When deploying software the best way to edit the MSI (remove shortcuts/disable auto update features) is to do it is through a tool called Orca. Orca is a Microsoft created tool that reaches into a MSI and changes settings inside it without having to repackage the MSI using other tools (e.g. WinInstallLE), the advantage of this method is you have… Read more
Author: James
Deploying Java 7 to the Enterprise via GPO
I’m sure if you have ever spent any time looking after PCs you will soon come accross Java asking for updates; in a managed enviroment you wouldn’t want your users to see this prompt and the simple fix is to deploy Java properly. Before I go any further I would like to thank the creator of this article – http://adminadventure.wordpress.com/… Read more
Citrix VDI-in-a-Box Case Study – Education
As anyone who reads my blog knows I am a strong advocate for VDI techonlogies particulary Citrix VDI-in-a-Box which has the key advantage of being able to use local storage (which is great for SSDs!). As part of this I’m now happy to report that Citrix has used my old workplace (a medium secondary school in Oxfordshire) as a case… Read more
Deploying Skype 6.3 to the Enterprise via GPO
For a while now Skype have offered a MSI, a ADM template and a nifty little guide on Enterprise Deployment considerations but so far I haven’t found a decent guide which shows how to bring all of these components together to get Skype out there on your client PCs. In this guide I will be looking to, deploy Skype 6.3… Read more
Network Deployed Printers are not appearing in Directory
For a few days I’ve found that printers that have been published in Active Directory (from our 2008 R2 printer server) were not appearing in the directory or find printers tabs (see above). With about 120 printers deployed and only 5 showing up there had to be something wrong. As it turns out the Printer Service was starting before the… Read more
Windows Update Error 8024002D
A little while back I moved to Office 2013 (from 2010) however in the past few days I noticed that Windows Update wanted to install 2 updates – both of which would fail with error code 80024002D. As it turns out this was a lingering update from Office 2010 that was trying to install, naturally as 2010 was now long… Read more
Flash on a thin client with no Server CPU used? I think so! 10ZiG 8848c
Even in this modern world of HTML5 there is still a very strong case for Flash Video playback (after all its still the option of choice on YouTube), the only problem is when you play flash video inside a Virtual Desktop session (VDI) the servers CPU can quickly be chewed up and so ruin the experience for everyone. The simple… Read more
Forcing the Windows Phone 7.8 update (HTC Pro 7)
For the past few days Microsoft has been slowly rolling out the shiny new Windows Phone 7.8 update to all the happy people out there with Windows Phone on 7.5. Nokia phones were reportedly the first to get the update however other users with phones like the HD7 have also reported that the update has started to appear on their phones. Some… Read more
Citrix VDI-in-a-Box v5.2 does not install on Server 2012 Hyper-V (at first)
I’m currently in the process of setting up the latest version of Citrix VDI-in-a-Box on Server 2012 Hyper-V and have come across an interesting error while the installer attempts to install .NET Framework 3.5.1. .NET Framework 3.5.1 is not installed and the installer was unable to install it automatically. Please install the .net framework 3.5.1 and run the installer again…. Read more
Bare metal recovery – Element not found (0x80070490)
I’ve recently been testing our disaster recovery abilities particularly in restoring servers from the bare metal recovery feature of System Centre Data Protection Manager 2012. When restoring one of our servers (that is a virtual machine) I was getting the error message below just before the drive data starts to copy over. The system image restore failed. Error details: Element… Read more