SCCM

SCCM 2012 – How to deploy App-V 5 Agent

If you want to deploy the App-V 5 Agent on your computers, you can use System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012. The most easily method is to use an Application. By this way, you have the possibility to link some Dependencies and target specific operating system architecture (x64 or x86).

To deploy App-V 5 agent, you have to follow these steps:

  1. Configure Dependencies.
  2. Create Application.
  3. Configure Deployments type for x64 and x86.
  4. Deploy on a collection.
  5. Check installation.

Continue reading

Share
Windows 8.1

Powershell – Uninstall Modern UI Apps on Windows 8

When you deploy a new Windows 8/ 8.1 operating system, you have a lot of Modern UI Application in your profile. But, for an enterprise, these Apps can be annoying: almost all of them are for personnal use.

By example, we can find:

  • Food & Drinks
  • Health & Fitness
  • Reader
  • Games

ModernUI App
Hopefully, you can remove / uninstall  modern ui Apps by using a Powershell command line.

Microsoft provides two type of Powershell Cmdlet, depend of if you want to remove Apps on a User Profile, or on a System:

  • Get-AppxPackage, retrieves all Modern UI Apps for a user profile.
  • Get-AppxProvisionedPackage,retrieves all Modern UI Apps for a system.

Continue reading

Share
WindowsServer

Powershell – Create Shared Folder for DFS

When you want to use DFS (Distributed File System), and get benefit of the replication, you have to create a shared folder and install features on each server. It can be time consuming to do this for a lot of server.

To create it quickly, you can create a package on SCCM with a Powershell script, and deploy it to all of your servers.

Create shared Folder for DFS

You can find below a powershell script to execute :

  1. Create a folder.
  2. Share it with a specific group.
  3. Install Windows Features to enable DFS Replication.
New-Item "D:\Share\MyFolder" -type directory
 
New-SMBShare –Name "MyShareName" –Path "D:\Share\MyFolder" -ReadAccess "everyone"
 
Install-WindowsFeature FS-DFS-Replication, RSAT-DFS-Mgmt-Con

You can find more information about DFS : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj127250.aspx

Share
SCCM

SCCM 2012 – How to deploy a KB using Application

Sometime, you need to deploy a KB using Application (.msu file) to your clients. Because it is not available in the Microsoft Update Catalog, you can not use Software Update to install it.

For example, to install App-V 5 on your clients, the Windows Management Framework 3.0 is a prerequisite for Windows 7. Windows 8 and 8.1 already include it.

This KB is not available in the catalog, we will use a Application to deploy it.

We will see how to deploy the Windows Management Framework 3.0 (KB2506143) using Application in System Center Configuration Manager 2012. With this method, you can link it as Dependency on another application and the installation can be automatically done. Continue reading

Share
VMware Logo

VMware – How to remove floppy drive

When you create a virtual machine with VMware, vSphere or Workstation, it has a floppy drive enabled by default. It can be used to deploy operating system with specific drivers, maybe you want to remove floppy drive after the installation.

To do this, you need to change some configuration in the BIOS of the virtual machine:

  • At the boot, press F2 to go into SETUP:

VMware BIOS Continue reading

Share
WindowsServer

Powershell – How to disable NetBios

Disable Netbios

If you want to use Powershell to disable Netbios on several computers, you can execute this script:

$adapters=(gwmi win32_networkadapterconfiguration )
Foreach ($adapter in $adapters){
  Write-Host $adapter
  $adapter.settcpipnetbios(2)
}

Options

Parameters for settcpipnetbios are:

  • 0: Enable Netbios via DHCP.
  • 1: Enable Netbios on the interface.
  • 2: Disable Netbios on the interface.

For more information on this function: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa393601(v=vs.85).aspx

Verification

After the script was runned, you will have this configuration:
Disable netbios

Share
SCCM

SCCM 2012 – Enable Free Space in Reports

With System Center Configuration Manager, you can retrieve a lot of information about your computers, specially the Hardware Inventory.  And with Reporting Service Point, you can display it easily via a web page.

However, if you would like to display the Free space on a drive, you can do this but it is not enabled.

By default, when you execute the report “Disk information for a specific computer – Logical disks“, you will get a blank information about Free Space:

SCCM Free Space BlankHardware Inventory

To enable this option, you need to change the Hardware Inventory:

  • In the Logical Disk classe, check the Free Space item.
    Hardware Inventory Free Space

After that, wait for the Machine Policy retrieval and at the next Hardware Inventory, you will get the information.

FreeSpace Enabled

 

More

You can get more information on Hardware Inventory here

Share
SCCM

SCCM 2012 – How to deploy .Net Framework 4 Full

In order to deploy App-V 5 on your clients, the .Net Framework 4 Full is a prerequisite for Windows 7 computers. Windows 8 and 8.1 already include this Framework.

We will see how to deploy .Net Framework 4 Full using Application in System Center Configuration Manager 2012. With this method, you can link it as Dependency on another application and installation can be automatically done. Continue reading

Share
SCCM

SCCM 2012 – Detection Method for Update

With Configuration Manager 2012, you have a new feature to deploy your software: Application. To use Application, you need to add a Detection Method. This detection method is based on several criterias and it will check if the application is already installed on the computer.

SCCM included three built-in detections:

  • File/Folder: check if a file exists on the drive. Date modified, Version and Size can be used.
  • Registry: Check if a registry key exists.
  • Windows Installer: Check if a product code is installed.

Moreover, you can user another detection:

  • Custom script: write and execute you own script to detect the application. You can use Powershell, VBScript and JScript.

However, when you want to install a software update using Application, there is no built-in function to detect if the update is installed. You have to use a custom script.
Continue reading

Share