Author Archives: Thomas.Marcussen

About Thomas.Marcussen

Technology Architect & Evangelist, Microsoft Trainer and Everything System Center Professional with a passion for Technology

Add Office 2010 KMS Key to your KMS Server

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Office 2010 will require either a MAK (Multiple Activation Key) or a KMS Key (the new volume lenience key, since Vista/Server 2008). You will only need one KMS server for your organization to serve out activations for both Windows Operating Systems and Office 2010.

1.

Download your Office Product and KMS Key from Microsoft Licensing

www.microsoft.com/licensing
2.

Download the Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Host License Pack

Download this .exe from Microsoft and install it on your current KMS server. It will ask you for your Office 2010 KMS key and then activate it against Microsoft’s Activiation Servers.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
displaylang=en&FamilyID=97b7b710-6831-4ce5-9ff5-fdc21fe8d965

The Host Service Pack can only be installed on Server 2003, Server 2008 R2 or Volume Licence edition of Windows 7.

Once the key has activated you will receive a message indicating that the activation was successful.
3.

Let your clients with Office 2010 activate to the new KMS host key

You’re all set, your clients should now activate to your KMS server.

Conclusion

The KMS Host key for Office 2010 is somewhat different than that of the client OS’s, as it will only take 5 users running Office 2010 for the KMS to activate them, as compared to the 25 hosts required for client OS’s.
Also, if a client is off of the network and does not contact the KMS server after 180 days the user will receive a message when they open Office stating that the product is unlicensed, however, it will continue to work with no loss of functionality. Once the user connect to the network with the KMS host the error will go away and the re-activation process will be transparent to the end user.

How to Block/Disable Browser Choice Screen on Windows

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Browser Choice Screen/Browser Ballot Screen

Microsoft Browser Choice Screen

How to Block/Disable Browser Ballot Screen on Windows 7

1. Open Run Command by pressing Win+r keyboard shortcut

2. Navigate to following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareBrowserChoice

3. Now create new registry with

Value name: Enable

Value type: DWORD

4. Now if you do not want to display the Browser Choice update then enter value of above key as “0″

and If you want to display the Browser Choice update (default) set value to “1″

See KB2019411

Deleting Orphaned Distribution Points From SCCM Packages

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1. Backup the database.

2. Find the entries for the DP package share:

Select * from pkgservers where NALpath like ‘%\<server>%’
Select * from pkgstatus where pkgserver like ‘%\<server>%’
Select * from contentdpmap where serverpath like ‘%\<server>%’
Select * from DPinfo where servername like ‘%<server>%’

3. Delete any entries from any of the above tables that point to the nonexistent share:
Delete from pkgservers where NALpath like ‘%\<server>%’
Delete from pkgstatus where pkgserver like ‘%\<server>%’
Delete from contentdpmap where serverpath like ‘%\<server>%’
Delete from DPinfo where servername like ‘%<server>%’

Keep in mind – This metod is NOT supported by Microsoft

cannot remove or reinstall site server system

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error:

SMS Site Component Manager failed to deinstall all SMS server components from site system “\servername“.

SMS Site Component Manager failed to reinstall this component on this site system.

If logging is enabled for the SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER service, entries similar to the following are found in the SmsLogsSitecomp.Log file:

Starting service SMS_SERVER_BOOTSTRAP_RIVIERA with command-line arguments “RE0 E:SMS /deinstall \LUXORE$SMSbini386smsexecd.exe”…
Execution of “\LUXORE$SMSbini386smsexecd.exe /deinstall /siteserver:RIVIERA” on server LUXOR failed: The file “\LUXORE$SMSbini386smsexecd.exe” does not exist.
Bootstrap operation failed.
Deinstalled service SMS_SERVER_BOOTSTRAP_RIVIERA.
Bootstrap operations aborted.
Deinstallation failed and will be retried in the next polling cycle.Could not start service SMS_SERVER_BOOTSTRAP_LUXOR. The operating system reported error 997: Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.
Bootstrap operation failed.

To work around this issue, follow these steps.
  1. If a recent backup of the SMS directory exists, restore the SMS folder to the CAP. Stop and restart the SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER service on the Site Server to force a Site Component Manager update cycle.In some cases the Site Component Manager will still be unable to remove (deinstall) or reinstall the CAP. In this situation, remove the CAP role from the server (if reinstallation is being attempted). The Site Component Manager will attempt to remove the CAP role from the CAP server for 1440 minutes (24 hours), and then it will time out. After the Site Component Manager has timed out, the errors will cease and you can attempt reinstallation can be attempted if you want to. If a 24-hour wait is not feasible, proceed to step 2.
  2. If a 24-hour wait is not feasible, the removal timeout process can be accelerated by modifying an SMS registry key.To accelerate the CAP removal timeout, modify the following registry value:
    HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftSMSComponentsSMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGERComponent ServersSERVERNAMEDeinstallation Start Time

    Change the value of Deinstallation Start Time to 1. Stop and restart the SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER service on the Site Server to force a Site Component Manager update cycle. The Site Component Manager log should indicate the deinstallation process has timed out as follows:

Bootstrap operation failed.
Deinstalled service SMS_SERVER_BOOTSTRAP_NETLKWI02.
Bootstrap operations aborted.
Deinstallation failed. Deinstall retry interval of 1440 minutes exceeded.
Component assumed to be deinstalled; deinstallation will not be retried.

MP Control Manager installation fails

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The error:

MP Control Manager detected MPsetup has failed to create the CCM_Incoming Virtual Directory.

Possible cause: The IIS IWAM account has expired, been disabled, or has invalid or too restrictive logon hours. You may verify this information by running the net user command line for the IWAM account.  (i.e.: “net user IWAMMachineName)
Solution: Use the output to verify that the account is enabled, and logon is possible during the time of installation.  Note:  You can use “net user” to modify the account properties.

Possible cause: The IIS IUSR account has expired, been disabled, or has invalid or too restrictive logon hours. You may verify this information by running the net user command line for the IUSR account.  (i.e.: “net user IWAMMachineName)
Solution: Use the output to verify that the account is enabled, and logon is possible during the time of installation.  Note:  You can use “net user” to modify the account properties.

Possible cause: The designated Web Site is disabled in IIS.
Solution: Verify that the designated Web Site is enabled, and functioning properly.

Solution:

This worked for me:
1. Remove BITS
2. Reboot
3. Add BITS
4. Trigger installation (Stop and Start SMS_SITE_COMPONENT_MANAGER using the ConfigMgr Service Manager)

Windows 7 Tool Troubleshoots Sleep Mode Problems

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Windows only: Ever wonder why your laptop’s battery seems to die too quickly? The Windows Help blog points out a hidden command-line switch that generates a report with loads of helpful troubleshooting information.

The report lists all of the devices that are causing problems with sleep mode, explains the different power saving modes your computer supports, and even gives you detailed information on your battery—invaluable information when your system takes forever to go in and out of sleep mode. Generating the report is easy enough—just open up a command prompt in administrator mode using the context menu -> Run as Administrator option, and then type in the following:

powercfg -ENERGY

The utility will take a while to generate the report, sometimes more than the 60 seconds it quotes you—but when it finishes you can open up the generated file in your favorite web browser. Once you’ve examined the report, you can figure out if you need to do some tweaking or update a driver.

Enable virtual Wi-Fi

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Windows 7 includes a little-known new feature called Virtual Wi-Fi, which effectively turns your PC or laptop into a software-based router. Any other Wi-Fi-enabled devices within range – a desktop, laptop, an iPod perhaps – will “see” you as a new network and, once logged on, immediately be able to share your internet connection.

This will only work if your wireless adapter driver supports it, though, and not all do. Check with your adapter manufacturer and make sure you’ve installed the very latest drivers to give you the best chance.

Once you have driver support then the easiest approach is to get a network tool that can set up virtual Wi-Fi for you. Virtual Router (below) is free, easy to use and should have you sharing your internet connection very quickly.

Virtual router

If you don’t mind working with the command line, though, maybe setting up some batch files or scripts, then it’s not that difficult to set this up manually. See Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot for more.

Disk2vhd: New Utility to Create VHD Versions of Physical Disks

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“Disk2vhd” is a new utility released by Sysinternals team at Microsoft which allows you to create VHD versions of physical disks. If you are not aware of these technical terms, lets help you in understanding them.

VHD refers to “Virtual Hard Disk” which is a file format used in Microsoft virtual machines. So by using “Disk2vhd” you can create VHD versions of your HDD which can be used in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v374/vishaal_here/Disk2VHD.png

Disk2vhd supports Windows XP SP2 and higher including 64-bit editions.

You can download it using following link:

Download Link

Make Private Browsing More Private

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Privacy features such as InPrivate browsing in Internet Explorer 8 and similar features in Chrome and Firefox promise to protect your privacy by not keeping track of page history, temporary files and cookies. This may be enough to hide your tracks from a beginner computer user but there are still traces of what sites you visit within the local DNS cache. An advanced user can run the ipconfig /displaydns command to view the most recent sites visited.

For example, when you start InPrivate browsing in Internet Explorer and visit Bing.com.

The DNS Cache shows where you have been.

The best way to improve the privacy of your InPrivate browsing sessions is to also clear the local DNS cache after closing the browser. Open up an administrative level command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns and hit Enter.