To OOBE or not to OOBE

In my most recent customer project I was building a Windows 10 1803 reference image.For this build I came across a kind of strange issue.When deploying the reference image using SCCM, I got a weird error right at the end of the task sequence.If I clicked Try again Windows would do something for a few seconds and then the task sequence would finish like nothing went wrong.And the odd thing was that nothing seemed to be wrong, everything worked.But the error would pop up every single time and that was not something I could ignore.So I google’d and chased all [...]

By |2018-07-31T14:10:31+01:00juli 31st, 2018|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Operating Systems, OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til To OOBE or not to OOBE

DeviceMap and Device Inventory Failures in Win7 to Win10 1709 In-Place Upgrades

**UPDATE**  to the  **UPDATE**  **UPDATE** There has been "multiple TONS" of amazing and diligent work done by some extremely talented individuals to not only uncover some extreme deficiencies in the MS update process but more importantly, to help the community to cope, resolve and move forward!  If this blog post is along the lines of anything you are experiencing, please immediately take a moment to read through this blog post by my friend @AdamGrossTX which should answer all your questions and also provide a solution for "what ails you".  Please also take a moment to follow another friend, @SeguraOSD who has developed [...]

Win7 to Win10 In-Place Upgrade Failures w/ DownLevel 0xC1900208 Error Codes

This will be short and sweet as I am not fond of typing nor do I wish to waste your time with wordy explanations. If you require more details, simply reply to this blog and I will do my best to assist. ENVIRONMENT/SCENARIO: The environment is ConfigMgr (CM) 1710 with a slew of Win7 Lenovo models in dire need of Win10 1709 in-place upgrades. Delivery of Win10 1709 is by way of a CM Task Sequence (TS) with no out of ythe ordinary configurations that would be noteworthy. CHALLENGE: I recently ran into a frustrating challenge where my Win7 to [...]

By |2018-05-01T14:08:16+01:00april 29th, 2018|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hardware & Drivers, Operating Systems, OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Win7 to Win10 In-Place Upgrade Failures w/ DownLevel 0xC1900208 Error Codes

Watch out when using $PSModuleAutoLoadingPreference = “none” in a PS Remote Session in Windows Server 2016

Recently I discovered a change in the default behavior of PSRemoting Sessions in Windows Server 2012 R2 vs. Server 2016. I was migrating a script from 2012R2 to 2016 and surprisingly, I got this error:   The term 'Get-Date' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included , verify that the path is correct and try again. + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Get-Date:String) [], CommandNotFoundException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException + PSComputerName : ctaa01   When I vestigated the issue I found that [...]

Add the “Trigger Setup Rollback” Step in Windows vNext (Windows 10) Upgrade Task Sequence for proper status monitoring

With the announcement of Windows 10 Microsoft released a pre-created Task Sequence for an in-place-upgrade scenario with all the necessary steps it takes to upgrade from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. For more information and the task sequence itself go to the System Center Team blog here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2015/06/16/revised-content-for-the-win10-in-place-upgrade-via-task-sequence-for-configmgr.aspx The task sequence after imported into SCCM: Now, the task sequence comes 100 % out-of-the-box, but if you want to monitor Roll Back Scenarios then you have to add a simple step at the end of the sequence named Trigger Rollback. To do this simply create create the step under the Rollback [...]

By |2015-10-13T15:10:20+01:00oktober 13th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Operating Systems, OS Deployment, Windows Client|Kommentarer lukket til Add the “Trigger Setup Rollback” Step in Windows vNext (Windows 10) Upgrade Task Sequence for proper status monitoring

Automate Signature And Status Reports With PowerShell – Windows Defender (.txt file)

What you will be able to after reading this blog: Get the latest information about "your" Signature- & Anti Virus reports in Windows Defender and make it into a text file. How to automate it, so it will run every day and give you a status report with time and date. Being able to look at what time and date the latest updates have been completed. First of all, we have to create a folder/directory where the status reports can be stored in. Open up PowerShell in administrative mode and run this script only by copy-paste: $path="C:\" New-Item .\AVStatusReports -ItemType [...]

Troubleshooting with Remote Desktop Connection – Solving the issues

Problems like: Cannot connect to the machine Not able to sign in on the machine / user / server Security is blocking my connection Quote: "To sign in remotely, you need the right to sign in through Remote Desktop Services. By default members of the Administrators group have this right. If the group you're in does not have the right, or  if the right has been removed from the Administrators group, you need to be granted the right manually." I will now help you with some troubleshooting. Basically there's no fast way of doing it, but every time you've done [...]

Lenovo Laptop Bugs – System Update & Not Waking Up From Sleep Mode

Before we begin, I would like you to download this System Updater from Lenovo - you will have to use it later on: For Windows 7, Windows 8,  Windows 8.1 - [download id="242" format="1"]  For Windows 2000, XP and Vista - [download id="243" format="1"] If you recently bought a Lenovo computer or laptop, you might as well know some of these problems. Problem: Lenovo laptop won't wake up from sleep, there are driver problems & the Fn and CTRL are not working correctly. Let's start with the Fn & CTRL button. Most of you may have noticed that there is a problem [...]

Using Group Policy to Disable Proxy Settings in Chrome

Here is the download link for the Google Chrome Policy Template. You can save it where you want, just remember to save it where you can find it https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chrome/policy/policy_templates.zip When it's downloaded, follow the guide because you will need it later on. Problem: Error 130 (net::ERR_PROXY_CONNECTION_FAILED) Proxy server connection failed or Unable to connect to the proxy server I am aware of the problem that Google Chrome is enabling the use of Proxy in some versions of Windows. Through this guide, you will be able to change the settings of the use of Proxy in Google Chrome for all users, [...]

Unexpected Shutdown Managementpack

Earlier this year I was talking with a customer about Windows servers which unexpectedly shutdown and how to collect info and be able to see a pattern of the crashes. My very good friend Urban Österberg did a great job in doing a great management pack that save crash info and collect the info if the severs are doing an unexpected shutdown/crash. The Management Pack contain one Rule, which is using a script and registry to check and save information about the shutdown. The rule are enabled by default, please override it if you only want to check specific servers. [...]

Activate local Admin account – or why you need BitLocker!

While this is not a newly discovered hack, I feel that we can not stress the importance of using Bitlocker to encrypt our hard drives. If you like me encounter customers that still runs their computers unencrypted, and don’t see the need for encryption. just use the following guide to show them how easy it is to activate the local administrator account and reset its password. Step 1 Show the customer that the local administrator account is disabled. (or that you don’t know the password). Step 2 Boot from any bootable media, such as the original installation media, Ultimate Boot [...]

By |2014-09-26T14:32:36+01:00september 26th, 2014|Operating Systems, OS Deployment, Security|8 Comments

Dealing with Network Printers in Configuration Manager 2012

There are multiple ways how you can add a network printer to a PC and of course you can do that also with Compliance Settings in Configuration Manager. In PowerShell we can use Add-Printer cmdlet and if you don’t have the latest PowerShell version, then you can use Win32_Printer WMI class to add the Printer. If you don’t want to depend on a specific PowerShell version, then maybe the easiest way is to use Win32_Printer WMI Class. Here are the scripts/cmdlets that you can use Discovery Scripts Option 1 Win32_Printer WMI Class query Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Printer -Filter "Name='\\\\CTTERM\\CTColorPrint01'" | Measure-Object [...]

Why I can’t convert my Windows Server 2012 R2 Core to GUI

Let’s assume that you installed some time ago one Windows Server 2012 R2 Server Core and you have installed also latest Windows Updates to that server and this server does not have an internet connection. Here are the updates that are installed In one day you discover that you need to add graphical user interface and you execute the following command Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Shell -Source:wim:D:\Sources\install.wim:2 You will see that it reaches to 68% and fails with following error Install-WindowsFeature : The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed. Installation of one or more roles, role services, or [...]

By |2014-01-23T11:53:34+01:00januar 23rd, 2014|Operating Systems, Powershell, Windows Server|18 Comments

Enabling Hyper-V in Windows 8 Preview

Microsofts virtualization platform Hyper-V is now included in Windows 8. The requirements are as follows: Windows 8 64 bit version At least 4 GB of ram An x64-based processor Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) Hardware-assisted virtualization: Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology. Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP): Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit) enanled in BIOS. Hyper-V is not enabled in Windows 8 by default. Here is how to enable it: Log on to Windows 8 and on the Metro start page, type: programs (1). Left-click on Programs and [...]

By |2011-09-16T10:58:54+01:00september 16th, 2011|Operating Systems, Windows Client|3 Comments

Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtualization environment

Now that Microsoft have made Windows 8 preview availible you are properly eager giving it a test run and in the age of virtualization you are properly going to install it in a virtual machine. To save you some despair I will outline which virtualization environments that you can use to test run Windows 8 preview without to much hassle: VMWare Workstation 7.x – You can not install Windows 8 Preview on VMWare 7.x. VMWare Workstation 8.x - Windows 8 Preview installs and runs just fine in a VMWare Workstation 8.x vm Windows Virtual PC 2007/Microsoft Virtual PC – You [...]

By |2011-09-14T16:26:24+01:00september 14th, 2011|Operating Systems|7 Comments