Techno Button Master

Ok After a lot of searching, I have finallay found how to capture Windows 7 & The custom profile settings. Its not as intuitive as Windows XP.

You need to read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2101557 but essentially its a process of:

• logging in as local\Administrator
• Customising Windows (start menu, desktop etc)
• Creating an “unattended.xml” using WAIK (for windows 7) and placing in the sysprep folder
• Running the “Capture Media”
• Deploying Windows 7 using the xml created before.

I rough guide here.

1. Install Windows 7
2. Choose any default username & login
3. Goto Computer Management & User Accounts
4. Enable the local\administator account
5. Delete the user accounts except local\Administator
6. Reboot
7. Apply all the customisations
8. Save the Unattended.xml to %windir%\system32\sysprep\unattended.xml
9. Insert SCCM Capture media & capture
10. When deploying, Make sure you apply the XML as part of the TS
    

Links:

http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2224-how-to-copy-default-profile-during-sccm-sysprep/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2101557http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrosd/thread/8869ebaa-15ec-4e6d-a0f2-e476d1ae66dc#cd98f098-b397-4be6-9637-f0e848d3693a

http://www.leinss.com/vistadeploy.html

This will restore the NTFS persmission for Windows XP (Pro)

Run CMD

secedit /configure /db secedit.sdb /cfg %SystemRoot%\inf\defltwk.inf /overwrite /verbose

I know there are many guides around, The only difference here is that I want to do the quicker (alot infact) format, instead of the normal slow one.

To do this, you need an existing Vista/7 Machine and a USB Stick.

1. Insert USB stick
2. Open Command (cmd.exe) as administrator
3. type (followed by enter)
   1. diskpart
   2. list disk
      1. You should note the disk that is your USB drive (disk 1 or 2 etc, not usually disk 0)
   3. Select disk 1
      1. If disk 1 is the correct one for your USB drive
   4. Clean
      1. This will WIPE the disk drive completly
   5. Create partition primary
      1. this will create a new partition that will use 100% of the space on the USB drive
   6. Select partition 1
      1. selecting the newly created partition
   7. Active
      1. activates the partition
   8. Format fs=fat32 quick
      1. this will format the partition in fat32 quickly
   9. assign
      1. assign drive letter
   10. exit
4. Now you can just copy all the files on the CD/DVD/ISO to the newly created partition on the USB Drive.

Some notes: FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, meaning you cannot copy any single file that is larger than this. Many DVD ISO are larger than 4GB and you might forget the filesystem type in the months to come

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

notes taken from http://www.techmixer.com/install-windows-vista-from-bootable-usb-flash-memory-drive/

its here, took me a while to track it down.

ccmcertfix

Usage is pretty easy, run as an administrator on the local machine you want to fix.

To deploy to the network I use psexec and do the following.

psexec -u domain\administrator -p passwordofadmin \\* \\someserver\path\to\ccmcerfix.exe

note that the \\* will do all computers on the network.

I have been using DPM 2007 for a few months now and here are a collection of thoughts and annoyances.

Automaticly resolve alerts

Basically, when you get an alert such as “Replica Inconsistant” due to any number of issues you will be sent an alert and also one is logged in the Alerts tab, This is fine and very useful although if the issue is fixed (server back online, service running again etc) the alert will just sit there, gathering dust. Should it not just go away into some other (closed/repaired) area or filter? I mean its getting silly. (see image)

Windows 2003 System States

This has been the biggest problem for me, I have yet to workout what is going on (fully) but it seems that if for any reason you get an error/warning related to the backup of system_state (in event log) it will cause a failed backup. In my case the error is related to Certificate Services, its a warning and using NTbackup it will backup fine, but with DPM all I get is errors and failures. I will it would just do a Competed backup (dirty mabey)

Agent Installation

The agent installation is seamless and quick, but it would be good if it enabled firewall exceptions on install.

On a good note, It is miles better than anything else. I feel very confident with the backups and so far have had no issues that require a large recovery or a loss of critical data. I highly recommend this for admins that do not have endless time to manage backups and monitor for issues. It is a simple but very effective solution to a nessicary requirement.

J

Finally I have activesync for hotmail on my Android ( Nexus One )

Basically the settings are

• Username: you@hotmail.com
• Password: your hotmail password
• Server Type: Activesync (choose manual setup)
• accept certs
• Server Address: m.hotmail.com

its not working too well tho, some syncs are not doing anything. At least its a start.!

J

I got this,

Simple answer:

just run (as admin) on the client machine and boom, it works! CCMCertFix.exe

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=977203

We have a need to block facebook chat, we chose that due to the overuse of it. Why not block all of facebook? Well overall most people only check the status update of others.. apart from that there is nothing much else to do apart from chat.

simply just created a ACL for url path

/ajax/chat/
/ajax/chat/buddy_list.php
buddy_list.php
/presence/popout.php
/friends/ajax/edit_list.php
edit_list.php
chat.php

This is very disruptive and gives the impression that the chat is semi working.. so the user just accepts there is an issue with facebook itself & not a company policy.

J

Ok, I had to buy from Sony again. They make good laptops I must admit.

One thing they are doing more and more.. bloat. !Please Sony, Stop this!

There is WAY too much bloat, menus and popups… this is why people like Apple.. and this is why I have to format before I can even use it…

Basic Review:

Design – Its niceer than the Z21, build is smoother and cleaner lines all around.

Functions – It has everything the z21 did, plus a Blueray Recorder..

Pro – i7 CPU and more RAM + All next gen hardware

Con – Extra Life Battery is big and heavy.. guess its a compromise..

7/10 so far.

Becuase ‘dsmod‘ & ‘dsquery‘ support piping (passing results to a new command) you can easliy send results from dsquery to dsmod.

I wanted to disable old computer accounts, then after 60 days I will delete them.

dsquery computer -inactive 8 -limit 0 | dsmod computer -disabled yes

The above will search for computers that have not connected for 8 weeks, say after being removed, destroyed etc. then it will disable the computer account.

I a few weeks I will then search for disabled accounts, might export a list and then delete them form AD.

you could expand this and createa a weekly task that would check and disable/delete accounts, or move them to a locked down part of AD etc.

J