windows 2003, 2008, R2 how tos
We recently told you that there was no way to block the public Microsoft Store but allowing your private corporate Store and while true at the time, is now false. At the recent Microsoft Ignite conference, I tracked down a Store program manager and dug into the problem. He told me this has now been changed so I tested and confirmed the GPO setting works as promised. You can set the Microsoft Windows 10 Store…
There are many programs that will run as both an administrator and as a restricted user. However, when some security programs like Active Directory Sites and Services and Group Policy Management Tool, are run as a standard restricted user they have very little functionality. As a result admins must right click on the relevant shortcut and select RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR to force an elevation. This is a pain. To have programs automatically prompt for elevation:…
Windows Admin Center was code named Project Honolulu during its development cycles. It went live in April 2018 and was titled “Our Re-imagined Management Experience” for good reason. At Ignite 2018 in Florida Microsoft drove home a few points over and over and over again. One of those points was get on Windows Admin Center now. So strip away the hype and ask why should you use Windows Admin Center (WAC) WAC is a web based…
I just attended another Microsoft Windows Server 2019 event at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Florida and I am disappointed to report that Server 2019 has been described as a “nothing burger” by some of the attendees. It should not come as a surprise that the 7th version of Windows Server since NT4 is little more than an iteration on its immediate predecessor, Server 2016. In fairness, there are improvements but the VAST majority of…
If you need to add a registry entry to a Windows PC most often techs will simply export the key and entries they want and then use the REGEDIT /S command to push that entry onto another PC. For example if you want to disable the Cortana bar (but not Windows Search), you save the following into a file named DISABLE-CORTANA.REG Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search] “AllowCortana”=dword:00000000 Then you simply put that file…
We often talk about editing or creating new registry entries in Windows but we seldom talk about removal. If you want to delete an existing registry entry you simply set the entry value to a hyphen ( – ). For example, we recently needed to delete: HKLM > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Run > InstallWindowsUpdates = DWORD AA To do this we simply set “InstallWindowsUpdates”=- Specifically, the DELUPDATES.REG file looked like: Windows…
Over the years we have produced many instructions on how to add files or add drivers to a .WIM image file, but they are all outdated because they are command line. There is now a free GUI front end for DISM made by Mike Celone. To get DISM GUI to work you need two things: .NET 4.0 which can get from Microsoft HERE in unlikely event you don’t have it already Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) that…
If you have already got a deployment image in your Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) then you likely will want a CAPTURE IMAGE so you can collect the Operating System from a SysPreped PC. This is easy to do:Launch WSUS Expand your server > BOOT IMAGES Right click on the appropriate boot image (i.e. Windows Setup (x64) – 1803) and select CREATE CAPTURE IMAGE On the METADATA AND LOCATION screen click the BROWSE button, select…
If you are trying to SysPrep a Windows 10 PC and see: Sysprep Failure Unable to Validate Windows Installation and then see in the log: [0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = 0x3cf2 You likely have some Win10 apps that are installed per person. Things like the calculator and paint may be installed by default but they are installed per person and not allowed to be sysprepped. …
If you want to set your modern Windows (Win 10, Server 2016, Server 2019…) to not download and install updates automatically, there is a simple Group Policy Object you can create: GPO To Stop Windows From Automatically Updating: Expand COMPUTER > POLICIES > ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS > WINDOWS COMPONENTS > WINDOWS UPDATE Set CONFIGURE AUTOMATIC UPDATES to ENABLED and select a CONFIGURE AUTOMATIC UPDATING option from the drop down We like #3 AUTO DOWNLOAD AND NOTIFY FOR…
If you installed the DELL SAN HEADQUARTERS ‘SERVER’ on a new server and are connecting to it from your desktop (or another server), you will likely want to get delete the old server in SAN HQ. The problem is REMOVE SERVER is not an option. Fortunately the solution is easy: REMOVE A SERVER FROM DELL SAN HQ Launch Dell SAN HQ Right click on your NEW server (not the old one) Select MAKE THIS DEFAULT…
As you likely already know, because you have found this page, the GPO to disable the MICROSOFT STORE app was set to be ineffective on Windows 10 Pro after build 1511. This annoying change meant that you could only block the store using a GPO if you were running Windows 10 ENTERPRISE or EDUCATION and that made admins cranky. The solution was to block the store app through a SOFTWARE RESTRICTION GPO as we explained…
If you track the problem down to an IIS issue in which the WSUSPOOL keep stopping, you likely need to expand the memory limitation and the recycle time: Launch IIS Click on APPLICATION POOLS Click on WSUSPOOL Click ADVANCED SETTINGS (action pane on right side) Scroll down and increase the PRIVATE MEMORY LIMIT and decrease the REGULAR TIME INTERVAL. The screen shot below shows the setting we are using at one of our clients: …
If you repeatedly see RESET SERVER NODE in your Windows Server Update Servers (WSUS) console we have found three things that resolve it: Reduce The Number Of Approved Updates This should not be a problem, but I have seen it be a problem repeatedly. You should reduce the number of updates by DECLINING large numbers of updates, for instance: If you have no ARM CPU based products, search for ARM then select all of the…