All about Systems Management / ConfigMgr

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Windows 7 Imagining – Hardware Independent Image

Every image of windows 7 is hardware independent Image, unlike windows XP the concept has changed.

Here are some Good postings to do this

Building a Standard Image of Windows 7: Step-by-Step Guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee523217%28WS.10%29.aspx

How to create a Hardware independent Image? : http://ashleystechblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-create-hardware-independent.html

and one more http://theitbros.com/sysprep-a-windows-7-machine-%E2%80%93-start-to-finish

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Windows 7 Education - BDD

Here is the link for windows 7 Pre and Post deployment trainings available where we can communicate with the end users and IT Help Desk.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/elf/Welcome.aspx

How to exclude SCCM Client Push on Specific Systems or Ou’s?

The common question i get from my dears is how to prevent installing the client Push deployment on few business critical systems or some ou’s.. The Answer is you can achieve this in multiple ways..

1) by exclude that OU from discovery

2) Don’t use Client PUsh

3) Remove Client Push account or site server account from the local administrators Group on those systems

4) Create a file called ccmsetup on all those systems (Path %windir%\system32)

Ok for the first option here are the steps

1. Open the Windows Registry Editor on the Configuration Manager 2007 site server that hosts the site that you want to exclude a computer from joining.

2. Locate the SMS_DISCOVERY_DATA_MANAGER sub-key by browsing to the following path:

· For a 32-bit operating system: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/SMS/Components/SMS_DISCOVERY_DATA_MANAGER

· For a 64-bit operating system: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Wow6432Node/Microsoft/SMS/Components/SMS_DISCOVERY_DATA_MANAGER

3. To enter the name of the computers you want to exclude, double-click the key ExcludeServers to open the Edit Multi-String window.

4. In the Edit Multi-String window, specify the NetBIOS name of each computer you want to exclude. Press the Enter key after typing each computer name to ensure that each computer name appears on a separate line.

5. After you have entered the computer names of computers you wish to exclude, click OK. Close the Registry Editor window

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Best Web links for SCCM Troubleshooting

What we have with MDOP ?

Monday, September 12, 2011

Where is RSS for SCCM?

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/configmgrgeneral/threads?outputAs=rss

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Where is MCP ?

Now MCP = MCTS

Monday, September 5, 2011

Benefits of Internet Explorer - IE 8

Security: Features such as the new Smart Screen filter and other built-in security features protects against malware and deceptive and malicious websites that can compromise data, privacy, and identity.

Reliability: Features such as Automatic Crash Recovery prevents the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of browser crashes or hangs. This builds on the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities such as tab recovery, which minimizes interruptions to your browsing sessions.

Manageability: The manageability features embedded throughout the browser makes Internet Explorer 8 the most manageable browser, with close to 1500 Group Policies, all of which can be centrally managed.

Usability: User-centric features make the experience of using the browser faster and easier. For example, the Internet Explorer 8 address bar combines your browsing history with detailed suggestions to help you get where you want to go faster.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Adobe Updates Deploy with New Updated Tool

Thanks to stealthpuppy all rights & credits go’s to stealthpuppy and his blog .This article published in http://blog.stealthpuppy.com/deployment/deploying-adobe-reader-x/ , You can read from there

Update 20 June 2011: updated for Reader 10.1. Release notes for 10.1 can be found here.

Adobe Reader X is here and with the new protected mode feature to improve security you should be considering your deployment plans now.

Note: These instructions are based on the US English version of Reader, so you may need to adjust some specifics to suit your environment and language.

Licensing Your Deployment

Although Adobe Reader is free you’ll need to agree to and obtain a license to distribute it in your own environment. Obtaining a license is simple, you’ll just need to answer a few questions such as the number of copies, how you will distribute Reader, which platforms and some information on your company including contact information. The same license can be used for distributing Flash player and Adobe AIR. To apply for the license go to the Adobe Runtimes / Reader Distribution License Agreement.

Obtaining the Adobe Customization Wizard

Unfortunately Adobe doesn’t use the same installer across all of their products – the installers for the Acrobat products are different to the Creative Suite products. For anyone who’s attempted deployment of the CS products would probably consider this a good thing.

To start customizing Reader before deploying, you’ll need access to the Adobe Customization Wizard. The Customization Wizard X hasn’t changed much since the Customization Wizard 9, so if you have experience deploying Adobe Reader 8 or Reader 9, you’ll be comfortable customizing and deploying the new version.

The Adobe Customization Wizard X should be available from here – Adobe Customization Wizard X. Otherwise you can use this direct download link: Adobe Customization Wizard X. An FTP site is also available – Adobe FTP site.

The Customization Wizard should be installed to an administrative workstation and it will allow you to create a custom Windows Installer transform that can configure the Reader installation, including settings to:

Optimize the behavior of the installer by including silent installation, multilingual, and custom setup choices
Remove previous versions of Acrobat and Reader
Suppress the EULA, registration prompts, and the Getting Started window
Customize key application preferences — turn off automatic updates, add and set default job options, and customize collaboration and security settings
Remove shortcuts from the desktop and the Start menu
Edit each Adobe Acrobat application’s registry and installer tables
Customize file attachment handling within PDF files, including specifying which file types you want to block
Add or edit files that will be installed, including customized JavaScript or plug-ins
Preconfigured and lock Enhanced Security settings

Downloading the Reader X MSI

When creating a custom installer for Reader, always start with the latest version which you may need to obtain from the Adobe Reader download page. For an installer that you can extract and doesn’t include Google Chrome or Toolbar download the EXE installer from Adobe’s FTP site: ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/10.x/10.1.0

Note: if you need to download the latest installer, always grab a copy from the Adobe site to guarantee you have a source you can trust

Once you’ve downloaded the Reader installer, extract the setup files so that you can create a custom transform file. To extract, run the following command line:

AdbeRdr1010_en_US.exe.exe -nos_o"C:\Folder" -nos_ne

Replace C:\Folder with the path to a local folder. If you don’t specific the -nos_o switch, the files will be extracted here:

%ProgramData%\Adobe\Setup (Windows Vista and above)
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Adobe\Setup (Windows XP / Windows Server 2003)

Once extracted, you should have the following files required for Reader deployment:

ABCPY.INI
AcroRead.msi
Data1.cab
setup.exe
Setup.ini

Creating a custom Transform for Reader X

Here I’ll step through creating a custom installation for Reader, providing some recommended settings for your deployment and add links to further information that you may need to consider for your specific environment.

Step 1 Personalization Options: Open the Customization Wizard, click File / Open Package… and browse to AcroRead.MSI located in the folder that contains the extract Reader setup files. You can change the installation path if required:

Adobe Customization Wizard - installation path

Step 2 Installation Options: there a few options to consider here:

Default viewer for PDF files – if you are installing both Acrobat and Reader on the same machine, which application do you want to open PDF files by default.
Enable Optimization – Windows Installer will defrag the installation post install, leave this option enabled. [Windows Installer property: ENABLE_OPTIMIZATION]
Enable Caching of installer files on local hard drive – a copy of the Reader install files will be stored on the target machine ( in %ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Setup Files or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Setup Files). If you are deploying Reader with a deployment solution or virtualizing Reader, I recommend disabling this option. [Windows Installer property: ENABLE_CACHE_FILES]
Run installation – run the installer Unattended by default unless your specific deployment requires the installer to run completely silently (you can control this on the command line as well).
If reboot required at the end of installation – choose Suppress reboot and control reboots with an external process (such as a script or your deployment solution).

Adobe Customization Wizard - installation options

Step 3 Files and Folders: additional files (such as a JavaScript file to restrict menu items) can be added here:

Adobe Customization Wizard - files and folders

Step 4 Registry: add additional Registry values here to control the Reader installation. You can browse the local computer’s Registry to make adding entries simpler.

There are two edits I recommend making – browse to Destination Computer / HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and modify these startup items, if they exist:

Adobe ARM
Adobe Reader Speed Launcher

Right-click each of these entries and choose Modify. Set Action to Remove value. This will prevent the installer from adding these entries and starting unnecessary processes at user logon. This step is very important for Terminal Server / Remote Desktop Session Host environments to reduce the processes that will run in each user’s session.

customization01

Step 5 Shortcuts: for whatever reason, Adobe deems in necessary to add a superfluous shortcut for Reader to the desktop. Don’t forget to remove that here – if you don’t remove the shortcut in the transform, it will be created when you patch Reader.

Adobe Customization Wizard - shortcuts

Step 6 Server Locations: the Server Locations settings allow you to configure additional server location paths to ensure source resiliency for the Windows Installer package.

Adobe Customization Wizard - server locations

Step 7 Security: further information on Adobe Reader and Acrobat security can be found here: Acrobat 9 Security Administration Guide. Options to consider include:

Enhanced Security Settings: Standalone and Browser (choose Enable & Lock)
Prevent end-user to add trusted Files and Folders
Prevent end-user to add trusted Hosts

Step 8 Digital Signature: the Digital Signature settings allow you to specify the security options (verification, creation, reasons) for digital signatures. Read more about Digital Signatures in the security guide and this document: Digital Signature Validation Cheat Sheet

Adobe Customization Wizard - digital signatures

Step 9 EULA: here you can suppress the display of the End User License Agreement when the user first launches Reader. [Windows Installer property: EULA_ACCEPT]

Adobe Customization Wizard - EULA

Step 10 Online and Acrobat.com Features: access to several features can be controlled here:

Disable all updates: this will prevent the Adobe Updater from running automatically (but won’t prevent it from installing). The Check for Updates menu option will also be removed.

Warning: It is extremely important to disable Adobe Updater on shared systems such as Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Servers – a standard user can initiate a reboot of a computer if Updater applies a Reader update. This is because the update is applied using Windows Installer which runs in the System context.

Browser integration can be controlled here – you can force Reader to open PDFs outside of the browser rather than embedded in the browser window
Various menu items and features (such as Purchase Adobe Acrobat, Digital Editions) can be disabled
The Product Improvement Program can be disabled
The Acrobat.com integration in Reader can be disabled

Adobe Customization Wizard - online features

Step 11 Comments and Forms: control and set options for comments in PDFs and forms.

Step 12 File Attachments: control the launching of file types from PDF documents. You may want to set this option:

Default Action for Unspecified File Types: Never launch files of Unspecified Types

Adobe Customization Wizard - file attachments

Step 13 Launch Other Applications: the Launch Other Applications settings allow you to specify additional applications to be installed with Reader.

Adobe Customization Wizard - launch other applications

Step 14 Direct Editor: if you want to make further edits to the transform file you can do so here; however I often prefer to save the transform and open it with a 3rd party MSI editor.

Adobe Customization Wizard - direct editor

To disable the Adobe Acrobat Update Service introduced with Reader 10.1, navigate to the ServiceInstall table and take one of two actions

Drop the row ServiceInstall1 to prevent the install of the service
Change the value of StartType to 3 (manual) or 4 (disabled)

Disabling Additional Menu Items

After creating a custom installation there are a few menu items (less than previous versions) that you may want to remove for end-users:

Adobe Reader X - additional menu items

These menu items are:

Help / Online Support… / Knowledge Base
Help / Online Support… / Adobe Support Programs…
Help / Online Support… / Adobe User Community…
Help / Online Support… / Accessibility Resource Center…
Help / Online Support… / Generate System Report…
Help / Repair Adobe Reader Installation

Warning: It is extremely important to remove the Repair Adobe Reader Installation menu item on shared systems such as Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Servers – a standard user can initiate a reboot of a computer if the repair kicks in. This is because the repair is applied using Windows Installer which runs in the System context.

Just like previous versions, the only way to disable certain UI elements such as menu items and toolbars is to use JavaScript. This is a two step process – first we need to find out the name of the items we want to disable. To do that you will need to place some JavaScript in a file in the JavaScripts folder where Reader is installed. For example this on x64 Windows, place the file here: %ProgramFiles (x86)%\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\Javascripts. Add the following code into the file and save it as ListItems.js

   //ListItems.js 
//Open Javascript Console 
console.show(); 
  
//List Toolbar Buttons in the Console 
var toolbarItems = app.listToolbarButtons() 
for( var i in toolbarItems) 
console.println(toolbarItems + "\n") 
  
//List Menu Items in the Console 
var menuItems = app.listMenuItems() 
for( var i in menuItems) 
console.println(menuItems + "\n")

When you start Reader a list of the user interface elements will be displayed:

The list is quite long, but you can use it to control the display of both menu items and buttons.

To hide the menu items listed above, save the following code in HideItems.js in the same JavaScripts folder. When Reader is run, the JavaScript will be executed and the items removed.

   //HideMenu.js 
  
// [Help - Repair Adobe Reader Installation] 
app.hideMenuItem("DetectAndRepair"); 
  
// [Help - Online Support] 
app.hideMenuItem("OnlineSupport"); 
  
// [Help - Online Support - Knowledge Base] 
app.hideMenuItem("KnowledgeBase"); 
  
// [Help - Online Support - Adobe Support Programs] 
app.hideMenuItem("AdobeExpertSupport"); 
  
// [Help - Online Support - Adobe User Community] 
app.hideMenuItem("AdobeUserCommunity"); 
  
// [Help - Online Support - Accessibility Resource Center] 
app.hideMenuItem("AccessOnline"); 
  
// [Help - Online Support - Generate System Report] 
app.hideMenuItem("SystemInformation");

To deliver the script with the Reader package, use the Files and Folders section in the Customization Wizard. Add the files to Destination Computer / ProgramFilesFolder / Adobe / Reader 10.0 / Reader / JavaScripts (see Step 3 above).

Enforcing Protected Mode

Adobe Reader X Protected Mode will assist in reducing the potential security threats when opening or viewing PDF files, so it’s a feature you’ll want to ensure remains enabled on client computers. However, by default, users can turn this feature off – this option is available in the Preferences dialog box under General:

In the user’s context, Protected Mode is controlled with the following Registry value:

Key: HKCU\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\Privileged
Value: bProtectedMode
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1

Fortunately, Protected Mode can also be enforced per-machine instead by setting this Registry value:

Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\FeatureLockDown
Value: bProtectedMode
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1

With this set, users will be unable to disable Protected Mode. Use the Registry option in the Adobe Customization Wizard (covered in step 4 above) to set this value in your deployment package.

With the release of Reader 10.1, Protected Mode is now supported on Terminal Servers/Remote Desktop Servers.

Finding more Reader Preferences and Policies

To find the complete list of preferences for Reader and Acrobat you should refer to the Administrator’s Information Manager. This tool also contains the Reader and Acrobat Admin and Security guides.

The Administrator’s Information Manager (AIM) is an auto-updating and customizable AIR application containing the Preference Reference. AIM also includes and a growing list of other resources of interest to administrators in enterprise settings.

Product Life Cycle

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Read Technet / MSDN documentation offline / CHM format ?

Want to read your Technet / MSDN documentation offline / CHM format ?

Then you can try this it worked for me :)

Source : http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/626677ab-c35f-4f3d-9f7c-6b471b1195dd

PackageThis!

Home Page: PackageThis on CodePlex

Click download (above) to get version 1.3.4 which now supports .mshc (VS 2010 help) and fixes many bugs. Thanks especially to Malcolm Dickson (MS Help team) who began the .mshc work. Also thanks Paul O'Rear (MS Help team) for some cool ideas on improving the utility. See the CodePlex patch area for source code if required.

Version 1.3.4 - Fixes image links.

Description

PackageThis is a CodePlex open source project and comes with source code. It allows you to download MSDN\Technet Library content and package to a Chm, HxS or .MSHC. See home page for details.

Very cool since MSDN is too big for MS to make all content available. With PackageThis! you can build your own custom offline help packages and integrate into VS Help, or view standalone.

Contributors

Helpware (in particular Rob Chandler) is not the sole author of this program. It is a joint CodePlex project, the brain child of Erik Larsen [Microsoft]. I'm just one of several authors contributing now to the project. I've added it to VS Gallery in the hope that more users will discover this fantastic utility.

Bugs

If you see bugs please report via CodePlex.

All about Systems Management / ConfigMgr

Pages

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Deployment Tools

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Windows 7 Imagining – Hardware Independent Image

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Windows 7 Education - BDD

How to exclude SCCM Client Push on Specific Systems or Ou’s?

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Best Web links for SCCM Troubleshooting

What we have with MDOP ?

What we have with MDOP ?

Monday, September 12, 2011

Where is RSS for SCCM?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Where is MCP ?

Monday, September 5, 2011

Benefits of Internet Explorer - IE 8

Friday, September 2, 2011

Adobe Updates Deploy with New Updated Tool

Licensing Your Deployment

Obtaining the Adobe Customization Wizard

Downloading the Reader X MSI

Creating a custom Transform for Reader X

Disabling Additional Menu Items

Enforcing Protected Mode

Finding more Reader Preferences and Policies

Product Life Cycle

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Read Technet / MSDN documentation offline / CHM format ?

PackageThis!

Description

Contributors

Bugs

Saturday, August 27, 2011

User Awareness Recommended Topics for Support on Windows 7