Block Browser Choice

So whats this thing about Broswer Choice to start with ? Well you can read more about it here.

So if you would like to block this behaviour like most enterprise organisations want to do. There is a way to block that this updates comes into play. You simply just need to add a registry value to your machines. If the registry key is present the users will not experience the Browser Choice experience on that machine.

Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\BrowserChoice
Value Name: Enabled
Value Type: DWORD
Possible Values: 1 Display browser choice update
                                0 Do not display browser choice update

There are different ways of adding it , choose the method that suites your environment best.If you just want to test it on your own machine simply run this command , and verify that the reg value is there.

Using lastLogontimeStamp for your Client Health

If you want to use the lastLogontimeStamp value in Config Mgr reports its fully possible. The value will give you a date when your machine last was in contact with your Active Directory with some modifications, In fact the date will be between 9-14 days behind the actual date with default settings. But at least it gives you a hint on your clients activity. More about the value here: http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/04/15/the-lastlogontimestamp-attribute-what-it-was-designed-for-and-how-it-works.aspx .

So first you need to collect the value this is possible to do with your system discovery task. All we need to to is to configure an extra attribute to be collected “lastLogontimeStamp”.

Go to your discovery task and the Active Directory Attribute and add a new value lastLogontimeStamp, and press ok and at the next discovery the value will be collected.

The Value itself is is stored in INT8 se we need to convert the value to Date and Time when we Display it. My SQL Skills are note the best in the world so I asked my friend John to help me out and so he did. So for further references please read the blog post he wrote about it.

In my case I am on SQL 2008 so I  did my function and used it in my query to get the machine name and the lastLogontimeStamp in my Report.

Function to Convert Int8 to Date Time

go

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_Int8_to_DateTime(
   @Int8 BIGINT
)
RETURNS DATETIME2
AS
   BEGIN
      RETURN (DATEADD(mi,@Int8 / 600000000 + DATEDIFF(Minute,GetUTCDate(),GetDate()),CAST(’1/1/1601′ AS DATETIME2)))
   END
GO

SQL Report to get Machine Name, Usaername and Last AD Contact using the function created in the previous step.

SELECT     v_R_System.Name0, v_R_System.User_Name0, CAST(dbo.udf_Int8_to_DateTime(v_R_System.LastLogonTimeStamp0) as varchar(11)) as LastADContact
FROM      v_R_System
ORDER BY LastADContact asc

This has been tested on SQL 2008, but you should always test on lab systems before moving any code to production.  This is released “AS IS” and confers no rights.

References

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms676824(VS.85).aspx
• http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2009/04/15/the-lastlogontimestamp-attribute-what-it-was-designed-for-and-how-it-works.aspx 
• http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/jnelson/archive/2009/08/25/140938.aspx

New Hotfix for SP2 (Distribution Manager)

Consider the following scenario:

• You install the distribution point role on a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) site server.
• You customize the retry settings on the Distribution Point tab for the distribution point. Or, you use the default value for the retry settings.
• A retry is required after a package distribution fails.

In this scenario, the Distribution Manager does not honor the retry settings on the Distribution Point tab when the Distribution Manager retries the distribution.
Note Before each retry, there is a 10-second delay.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=978875 

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/archive/2010/01/26/new-hotfix-the-distribution-manager-does-not-honor-the-number-of-retries-and-delay-before-retrying-minutes-retry-settings-on-sccm-2007-sp1-site-servers.aspx

Controlling Software Inventory (skpswi.dat)

Sometimes you want to exclude certain folders or drives from beeing scanned to have a clean Inventory, an example you may not want to scan a server with large volues for data like home directories or the IT department Install library. This causes both load on the server /client having the drive and it causes you to get this information into the database and you need to handle it in your reports.

Simply do like this

• Create a file named skpswi.dat
• Add the attribute hidden
• Put it in the folder/drive you would like to exclude from Software Inventory

More is to be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc180976.aspx

Resetting Windows update Agent on Windows XP

Sometimes you need to reset the Windows update Agent to get it working like it should. If you haven’t updated to the SP2 version of WSUS i strongly recommend doing that on your Software Update Point as allot of fixes where released in that Service Pack. Below is a set of commands you can use to reset a Windows update Agent, the easiest way is to save the commands in a bat file and launch it on your XP clients in proffered way manually of with software distribution.

net stop bits
net stop wuauserv
Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr*.dat"
Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore *.bak
Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution\Download *.bak
Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 *.bak
sc.exe sdset bits D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
sc.exe sdset wuauserv D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
cd /d %windir%\system32
regsvr32.exe atl.dll
regsvr32.exe urlmon.dll
regsvr32.exe mshtml.dll
regsvr32.exe shdocvw.dll
regsvr32.exe browseui.dll
regsvr32.exe jscript.dll
regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll
regsvr32.exe scrrun.dll
regsvr32.exe msxml.dll
regsvr32.exe msxml3.dll
regsvr32.exe msxml6.dll
regsvr32.exe actxprxy.dll
regsvr32.exe softpub.dll
regsvr32.exe wintrust.dll
regsvr32.exe dssenh.dll
regsvr32.exe rsaenh.dll
regsvr32.exe gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32.exe sccbase.dll
regsvr32.exe slbcsp.dll
regsvr32.exe cryptdlg.dll
regsvr32.exe oleaut32.dll
regsvr32.exe ole32.dll
regsvr32.exe shell32.dll
regsvr32.exe initpki.dll
regsvr32.exe wuapi.dll
regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll
regsvr32.exe wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32.exe wucltui.dll
regsvr32.exe wups.dll
regsvr32.exe wups2.dll
regsvr32.exe wuweb.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgr.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgrprxy.dll
regsvr32.exe wucltux.dll
regsvr32.exe muweb.dll
regsvr32.exe wuwebv.dll
netsh reset winsock
proxycfg.exe -d
net start bits
net start wuauserv

NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.sms

How do I prevent Config Mgr from putting files on certain drives ? By default Config Mgr chooses the the NTFS drives that has most available space, and in many ways you dont want this behaviour. So to keep some kind of hygiene on your server you can put a file named in a specific way just like the blog title says. NO_SMS_ON_DRIVE.sms , You can read more about this its an old trick from back in the days  in this KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/871234

Download Config Mgr prereqs !

Is it possible to just download the prerequsites on forehand if you dont have Internet access on the server where you intend to install Configuration Manager.

Yes you can , you need to use the command  without the quotes “MEDIAPATH:\SMSSETUP\BIN\I386\setup.exe /download drive:\path”

Make sure the folder you download to is created before you execute the command otherwise it will not launch.