Tag Archives: microsoft

Generating Azure Management Certificate for Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.1

If you’re about to upload Hyper-V or VMware vSphere virtual machine(s) to Microsoft Azure you need to properly configure the connection in Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter.

Subscription ID (which everyone should hopefully know), as well as Certificate Thumbprint are required to make this happen. Subscription ID can be retrieved either via the management portal or Get-AzureSubscription commandlet but Certificate Thumbprint is not so easy.

Here is the MVMC screen I’m on about:

If you have connected to your Azure subscription in the past using Powershell, chances are you already have the certificate that’s required. In my case, I like to keep things separated so thought it would be best to generate a new cert and use that cert specifically for MVMC related tasks.
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Active Directory Script to Shutdown Computers per OU

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If you need to shutdown computers per OU in Active Directory here is one way of doing it:

On Error Resume Next

Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"

Set objCOmmand.ActiveConnection = objConnection
objCommand.CommandText = "Select Name, Location from 'LDAP://<strong>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</strong>' " _
& "Where objectClass='computer'"

objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000
objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE
Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute
objRecordSet.MoveFirst

Do Until objRecordSet.EOF
'Wscript.Echo "Computer Name: " & objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value
'Wscript.Echo "Location: " & objRecordSet.Fields("Location").Value
txtPCName = objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value
txtshutdown = "shutdown -t 15 -s -f -m \\" & txtPCName
set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run txtShutdown
objRecordSet.MoveNext
Loop

On Error Resume Next

Const ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE = 2

Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

Set objCommand = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")

objConnection.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"

objConnection.Open "Active Directory Provider"

Set objCOmmand.ActiveConnection = objConnection

objCommand.CommandText = "Select Name, Location from 'LDAP://<strong>XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</strong>' " _

& "Where objectClass='computer'"

objCommand.Properties("Page Size") = 1000

objCommand.Properties("Searchscope") = ADS_SCOPE_SUBTREE

Set objRecordSet = objCommand.Execute

objRecordSet.MoveFirst

Do Until objRecordSet.EOF

'Wscript.Echo "Computer Name: " & objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value

'Wscript.Echo "Location: " & objRecordSet.Fields("Location").Value

txtPCName = objRecordSet.Fields("Name").Value

txtshutdown = "shutdown -t 15 -s -f -m \\" & txtPCName

set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

objShell.Run txtShutdown

objRecordSet.MoveNext

Loop

The only change you have to make for this script to work is to provide an LDAP string/path to the OU in AD where you’d like to shut the PCs.

In my company we had to come up with a solution to comply with the “green” policy enforced upon us. Initially I have tried the built-in shutdown command and feeding in computer names using Excel and CONCATENATE function. Issue with that approach was that my script was trying to reach out to each machine to check if its on the network and pingable taking too long to complete. Script above doesn’t have the same issues – it literally fires up shutdown request simultaneously to all machines on the specified OU – much quicker and definitely more effective!

If you guys have other ideas or have other solutions please let me know in comments below!

How to import .nk2 file from earlier versions into Outlook 2010 suggested contacts

Download links for MDT 2010 Update 1….

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If you’re looking for MDT 2010 Update 1 then Microsoft STILL provides download links for it:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2932

All other links have been replaced with MDT 2012 so grab it while you can!

One thing to keep in mind here is that official Microsoft support for MDT 2010 Update 1 ends in April 2013.

Enjoy!

EDIT – 3rd of December 2013

Looks like Microsoft have taken the links down – I have uploaded both x86 and x64 versions here:

MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x86
MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x64

Office 2010 Pro PLUS – Remove “Shared Folder Synchronization” from Explorer Context Menu

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Microsoft Office 2010 Pro and Pro PLUS adds handy (?) option to Windows Explorer context menu called “Shared Folder Synchronization”. This also appears in Standard Buttons toolbar in each Explorer window:

If you don’t use/like Microsoft SharePoint Workspace aka Groove (in Microsoft Office 2007) there is very little purpose for this addition to exist – here is how to remove it:

Either rename or delete the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{6C467336-8281-4E60-8204-430CED96822D}

So rename would look like this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\OLD.{6C467336-8281-4E60-8204-430CED96822D}

Deletion can be completed by running this command:

REG DELETE HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{6C467336-8281-4E60-8204-430CED96822D} /f

Also, third available option is to un-register GROOVEEX.DLL library file, command:

REGSVR32 /u GROOVEEX.DLL

OCSetup/DISM, Component Name List…

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There are two ways of installing components in Windows (scripted ways of course) i.e. you can use OCSetup or DISM Tool.

In both cases you have to supply component name like:

start /w ocsetup <windows_component_name>
or
dism /online /enable-feature:<windows_component_name>

In my case I had to add Tablet PC Components but had to clue what the component name was. These names are technical names and not what Windows Control Panel displays in “Turn Windows Features On or Off”. So how do I get the correct name for components I need to install? Its a rather simple task really, in elevated command prompt type:

dism /online /get-features

If you would like to narrow it down a bit (list is quite long) you can pipe the output and look for “Tablet” lets say:

dism /online /get-features | find “Tablet”

To install it simply take TabletPCOC name and insert into either of the commands above instead of <windows_component_name>

Orca – MSI Database Editor Tool

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Tag Archives: microsoft

Generating Azure Management Certificate for Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.1

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Active Directory Script to Shutdown Computers per OU

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How to import .nk2 file from earlier versions into Outlook 2010 suggested contacts

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Download links for MDT 2010 Update 1….

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Office 2010 Pro PLUS – Remove “Shared Folder Synchronization” from Explorer Context Menu

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OCSetup/DISM, Component Name List…

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Orca – MSI Database Editor Tool

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