I ran into this today with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 on my x64 machine.   This was surprising since I had installed it in my Demo environment on the weekend for a presentation.

But the environment in Question was a Domain Controller and my account was … *cough* … Administrator.

I thought my local copy was corrupt and had downloaded it again.   Same error on the install AND the uninstall.

Checking online I discovered others had encountered this error, when they had it referred to a permissions issue on C:\Windows\Installer.  Funny thing is other applications had installed and uninstalled without issue. 

But I’d seen this in the past where the MSI launches and somewhere in the process a child process launches.   If the child process is launched incorrectly it does not inherit the rights of the parent.

This “Child” could be as simple as something installing a dependency like a Visual C++ runtime module.   If it launches incorrectly it does not run within the UAC.

If you deploy from System Center 2012 Configuration Manager you won’t have this problem but if you run interactively you might.

The solution is easy.   Launch your CMD.exe “As Administrator”  and then launch MDT from the elevated CMD.EXE

This simple trick has saved me in the past from MSI and other installers that for whatever reason sometimes aren’t implemented correctly *OR* the permissions on the installer folder might be skewered up for whatever reason.   Since MDT has NOT failed me in the past, I’m blame my local workstation and not the Great team that Developed this wonderful tool.

It’s technology, sometimes things happen.   Knowing how to get an answer is sometimes all we need.

Sean
The Energized Tech

This Saturday ! That’s right May 4th 2013 !

If you’re in the Ottawa area and want to spend the coolest Saturday ever Register NOW for the 6th Annual Ottawa IT Camp.

For only $25 (What a BARGAIN!) a days FULL of Content for Developers and IT Professionals alike!

A Saturday of Knowledge, Networking food and some piping hot coffee to keep the brains a churning!

The snow has Finally melted!  Let’s breakout the Marshmallows and fire up our brains now. 

Not Registered yet?  Head over here right now and get yourself in before the doors close!

The 2013 Scripting Games are here! Novice Users, Experts, Hobbyists!  ALL ARE WELCOME!

Thrills!

Chills!

the Agony of the feet (Oh! Sorry! Socks!)

REGISTER NOW at Powershell.Org and join in the fun!

The Inner Hero within you is calling.  REGISTER and COMPETE TODAY!

Welcome to Powershell.   With Windows Powershell we can query the Win32_NetworkAdapter in WMI.

GET-WMIOBJECT Win32_NetworkAdapter

This would produce a list of ALL Network Adapters (Physical and Virtual) and their corresponding properties.

If you want, you can break that down to “All Physical Network Adapters” which should make your task easy.  

GET-WMIOBJECT –query ‘SELECT * from Win32_NetworkAdapter Where PhysicalAdapter=”TRUE”’

This however will still return some phantoms.   So we’ll filter this down to only Network Adapters which actually have a MacAddress

GET-WMIOBJECT –query ‘SELECT * from Win32_NetworkAdapter Where PhysicalAdapter=”TRUE” and MacAddress <>””’

Which gets an even SMALLER list.   But the Hyper-V virtual adapters still popup.   We can drill further down and get a more refined list by removing them.

GET-WMIOBJECT –query ‘SELECT * from Win32_NetworkAdapter Where PhysicalAdapter=”TRUE” and MacAddress <>”” and ServiceName <>”VMSMP”’

We can then take this output and sort it out by MacAddress and display it on screen in a more useful format.

GET-WMIOBJECT –query ‘SELECT * from Win32_NetworkAdapter Where PhysicalAdapter=”TRUE” and MacAddress <>”” and ServiceName <>”VMSMP”’ | SORT-OBJECT MacAddress | Format-Table

Life …. it’s always easier with a little Powershell

One silly driver.  The Wireless network card driver.  Dug all over the web site, contacted support, sacrificed something to the unspeakable “You know who” gods.

Nothing worked.  And the reason was…… the driver WAS NOT on the published list of wireless drivers. 

The solution?  Go to the Management section and download the master pack intended for SCCM or MDT (One file that is about a 1/2 gigabyte) and then point to *IT* to dig out the driver file.

Trivial pursuit?  This model had an Intel Centrino Wireless.  It works now.

thanks HP for NOT putting the driver in a proper spot.   *SMACK!*

The Variables you need to modify are

UILanguage=en-US
UserLocale=0409:00000409
InputLocale= 0409:00000409
KeyboardLocale= 0409:00000409

You will also need to supply the following line as well

SkipLocaleSelection=Yes

To find out the LCID for a French version you can run this line in Windows Powershell

[system.globalization.cultureinfo]::getcultures(“AllCultures”) | where { $_.Displayname –like ‘*french*’ }

the Returned object in your Console which show you ALL Cultures with the name “French” in them.

To switch the French Canadian one for example we first alter UILanguage

UILanguage=fr-CA

Our next challenge is figuring out the UserLocale numbers.   What this ACTUALLY is, is a direct reference to the LCID.   The Displayed LCID is in Decimal.   We can test this by taking the first 4 hexadecimal digits from  “UserLocale” and converting them back to decimal with Powershell

[convert]::toint16(“0409”,16)

This returns the decimal value 1033 which if we query the Language locales will confirm this as a en-US configuration.

[system.globalization.cultureinfo]::getcultures(“AllCultures”) | where { $_.LCID –eq 1033 }

So all we need to do is convert the LCID value for a French Canadian entry into Hexadecimal and swap in the new values.

[convert]::tostring(3084,16)

This returns a value of c0c.   We just change the hexadecimal values of UserLocale, InputLocale and KeyboardLocale with the updated value for fr-CA

Feeling the Power of Automation? I AM !

Sean
The Energized Tech

One of the challenges I had today was finding a list of Language locales in Windows.   I poked about and found an online list posted which could help me out with MDT and programming in the Locales for Non english versions of Windows and Office 365 cached downloads.

The problem was the list links from Microsoft weren’t current.   I’m certain there are updated versions (if you have them, email them please or add them to comments) but I went for a programmatic solution.     But I wanted to ask WINDOWS what list it had available, and I didn’t want to sit down with a Hex editor playing with an NLS file. 

Granted, there is probably a BETTER way, but this was quick and simple.   I went to MSDN.com and did a search for “Locale Table” online.   One of the very first links I found was for the “DataTable.Locale” property in .NET.

I could see it was a part of “System.Globalization.Cultureinfo” and decided to try something quick and simple in Windows Powershell, see if this could be natively accessed.

So into Windows Powershell I tried it as an accelerator

[System.Globalization.Cultureinfo]

A smile crossed my face at this point, and I started to play.      I tacked on a ‘::’ and played with Tab Autocompletion to see what was available to play with out of the box.   First out of the list was ‘CurrentCulture’

[System.Globalization.Cultureinfo]::CurrentCulture

“Oh Cool!” my eyes lit up.  I then wondered if there was a “Get” method available.   A little more online poking on MSDN confirmed this as part of the base Methods.

So I tested with a simple numeric id,  Number 1 (Really, I just took a shot to see if it would work)

[System.Globalization.Cultureinfo]::GetCultureInfo(1)

Then i tried with a bad one, (again I was guessing at values)

[System.Globalization.Cultureinfo]::GetCultureInfo(999)

Aha! So all I had to do to get a list of Locales was

Make Errors silent temporarily
Loop through all possible locale values
Capture the list

$olderr=$ErrorActionPreference
$ErrorActionPreference='SilentlyContinue’

$locales=For ($lcid=0; $lcid –lt 20500; $lcid++) {  [System.Globalization.Cultureinfo]::GetCultureInfo($lcid)}
$ErrorActionPreference=$olderr

Granted this is a REALLY bad example of code.  I am tripping off a CRAP load of errors just to get what I want.  There might even be an easier way to find the information, i just find something “Quick and Dirty” (watching all my Developer friends cringe as overload the stack with errors)

But now what I had was a simple object with the data captured.  I could Sort on it

$locales | SORT-OBJECT

Or export it out as a CSV file for easy reference later

$locales | EXPORT-CSV C:\Powershell\locales.csv

With this information finding the names of locales for my Office 365 and MDT deployments was now a piece of cake!

….and All thanks to the Power of Shell!

The Modern Day IT Person is constantly being pushed to do more with less, or in many cases respond to Business needs in a highly responsive mode.

The solution rises before us in the form of tall Stone Monolith we refer to as Automation.

Two Amazing Technologies are at our disposal, System Center 2012 Orchestrator and Windows Powershell.   Each one a mighty and Powerful tool on their own.

Combine them together and you gain the greatest toolset on the planet.

Seeking the answers on how to use these tools?  The Gotchas? The unknown answers?  Internal Debugging? How to Extend Orchestrator with Windows Powershell?

Check out “MDC-B326 - Integrating with Microsoft System Center 2012 and Windows PowerShell” at both Microsoft TechEd 2013 and walk away with the skillset needed to solve resource issues through System Center 2012 Orchestrator and Windows PowerShell.

Job Code #860 which when you research online says “Oh Gee! You have a paper Jam” or “Oh Gee! You’re obviously printing to transparency paper and it doesn’t exist here!”

The problem?  I had chosen a PCL6 driver when the printer needed to run Postscript.  Yes my own fault.   Load the proper driver and it worked immediately (You can see the “OK” when it worked)

Now Sharp get’s a swat on the head tho.  If you print to a SHARP printer with the wrong SHARP driver it should cough up a better error code. 

I don’t know, how about “WRONG PRINTER DRIVER”

Live and learn

So I popped over and swiped a VARIABLES.DAT file from the WinPE environment and looked at it.   As Andrew stated, it was XML data.  I find reading XML data about as exciting as painting a bathroom wall with a toothbrush.

Yes, not all the enticed about it, am I?

But I DO love playing with Windows Powershell.  And since it can NATIVELY deal with XML files (unless my poor fuzzy human brain) I choose it!

So if you’d like an EASIER way to see what variables you have in VARIABLES.DAT to see how you could play about with them, here is an easier way.

[XML]$MDTVars=GET-CONTENT Variables.DAT

$MDTVars.MediaVarList.var.Name

This will dump a list of all the Variable names.  Would you like them sorted?  Sure!

$MDTVars.MediaVarList.var.Name | SORT-OBJECT

“Wait! I want to see the values too!”

(Fussy fussy fussy!)

*poof!*

$MDTVars.MediaVarList.var | SORT-OBJECT

Not anything truly amazing in Powershell but it’s something I found particularly handy today

By the way, Thanks Andrew on that post! Made MY day easier!

Sean
”The Energized Tech”

This is no longer the case.

If you’d like to download the newest Microsoft technologies for evaluation for FREE for the next 90 days here’s your opportunity. 

Simply CLICK HERE to go directly to the site and you can download and Try Hyper-V Server 2012, System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012 FREE for the next 90 days. 

As thanks for taking the time out to download and test these technologies, you’ll have a chance to WIN a FREE Tim Horton’s Gift card.

What a great combination!  Cool technology and chance to sit down and relax with friends and chat about it over Coffee at the coolest Coffee shop in Canada!

So CLICK HERE, CLICK NOW, Check it out and don’t forget to share!  The more the merrier!

When attempted to be reached for comment Steve Ballmer was not available.   However rumors surrounding the new abilities Corn Shell would offer over Powershell were astounding.

An unnamed source was quoted with the following information.

“……Well running on the popularity of Windows Powershell, we decided to press forward and be more innovative.   The IT Community asked for us to listen to their concerns and we decided having a Scripting environment and Shell console that truly on the ears of the Community would be a great idea.  Plus the new Corn Shell is truly a part of our strive to place forth a Green Initiative in every IT Environment.”

The Corn Shell will extend on the concepts of Windows Powershell but split off in a new direction with the concepts of Seed processes.

“You see with a Seed process, we drop one or two in place and they grow and consume Dynamically.   But unlike regular processes, the Seed Processes can produce their own resources.   Ram will naturally roam about the Corn Shell seeking to adopt it’s Kernels within.   The Ram will also spawn additional ram through a new binding system to be referred as Mating.   Mating Ram will also be environmentally friendly as they will cohabitate with the Corn Shell and all that it offers.”

New Corn Shell Seed Processes have the interesting option of built in Popping as well which truly intrigued many members of the IT Community.   The .NET Framework was being replaced on the back end with a brand new design simply called “Fence”.   Fence framework at this time was still in development with no further details.

As the newest Core of the Microsoft Server, Corn Shell would also introduce the latest Built In Defence system to remove all Potential attack.   The new Cumulative Reactive Orchestrator for Websites will leverage a new Workflow based solution to outsmart 100% of Virii.   In addition Microsoft is also rumored to be introducing a smarter method of defending against Malware by creating randomly created new versions.   Leveraging the Simulated Computer Attacking Reaction Enablement system, Corn Shell and the newest Server can defend from all Malware by creating them on it’s own.  S.C.A.R.E and C.R.O.W.  will be locked down and 100% inpregnable.

“…the early pre Dog food tests (officially at this stage referred to as Pig Slop) are exciting!  Not only have we cut down power needs by 8,000% since the new Corn Shell runs off 100% all natural methane for the Power Supplies, it has a built it Cloud environment which costs less than Open Source.    The biggest drawback are the expensive fans in the Data Center to vent out the smell.”

Jeffrey Snover, the designer of Windows Powershell was also unavailable for comment.

The team at Microsoft Canada is focused on ensuring that they help set you up for success by providing the information and tools you need in order to be get the most out of Microsoft based solutions, at home and at work.

Twice a year, Microsoft sends out the Global Relationship Study (GRS for short); it's a survey that Microsoft uses to collect your feedback and help inform their planning.  If you receive emails from Microsoft, subscribe to their newsletters‚ or you've attended our any of their events you may receive the survey.

The important details:

• Timing - March 4^th to April 12^th 2013
• Sent From - "Microsoft Feedback"
• Email Alias - "feedback@e-mail.microsoft.com"
• Subject Line - "Help Microsoft Focus on Customers and Partners"

Many of you already read the Microsoft Canada IT Pro team's blogs‚ connect with them on LinkedIn and have attended their events in the last year or so. So you may already know that you're their top priority. So they want to hear from you.

Pierre, Anthony and Mitch use the GRS results to shape what they do, how they do it and if it's resonating with you. Tell them what you need to be the "go-to" guy (or gal).  Tell them what you need to grow your career.  They want you to be completely satisfied with Microsoft Canada.

This year, Pierre, Anthony and Mitch have delivered 30 IT Camps and counting across the country.  Giving you the opportunity to get hands on and learn how to get the most value for your organization.  They have a few more events planned this year, so keep an eye on their plancast feed for events near you.  Based on your feedback, topics they're planning to cover will include:

·          Windows 8

·          Windows Server 2012

·          System Center 2012

·          Private Cloud

·          BYOD - Management and Security

That's not all.  They've heard you loud and clear so in addition to hands on events, they're also delivering more technical content online via the IT Pro Connection Blog.  Windows 8 continues to be a big area of focus for them.  They covered a lot of great content at launch and they've complimented that with new content like:

·          Security Concepts

·          Enterprise Focused Content

·          Windows 8 and System Center 2012 Integration

In addition to this, there are some valuable online resources you can use like Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft's no-cost online training portal.  Or software evaluations (free trials) on TechNet that allow you to build your own labs to try out what you've learned.

 
Regardless of how you engage with the team at Microsoft Canada‚ you'd probably agree that they hear you. They'd also encourage you to continue to provide that great feedback. They thrive on it‚ they relish it‚ they wallow in it and most importantly of all‚ they action it. So please keep connecting with them and keep it coming! Pierre, Anthony and Mitch are listening.

Resources, Tools and Training

·         Tim Horton's Gift Card Contest - We're giving away 350 Tim Horton's gift cards, all you have to do to qualify is download a free qualifying software evaluation (trial).  Download all three for more chances to win, but hurry, the contest closes soon.*

·         Windows 8 Resource Guide - Download a printable, one-page guide to the top resources that will help you explore, plan for, deploy, manage, and support Windows 8 as part of your IT infrastructure.

·         Windows Server 2012 Evaluation - Get hands on with Windows Server 2012 and explore the scale and performance possibilities for your server virtualization.

·         Microsoft Support  - Get help with products‚ specific errors‚ virus detection and removal and more.

·         Microsoft Licensing  -Visit the Volume Licensing Portal today to ask questions about volume licensing‚ get a quote‚ activate a product or find the right program for your organization. 

*No purchase necessary. Contest open to residents of Canada, excluding Quebec.  Contest closes April 11, 2013 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Three-Hundred-and-Fifty (350) prizes are available to be won: (i) $10 CDN Tim Horton's gift card.  Skill-testing question required. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries. For full rules, including entry, eligibility requirements and complete prize description, review the full terms and Conditions.
 

Then I started looking.

No Shortcut to the Cmdlets

No Registered Module

No helpful little line stating “Cmdlets over HERE!”

But everywhere online  I see the praises of “Service Pack 1 for Configuration Manager” and the MIGHTY POWERSHELL CMDLETS! …. But not a one to be found.

….grumble grumble grumble…

So I did some poking about and it turns out they are installed but just well…. left in the background.  Like you’d never need them.  HARUMPH!  Some Developer needs a spanking for this!

So to SAVE you the headaches I had you will NOT see a shortcut for Powershell for System Center 2012 Config Man.   Don’t try, there is no magic “Oh I forgot to click this button.” It’s not there.

But you can get to it.   The module is sitting under the BIN folder in your Config Man folder under Program Files.  On my test lab it was

‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\Bin’

To load the module you’ll have to run this little line in Windows Powershell

IMPORT-MODULE ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\Bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1’

…and the world of Cmdlets for Config Man will open up.

You can verify this afterwards by executing the following Cmdlet

GET-COMMAND –module ConfigurationManager

which will show you a massive pile of goodies available at your fingertips.

If you’d like a shortcut for this (something a ‘Certain Team’ at Microsoft forgot to provide… Bad Bad Bad Bad!!!!) just run this line in Windows Powershell to create one in a default folder called “C:\Foo”

$sh=New-object –comobject  wscript.shell

$lnk=$sh.createshortcut(“C:\Foo\SCCM-Shell.lnk”)

$lnk.targetpath=’”C:\Windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe”’

$lnk.Arguments="-command `"{ IMPORT-MODULE 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\Bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1 }`""

$lnk.save()

There.   Now stop banging your head on the shiny spot on your desk.  It’s all better

Cheers
Sean
The Energized Tech

Systems Center Orchestrator 2012.    And this new fascination is enhanced over the top by it’s ability to internally leverage Powershell!

Excuse me for a minute while I wipe up this puddle of drool on the floor.

For those of you not aware, Systems Center 2012 Orchestrator is a massive workflow system that is EASY to use and gives you the ability to translate many IT Processes for managing your Infrastructure into solid workflows that can allow you to be many places at once, without actually BEING there.

Now the fact I can also get these workflows to work with my OTHER most favorite thing on the planet, POWERSHELL, is even better!

But I know there are little ears out there listening saying “What we do to improve?”

Little ears listen well and listen now.  It’s so EASY to improve!  Here’s what Systems Center Orchestrator 2012 needs to REALLY just start me singing.  (Warning!  Ask Jeffrey Snover as THIS HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST!)

1. Integrate the Editor for Editing Powershell Scripts INTO the Powershell ISE

2.Allow Powershell Variables to be “AutoPublished” (whether this is a list to click on or something that can “prepopulate” the Publish field for the bus, don’t care)

3.Tie in the Powershell ISE into the Runbook tester to allow a more granular testing of the internal script structure

You see it won’t take much to send this over the top.    Presently, editing internal Powershell scripts in Orchestrator when I am used to having an ISE is painful.  Troubleshooting is worse.   Editing…. Well Notepad even has CTRL-Z.

But I know you can do this.  You have the ability and the power to improve Automation in a way that nobody else can.  I put this to you Systems Center 2012 team.   Make this happen and make Orchestrator 2012 go out and Kick ass in a way that nobody has EVER imagined!

Sean
”The Energized Tech”