SCCM 2007 R3 OSD shows “Unable to read task sequence configuration disk.” like here:
In my experience there are three possible causes for this error to come up:
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Category Archives: Windows
Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 “Changing the Primary Domain DNS name of this computer to “” failed….”
Windows Server 2008 R2 VMs started giving me errors while joining the domain recently, here is the exact error message that comes up:
netsetup.log (%SystemRoot%\debug\netsetup.log) shows no errors and my VMs appears to be joined properly:
Now to fix this there are two potential solutions/recommendations:
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How to get rid of “Do you trust this printer?” dialogue?
Very unwelcoming error message just popped during user login process when I was messing around with mapping printer connections:
This will obviously not cause too much of a problem with a single computer but when you have 500 of them throwing this error you know you’re in trouble! Not how do you remove/hide this message? In my case Group Policy was the answer and the particular setting is called Point and Print Restrictions and it exists under User and Computer Configurations:
Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Printers
User Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Printers
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Domain Controller status is unavailable
This problem was bugging me for a while now. Every time I have to connect to a different DC, status for one of them is showing as “Unavailable” In my case this hasn’t got anything to do with the domain controller actually functioning or having connectivity. DC works fine and I haven’t had any problems with it.
Few screenshots demonstrating the issue as well as explaining what’s the cause:
“Exception message: The user has insufficient access rights.” while logging in to Outlook Web Access (OWA)
Interesting error message indeed! Some screenshots as soon as you hit ‘OK’ on time zone screen and after logging in to OWA:
How to deploy 7-Zip 9.20?
Following on from my last post which talked about deployment of VLC Media Player 2.0.4 we are going to look at pushing out 7-Zip 9.20 in the enterprise.
7-Zip has been around for as long as I can remember and its a very good alternative to WinRAR and WinZIP – both of which are chargeable. Functionality wise its definitely on pair with any paid solution available today. Also .7z compression format is one of the best to use if you care about final file size – to quote 7-Zip themselves here is what they have to say:
Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually, 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to zip format 2-10% better than most of other zip compatible programs.
Quick compression ratio stats show how well 7-Zip does against the competition:
FILE SETS: Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 for Windows and Google Earth 3.0.0616 for Windows after full installation.
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How to find out which Domain Controller my PC is talking to?
One very useful piece of information to know, if you’re working in large Active Directory implementation with multiple DC’s and Sites, is to be able to determine which Domain Controller machines are authenticating against at any given time.
Here’s the command to tell us exactly that:
nltest /dsgetdc:domain_name
Rather handy if you’re testing whether Sites and Services have been setup correctly or are moving computer objects in Active Directory and want the quickest turnaround for GPO’s etc.
You could always use built-in ‘set l’ command but that’s not always accurate due to %logonserver% variable taking a bit of time to update if you change Active Directory site and ultimately domain controller you’re authentication against. Remote workers are good example as they tend to be all over the place and ‘set l’ might give misleading and not precise results.
How to List Add/Remove Programs on a Local/Remote Machine
Another quick post to show how to list installed programs in Add/Remove programs on local and/or remote machine(s).
wmi is what makes this possible and the command we need on local machine is as follows:
wmic product get name,version
– on remote one we have to add node parameter to our wmi statement:
wmic /node:”FQDN_Goes_Here” product get name,version
Either one can be exported by adding:
/format:csv > Export.csv
at the end.
That’s it!
How to deploy VLC Media Player 2.0.4?
Deploying software in the enterprise can be quite complicated, it doesn’t have to but it can be at times. There are tons of people that will just “install” what’s necessary to get them out of trouble (even if it means doing it 100 times over and over!) The same group of people cannot really distinguish between installing and deploying and if you happen to have them on board – you’re in trouble. Now, I don’t even remotely consider myself software packager but when deploying applications I usually follow few simple rules to take care of the basics. Here are the rules:
I. Installation has to be silent with no user intervention required. You run the install and usually don’t even know when its done unless you watch out for msiexec processes etc.
II. Once installed you should run it and no popups / random windows / activation, registration dialog boxes etc. should come up. It simply has to open nice and clean.
III. Again, once installed no extra rubbish should be copied to users desktop / start menu / run once etc. No auto update services should be allowed to start. No tray icons should be visible etc.
If you’re able to achieve all of the above you’re better than most. What we are essentially looking for here to clean and sleek deployment of whatever we need to push out to our client machines. No one likes to login to a machine and see 10 popup windows asking you do to do stuff. Horrible experience before you even start doing anything. Lets get to it!