I've been working with Get-Printer and I ran into a situation where the server returns two instances of every print device. One is called "Print" and the other is "Print3D". I can't find any information about this online and I'm wondering what this device type is supposed to be used for.
Bonus: How do you turn this off and what impact does it have on printing?
Running Windows Server 2008 R2
I am attempting to use Global Conditions to allow SCCM 2012 Application objects to trigger the installation of a video driver package. I'm running into issues when I have both an onboard (CPU or Motherboard based) video device and a PCI-E Video card. The reason I can find is that the application requirement I setup to detect this is unable to handle the results properly. Here is how I have this setup:
Global Condition
Application Requirement
This example is for Intel HD Graphics 530. It works until I add a Video Card. I'm using a Dell Precision Tower 3620 which has a feature that allow you to use both onboard and PCI-E video cards at the same time. They show up as two different devices in device manager but they are both using the standard VGA driver.
The driver package, on the other hand, disappears from software center. When I use the Deployment Monitoring Tool (part of Config Manager Toolkit), I see that the Requirement Violation is that the Current Value doesn't Equal the Rule Expression. The problem is that the Current Value is the Device ID for the PCI-E video card. From what I can tell, the requirement processes each instance recorded in the Win32_VideoController Class and you have to pass all of them in order to allow the deployment to evaluate as applicable.
So does anyone have an idea on how I can get SCCM to properly handle the multiple instances that the WQL query is returning? I just need a way to pass the requirement evaluation when one of many instance matches the value.
In my Microsoft active directory environment almost every organizational structure is an Organizational Unit. There are two common exceptions to this rule, the Computers object and the Users object. These are the default objects that are created when you setup Active Directory. Whenever I read anything about these objects, I am told that they use "Container Names" for backwards compatibility. From what I understand, these objects were configured that way when active directory was setup. My main question is this:
What will break if you convert to using OU's for these objects? I'm asuming the only way to do it is to create new OU's, redirect active directy to use these new OU's, and then delete the old CN objects.
I realize it's not a recommended procedure, but I want to know why.
Bonus Questions
I am running into an interesting issue with some applications not evaluating properly in SCCM 2012. The example software I have is Adobe reader 11. When I install using an MSI deployment through software center, everything works great. The problem comes up when someone goes to the adobe website and downloads the executable installer and runs that. Now software center detects the software as uninstalled and will list is as an available title.
I am using the "Windows installer" detection method and looking for this GUID "{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AB0000000001}". When I look in the AppDiscovery.log, all I get is an "+++ Application not discovered." message.
So here's the question: Where can I see what the detection method is querying and what it gets back?
Bonus Question: When performing a "Windows Installer" detection, where does the system look for that GUID?
Thanks in advance
So I am trying to get Remote Installation Service Running on a Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition with Service Pack 2 installed. I am trying to integrate network drivers into the image and I keep getting this warning in the event log.
An error occurred during the parsing of an INF file netclass.inf in the given section Manufacturer.
What's weird is that there is a KB article that talks about this KB823658. The problem is that the hotfix was rolled up into SP2 so it should already be applied.
Another weird thing is that the Boot Information Negotiation Layer Service (BINLSVC) is not displayed as a running service so I can't restart it when I make changes to the image. I do have the Windows Deployment Service (WDS) and I am hoping that it was rolled into that as well.
This is a system that has DHCP, DNS, and AD installed and I have run RISETUP.EXE . This all mostly done with the default values and this is in a test environment where there is very little else on the subnet.
I have a windows 7 system that is part of a domain. When it is unable to access the domain controller, will it still run logon scripts? Right now, we have a local script that is launched from the run section of the registry that checks for connectivity. If it can't talk to the server, it modifies some settings that prevent major bugs while using the machine.
This is probably the worst way to do this, but it's what a previous tech setup. What are some best practices for setting up logon scripts with GPO's and active directory? Whatever I set still needs to be able to run when the system is off the network.
Thanks
[Background]
We have been having trouble with our network clients suddenly being unable to print. They get an odd error with a hex code. We determined that something in the driver was messed up and we could resolve the issue by clearing the driver cache and reinstalling the driver. This happens to random computers every so often. We're assuming this is a bug with the latest Dell 2330dn driver since that is the only model that has this problem.
[Problem]
What we are looking to do is write a Powershell script that would clear the driver cache and redownload the driver. I see a ton of scripts out there to manage queues, servers, and ports, but nothing for local driver cache management.
[Current Workaround]
Since we have to do this manually, I'll write out the steps so you know what we want this script to replicate.
[Request]
I'm good enough with powershell to translate the above workaround into a pair of scripts. I'd like to find a more elegant solution then my current workaround.
Any suggestions?
Here's the situation:
We have a large (5,000+ user) organization that is currently using folder redirection to manage the windows desktop icons. This folder is redirected to a network share where we can centrally manage the different sites and such. When a user tries to use a computer when the network is not available, they are unable to use any shortcuts in the Public folder. We only redirect the C:\Users\%username%\Desktop folder.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how to go about managing desktop icons? We still want a central location to manage these items, but find a way to keep the system working when the network is unavailable.
As a point of clarification, the network rarely goes down. We do have instances where a few computers do not have a network connection. Usually, something is simply unplugged. Since we have multiple sites, the line from a branch to the central office has gone down a few times. This is more of an attempt to maintain a positive end user experience when disconnected from the network.
So I'm working on a way to use Powershell to get a list of scheduled tasks. Through my research, I determined that the only way to get "most" tasks is to use SCHTASKS. This command does allow for XML output which you can push right into a variable:
$tasks = [xml](SCHTASKS /QUERY /XML ONE)
Now, the problem comes up is that the task name is stored as an XML comment. When added to tasks object, all of this data is stored under the "#comment" key. Using normal addressing rules, you would be accessing:
$tasks.Tasks.#comment
The above doesn't work of course because the number sign is a special character for comments so it ignores it. I can't escape the character with a back tick "`" so I am at a loss of what to do. I'd rather avoid having to do all of this through a csv file since I loose a lot of data when I do that.
Thanks
So I've been trying to solve the "The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission" problem and everything I've been reading says I need to get "DCOMperm.exe". There are plenty of links to usage and download links that point to non-MS sources. I'd like to get this direct from Microsoft, but I can't find it there.
Some people say that it's part of an SDK, but I'm not sure which one. Does anyone have any experience getting this exe?
I was working on setting up a network share (see below story) and I ran into some odd behavior with NTFS permissions. The "CREATOR OWNER" object seems to only be able to list "Special" permissions in the "Security tab". No matter what I do, the system reverts back to this setting. Is there a way to get the "CREATOR OWNER" entry to list anything other than Special in the security tab? It would make checking for permission mistakes so much easier since I wouldn't have to dive into the Advanced Tab to see what permissions I set for this group. This is on Windows 7 client connecting to a Windows Server 2008 share.
Bonus Question:
I also would like to know why the "CREATOR OWNER" group can't apply permissions to "This folder". This seems like a weird quirk of this group that must have a story behind why it was setup this way.
I did some searching and found the "How Permissions Work" technet article. I browsed through looking for information on the "OWNER" permission and only found some information on how that permission works.
[Background Story]
So I have a network share where users will create a folder to store their work on a particular project. Files in each user's folder are private due to the parameters given to me by the project managers. On top of that parameter, the users of this folder will change constantly though the year, some for only a few days. So to make the administrative overhead as low as possible, I setup the permissions as follows:
I set the permissions, Hit OK, and everything works. Later, when I come back to add the content manager group to the Security tab I notice something odd. The "CREATOR OWNER" entry has switched from Modify to Special. I go into Advanced permissions and I notice that the "CREATOR OWNER" only applies to "Subfolders and files only". I then try to reset the "Apply To" drop down to "This folder, subfolders, and files" but it switches back as soon as I hit "Apply".
Thanks
I am working with a Powershell script that adds scheduled tasks to systems in our domain. When I run this script, it will prompt me for my password. I sometimes fat finger the password and the process starts, which locks out my account. Is there a way to verify my credentials to make sure that what I typed in will validate with the Domain?
I'd like to find a way to query the Domain controller. I've done some Google searches and I should be able to do a WMI query and trap for an error. I would like to avoid that style of validation if possible.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
So I've been working on a Powershell script that needs to detect if an interactive logon has happened since the last reboot. I can force the system to restart before I launch the task, but I'd like to add some intelligence to the script.
Caveats:
I am able to get the last time the system rebooted already:
$date = Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem | %{$_.LastBootUpTime}
$RebootTime = [System.DateTime]::ParseExact($date.split(".")[0],'yyyyMMddHHmmss',$null)
Any ideas? Thanks in advance
So I've been troubleshooting sleep timers for our systems and have run across an interesting issue. I need a way to report how long a system was awake after a number of different inputs. Now, I've discovered that the System Log tracks wake and sleep events and even tells you the times that everything happens at. The thing is doesn't tell you is what triggered the wake event. It does give you a numerical code however. Here are some examples of what I am finding.
Index : 2901
EntryType : Information
InstanceId : 1
Message : The system has resumed from sleep.
Sleep Time: 2010-10-01T23:20:06.097488100Z
Wake Time: 2010-10-03T17:41:12.796400500Z
Wake Source: 0
Category : (0)
CategoryNumber : 0
Source : Microsoft-Windows-Power-Troubleshooter
--
Index : 2841
EntryType : Information
InstanceId : 1
Message : The system has resumed from sleep.
Sleep Time: 2010-10-01T19:19:37.239789600Z
Wake Time: 2010-10-01T21:28:48.921200800Z
Wake Source: 4HID Keyboard Device
Category : (0)
CategoryNumber : 0
Source : Microsoft-Windows-Power-Troubleshooter
So here's my question: Does anyone know what the different numerical codes for the "Wake Source" mean? I think "0" is a magic packet and "4" is a USB device.
Does anyone have any idea if there is any documentation out there on this for Windows 7?
Thanks in advance
We have migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7 at a high school and have run into a problem. The computer lab machines can have upwards of 5-10 different people log into the machine each day. As time goes on, the local cache of user accounts fills up the small hard drives we have. We don't have money to upgrade so we need to find a way to delete the profiles monthly.
In the past we have used delprof from microsoft which worked great. The problem is that delprof doesn't work for windows 7. Does anyone have a way to delete a profile from a batch/powershell script? If you simple delete the files, you get an error the next time the user logs in.
Thanks in advance
So I have a number of Type 1 fonts (.PFM & .PFB files) that I am trying to push out to our client machines. After some web searches, here is what I did.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Type 1 Installer\Type 1 FontsSo far, no luck on the fonts. I have to have a "silent installer" for these fonts so I can push it out to the 100+ machines this needs to go on.
Thanks in advance
At our organization, we have multiple levels of support personnel. The lowest (level 1) of these personnel deal with a single job site with about 40 printers. Each site has a Windows Server 2003 R2 machine that provides file and print permissions. These lower level support personnel do not have admin rights to this server and they never will. This is a problem because when a new printer is delivered, the company wide techs (level 2) must add the printer to the server.
So my question is this: Is there a way to allow non-admins to add printers to a Windows Server machine? These users shouldn't be able to add drivers or make system wide changes. They just need to be able to add, delete, and configure printer objects and printer ports. The per printer item security permission "manage printer" don't allow the user to modify the port.
Anyone have any ideas on what we can do? We need to at least let the user rename the port if possible.
Thanks in advance
[EDIT] These servers are not Domain controllers, but actually member servers. It apparently makes a difference.
Our company just migrated to Windows 7 and decided to use the included "balanced" power plan. The main problem with this is that I use powershell to do remote management and sleeping machines don't respond to these commands. Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can send out a signal to wake up only sleeping machines?
Now, I already know that I can use the "Magic Packet" with wake on LAN, but that has a few problems.
I only want to wake up those systems in the S3 power state, not the S5 power state. (explanation of power states)
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance
We've begun our migration to windows 7 and we ran into an interesting issue. When we hit "CTRL+ALT+DEL" we are brought to the "User selection Screen". Normally, this screen will have an icon for every local user for the machine. These machines are Domain members with "Fast User Switch" disabled so no user names are listed only the "Other User" option. If you click "Other User" or hit enter, the system moves on to the normal login screen where it prompts for user name and password.
Here's the issue: We want to find a way to skip over the part where a user selects "Other User". We essentially want the system to always assume that we always want "Other User" and to go directly to the login screen when a user hits "CTRL+ALT+DEL".
What I find odd is that the "Other User" doesn't show up until we've had more than one domain user log in. Right after we re-image the machine, the login process goes directly to the user credential prompt.
[EDIT]
Security Policies set by Active Directory:
[End Edit]
Anyone have any ideas?
I have been working on a powershell sync script that will be used to control what users have on their desktop (mainly lnk/shortcut files). I have it currently setup to do basic comparisons to add/remove/update the files that are stored locally. The main problem that I am running into is that I don't have a good way to differentiate between deployed links and user created links. Depending on how I sync the files, I run into problems.
Problem 1: If I force the client location to stay in sync with the server, everything on the desktop gets wiped out every time the script is run.
Problem 2: If I don't force a client side sync, when I change/remove a file, the client side retains the files.
So if that makes any sense, I'm hoping someone knows of a way to flag the files that I send down to the local computer. I could then build my script to look for that flag and only affect deployed files.