Category: Enterprise Technology

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Office 2013 Installer Failure | “not supported upgrading from a preview version”

Well you are likely here because you are the adventurous type who had Office 2013 Preview installed and then tried to uninstall and install the full release.

Microsoft Office 2013 does not support upgrading from a preview version of Microsoft Office 2013. You must first uninstall these preview versions of Microsoft Office 2013 products and associated technologies:

Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus 2013

Some may advise you to go into control panel and remove all Office items from the programs list. However if you are like me then that will not be enough.

If you are still having issues after reviewing the programs list in the control panel then go ahead and delete the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products0005102110000000100000000F01FEC

If for some reason that isn’t enough, then delete these as well:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\D5360E4B109548941BFB078A144B11D5
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Patches\D5360E4B109548941BFB078A144B11D5
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\15.0\

if that still doesn’t do it, then search for the phrase “2013” at the root of the registry and start wacking keys that look office 2013 related. However I am pretty sure that first one will take care of you.

Hey if I helped ya, or you can add something to the conversation then please let me know in the comments belooooooow! I take payment in the form of “thanks” in the comments 😉

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Windows 8 System Image Tool, Where did it go?

Quick one….

Here is how you can do a full disk image of a Windows 8 system.

If you are like me and just finished setting up your shinny new Windows 8 system, you installed all of your non-metro apps, you activated all of your professional software and now thought, “damn good time to take a image” then had a hard time figuring out where it went…. you are not alone.

In what looks like a ridiculous and frustrating war between Microsoft and Windows Desktop the backup tool is now called “Windows 7 File Recovery”. They also took out direct links to “create a system image” as well.

Yes you are not losing your mind, its not Windows 7, nor is it only file recovery, it’s the only place to get to total system imaging.

Simply Search Metro for “Windows 7 File Recovery” and click the Settings area on the right and you will find it.

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Once in the “Windows 7 File Recovery Tool” go to the top left “Create a system image”

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Installing Windows 8 RTM to Apple Macbook Air (Boot Camp)

Hey everyone, I wanted to make a few notes to help others get Windows 8 running on their Macbook Air without it locking, freezing, or poor network performance.

First we should stop that whole freezing problem or you will get very upset in the middle of a driver install (been there.)

You need to open a command prompt as administrator. You can do this by clicking start, then typing “cmd” right clicking on the cmd icon and selecting “Run as Administrator’”

Once open run this command:

bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes

For those who want to know what this does please check out this great post: http://www.withinwindows.com/2012/06/28/workaround-for-windows-8-freezing-issues/

Once installed you will need reboot then install the boot camp drivers. This is done by making the install disk in Apple OS (Mountain Kitty). THERE IS NO DOWNLOAD LINK FOR THIS! DARN YOU APPLE!!! WHAT A PAIN! /RANT OFF

Once you have the Boot Camp disk, copy the contents to a folder on your desktop. Right click on the setup.exe, go to the compatibility tab, then click “Change settings for all users” button on the bottom.

On the next screen change the  “run this program in compatibility mode for:” to Windows 7. Additionally check off the bottom box for “run this program as an administrator”.

Then click OK, then OK again, then run the setup.exe

Once installed go ahead and reboot. This should get you part of the way.

Don’t delete that BootCamp Install folder just yet, deep in there we need the following folder. Just be aware, we will use it soon.

\Drivers\NVidia\NVidiaChipset64

Now lets click the start button, type “device manager” and click the settings “thing” on the top right to discover the “device manager” icon from the remains of the control panel.

Once device manager is open we have a few things to do. First lets take care of those two peskey un-drivered devices “coprocessor” and “SM Bus”.

Right click on one at a time and update the driver. Direct Windows to that folder on the desktop for \Drivers\NVidia\NVidiaChipset64 (or 32 if you are running x86). This folder should be able to updated both missing drivers.

NEXT lets go ahead and change the WiFi driver back to the native Windows 8 driver (Bootcamp had replaced it with a lesser driver that has some issues only in windows 8.)

Simply find the Wireless Network Adapter, its something like “Boardcom 802.11n” right click then “update driver software”, then Search Automaticly for updated drivers.

Thank should do it. Go ahead and reboot one last time for good measure.

Hopefully that saves some of you some time. IF I have helped you all I ask in return is leave a comment and say so. I get a great kick out of it.

Cheers!

-Eric

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SCCM 2012 | Native Windows Update Client Not Working

Hey there, are you deploying the Microsoft System Center 2012 Client to your desktops and then like magic the native Windows Client stops working?

Perhaps you even checked the c:\windows\windowsupdate.log file and found this nugget:

2012-07-12    13:57:53:803     392    1220    Misc    WARNING: Digital Signatures on file C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\SelfUpdate\wuident.cab are not trusted: Error 0x800b0001

Well then you had the same problem I did. The way I got it to work for me was by installing this hotfix from MS.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2720211

In a nutshell you installed .NET 4.0 and WSUS 3.0 With SP2 (as you were required to) and BAMM! Fail.

Hope it helps, if it does leave a comment, love to know when people are helped.

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SCVMM 2012 | Force Remove vCenter Server

If you are reading this you likely took the plunge into Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager 2012, you added in your VMWARE vCenter, migrated some VM’s and then tried to jettison the old vCenter  that is no longer around.

If you did you likely got this error message:

VMM cannot complete the VMware operation on the <server> server because of the error: “Unable to connect to the remote server”

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You may have went for extra credit and run this powershell command without luck as well:

Get-VirtualizationManager -ComputerName <server> | Remove-VirtualizationManager

See unlike Remote-VMHost that has the –force switch you don’t have a –force switch with Remove-VirtualizationManager.

What is an admin to do??

Well if you are extremely irresponsible and want to blindly follow a guy with a blog who happened to find a way that at least looks like it worked then good Sir or Madam you are in the right place!!!

SQL Studio with Admin Rights

First you will need to run SQL Studio Manager with rights to the DB. If you have this then move on to the next section.

If like me you didn’t end up having permission to the default instance then run this nifty sysInternals tool PSEXEC:

PSEXEC –i –s cmd (make sure to run with admin rights)

If that works and you now have a cmd prompt go ahead and type whoami just for fun. you will see you are NT Authority\Local System!

Now go ahead and run the SQL Studio Manager from this command prompt. Given each version of SQL has this in a different location the easiest way would be to look at the properties of the start menu shortcut to find the full path to the executable.

The Query

Ah now once in SQL Studio with rights to the DB simple run this query to force remove the vCenter from your VMM instance.

HEY!!! SERIOUSLY I HAVE NO IDEA IF THIS IS SAFE!! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

DECLARE @computername varchar(255)
SET @computername = ‘<servername>’
DELETE FROM [tbl_ADHC_AgentServerRelation] WHERE AgentServerID = (select top 1 AgentServerID from tbl_ADHC_AgentServer where Computername = @computername)
DELETE FROM [tbl_ADHC_AgentServer] WHERE AgentServerID = (select top 1 AgentServerID from tbl_ADHC_AgentServer where Computername = @computername)
DELETE FROM [tbl_ADHC_Host] WHERE [HostID] = (select top 1 HostID from tbl_ADHC_Host where ComputerName = @computername)

Now, if I you know a better way please leave a comment.

If this helped you, please leave a comment. Love knowing my time wasn’t wasted.

If you are Microsoft and you feel I am leading people off a cliff, PLEASE PLEASE leave me a comment.

In any event, hope it helps and enjoy!

-Eric

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Check Windows Machine Account Status / Reset Machine Password

Quick one for troubleshooting domain communications with a local machine.

Checks the domain a machine is registered to:

nltest.exe /parentdomain

Tests Machine Health with Domain Controller:

nltest.exe /sc_query:fqdn.domain.name

Reset Machine Password:

nltest.exe /sc_reset:fqdn.domain.name

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Installing SCCM 2012 RTM the hard way | Thoughts and Notes

I needed to get a SCCM 2012 lab setup for my company. As this was a newer MS product I figured the install wouldn’t be that bad. Well it’s a pre-req / pre-configure nightmare.

Here is my loose and possibly incorrect way that I got a lab running.

Few notes about my deployment

  • Dedicated Server for SQL Server
  • Dedicated Server for CAS Site

 

Prep SQL Server box:

  1. Installed SQL 2008 R2
  2. Installed SQL 2008 R2 SP1
  3. Installed SQL 2008 R2 SP1 CU5
  4. Add the Machine account for the CAS server to the local admin’s group of your SQL server (only needed if installing on dedicated SQL Server).
    • net localgroup administrators tprod\tmem03$ /add
      • Where tprod\tmem03$ is domain\machinename$

Prep CAS Box:

  1. Setup IIS (all checkboxes including ASP), .NET 3.5.1, and RSAT Tools on CAS Box
  2. Run the commands listed on this page:

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I had the above mentioned pre-reqs after going through the installer. I will list out the things I did to reslove these so you don’t have to go through the installer only to cancel out and reslove this requirements. (I wish Microsoft had done a better job at this installer. I thought they had learned, I thought wrong)

Failed Items:

  1. Microsoft Remote Differential Compression (RDC) library required
    • Simply check off “Remote Differential Compression” under features in Server Manager.
  2. Site server computer account administrative rights
    • Self resolved after installing items 1 and 3 on this list.
  3. Minimum .NET Framework version for Configuration Manager
    • Resolved by installing .Net 4.0 Full Installer

Warning Items:

  • Schema Extensions
    • Resolved by installing Schema
      • Found here: mu_system_center_2012_configuration_manager_x86_x64_dvd_816412\SMSSETUP\BIN\I386
      • Run from command prompt: extadsch.exe
      • Then check log file at root of c:\ExtADSch.log
      • Look for:
        • <04-10-2012 13:26:53> Successfully extended the Active Directory schema.
  • WSUS SDK on Site Server
  • Verify site server permissions to publish to Active Directory
    • Get ready for this one….
    • OK first, open ADSIEdit.msc (if not installed, install it)
      • Right Click, Connect To
      • Take the detaults and click OK
      • Expand Default Naming context
      • Expand your domain
      • Expand CN=System
      • Right Click -> New -> Object
      • “Container” as the class

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      • in VALUE put “System Management”

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    • Then Click Finished
    • Right Click on new “CN=System Management” Folder -> Properties -> Security [TAB]
    • Click ADD
    • Click OBJECT TYPES
    • Uncheck everything, check only computers click ok

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    • Type the NETBIOS name of the SCCM Server with a $ sign at the end of it. (Example: tmem03$)

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    • Check off Full Control
    • Click APPLY (don’t close window)
    • Click Advanced
    • Find new ACL for our Computer Object

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    • Click Edit
    • Change Apply To: from “This Object only” to “The object and all descendant objects”

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    • Click OK three times to exit pop up windows.
    • Close ADSI Edit

 

  • SQL Server security mode
    • It was just warning me about SQL authentication, I ignored as it’s a lab
  • Configuration for SQL Server memory usage
    • It wants me to set a max limit on memory, I resolved this warning by setting the limit to 2GB (out of 4GB in my lab).
  • SQL Server process memory allocation
    • It tells me Configuration Manager 2012 REQUIRES that I set a minimum of 8GB for CMS and Primary sites (4GB for Secondary). I am just going to ignore it as it’s a “warning” and not a error.

 

Installing Configuration Manager:

  1. Run the unified installer
  2. Selected Custom Local Install
  3. Selected to install Configuration Manager
  4. Selected to install a Configuration Manager Central Administration Site
  5. Used Eval Licensing
  6. Accepted EULAs
  7. Selected a path for downloads
  8. Selected all Server Languages
  9. Selected all Client Languages
  10. Selected to use all Languages for mobile devices
  11. Setup CAS site code for a site named “Lab Central Admin Site”
  12. Kept default install folder
  13. Checked Install the Configuration Manager Console
  14. I put the dedicated SQL server
  15. Named the DB, “CM_CAS”
  16. Left the SSB Port at default
  17. Left the SMS Provider on the box I am going to install SCCM to.
    • I was debating if I should install directly to SQL or not.
  18. And clicked Next to install

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Fix: The WinRM settings are not configured correctly | SCCM Unified Installer

Microsoft just released SCCM 2012 to VL customers. Very excited to tear into it. However I got stuck right in the beginning of the installer with:

The WinRM settings are not configured correctly

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Well looking at the logs here:

\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft System Center 2012\Unified Installer\LOGS

I discovered:

[4/10/2012 9:20:08 AM] DEBUG – Server: localhost, winrm\client\auth\CredSSP = False

All you need to do to fix this is run the following commands on the computer you are running the installer from:

winrm set winrm/config/client/auth @{CredSSP="True"}
winrm set winrm/config/client @{TrustedHosts="*"}

Also run these commands on the computer you are installing too (if it’s the same box just run all commands) 

winrm qc -q
winrm set winrm/config/service/auth @{CredSSP="True"}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{AllowRemoteShellAccess="True"}
winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxMemoryPerShellMB="2048"}

That should take care of you. Just in case it doesn’t the old other thing I had done was to add .Net 3.5.1, all RSAT Tools, and IIS from Roles and Features.

Hope it helps. If it does please leave a comment below and let me know this was worth my time posting 😉

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Windows 8 | Task Manager Performance Monitor

While I have to write a longer post about my overall feeling of Windows 8 and Metro I wanted to toss this one out there.

THANK YOU Microsoft for the Task Manager Performance Monitoring built it. Look how sexy and plan English my transfer rate is for copying a number of large files to my desktop (click for larger version):

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Just fantastic, shows me the CPU is doing fine as it decompresses directly from network share and shows me that Network is in fact the bottleneck as the Disk I/O is not maxed.

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Installing Exchange 2010 in a Child Domain

If you are reading this its likely you googled for the answer to this very questions. “How do I install Exchange 2010 in a child domain?” Its almost like every step of the way you get another ambiguous error message.

Well if you know what to do its fairly easy.

1) Make sure you have an account that is NOT the administrator account that has Enterprise Admin, and Domain Admin of the ROOT domain.

2) Logon to a Windows 2008 x64 / or 2008 R2 x64 box that is a member of the ROOT domain. If you don’t have one just build one or temporarily move the new exchange server into the ROOT domain long enough to preform the following steps.

3) Logged in as your service account with Enterprise Admin and Domain Admin rights to the root open a command prompt (run as administrator if UAC is enabled).

4) Go to the directory you have the Exchange 2010 install located. I recommend using a direct Exchange 2010 SP1 install build.

5) Run the following command

ServerManagerCmd -i RSAT-ADDS

6) Reboot

7) Run the following command (Prep Legacy Permissions)

setup /pl

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8) Run the following command (Prep Schema) 

setup /ps

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9) Run the following command (Prep Domain and Name Org)

setup /p /on:TestlaCorp

–Note: TestlaCorp is my test domain org name, please enter your desired org name.

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9) Run the following command (Prep all Domains)

setup /preparealldomains

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10) Follow these directions from the ROOT DC Domain Controller: (not totally sure this is required or not, skip and only do if you run into an issue)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978776

11) Now go to your new exchange server box (rejoin it to the child domain if you had moved to the ROOT domain for the above commands).

10) Logon as that ROOT account with Enterprise Admin and Domain Admin for the ROOT domain. You will need to grant it local admin rights on the new child domain server you are planning on installing Exchange 2010 to ahead of logging in.

11) Run the setup as you normally would do. I usually follow this blog for those steps:

http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/datacenter/Installing-Exchange-2010-Step-by-Step-3877601.htm 

Final Notes: I noticed after installing that I was getting an error opening the EMC and it turns out it was just that the installer some how didn’t install any of the roles. Re-running the install fixed that.