a deployment. To remove the update from the deployment you can: Identify the update by reviewing the updatesdeployment.log on one the clients. If the deployment process is visible, you can also identify the failure by looking at the Updates installation status. Remove the update from the Update Management list You can see which update lists the update is part of by looking at the updates properties in the Config Mgr. console Navigate to the Deployment Management node, select the Deployment management list. Select the update [...]