If you have MDT integrated in your Configuration Manager 2012 environment, then you will notice that when you use a console on your CM server everything works fine. However, if you have a console installed on a client machine, then you may see this error when trying to view or edit a MDT task sequence…
If you have Configuration Manager 2012 and you are using SQL Reporting, you may want to create some custom reports. In your Configuration Manager 2012 Console, you can browse to Monitoring, then into the Reporting module. This will display all the reports that are currently available to you. If you want to create a custom…
I was recently given a tip on how to speed up the MDT Toolkit Package part when running the Operating System Deployments within my SCCM environment. This is a simple yet effective change that slightly speeds things up if you have MDT integration enabled. The change is turning off a built in setting to delay…
CutePDF is an excellent piece of software that allows you to create PDF’s from almost any application. It is also free to use for personal, commercial, education and government use which is always a good start! I tend to install this software on any machine that I build be it for personal use or for…
A lot of programs these days rely on Microsoft Dot Net Framework 4 to work. In an SCCM environment, this can prove to be a very useful application to have in your Software Catalog and as an application so that your users can install it when required and so that you can also use it…
To install Autodesk DWG Trueview 2015 as a unattended silent install, which you can also use in SCCM to add the application to the software catalog and also in WDS as an application install, you should first download the installation files that you require from the link below: Download DWG TrueView 2015 Download Link Instructions…
We have designed a small program that allows you to import image files like JPEG and PNG and convert them into usable icon files for Configuration Manager Software Catalog Applications, websites or custom-designed programs. We have had a few people suggesting that this tool is useless for creating desktop shortcut icons – its NOT designed…
If you have a requirement to use a MSI installer for Adobe Reader XI for deployment through Group Policy or SCCM, it can be frustrating trying to find it online. However, there is a very simple command that you can run to build or extract the MSI yourself using the standard executable file that Adobe…
Imgburn is a great tool for burning CD & DVD’s and also to capture ISO’s from media. This tool is free to download from: ImgBurn Download If you wish to have this tool in your Software Catalog as an Application, or maybe installed during your OSD task sequences, you can by doing the following: Create…
If you are using Microsoft DaRT 8 to enable you to be able to remote onto machines that are in WinPE during an OSD, then you will find that if you are using an operating system other than Windows 8, you will struggle to install the DaRT Remote Viewer tool. To get around this, do…
If you have Shoretel in your corporation and have recently upgraded to version 13 or above, you may have noticed that within the Shoretel Communicator Client the option for importing Outlook contacts has now been restricted to just allowing Contacts to be imported as you can see from the screenshot below: In previous versions, you…
To create a bootable USB stick to install either Windows 7 or Windows 8 follow the instructions below: Plug in a USB stick up to 16GB, no smaller than 4GB and no bigger than 16GB or it will not work. Open a command prompt on a Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer. Type diskpart and…
If you have a requirement to create USB media for custom images and task sequences on a stand-alone USB stick, sometimes it can be a real pain to get the setup correct. Our custom images are quick large so I had purchased some large USB sticks to fit everything on, including our huge library of…
I’ve recently been working on a project using WDS and MDT rather than SCCM and I needed to create some new custom images to deploy to around 200 machines. These consisted of Windows XP, Windows 7 Enterprise x86 and x64. Once I had created the custom image, I needed to then capture it using Sysprep…
Step by step guide on how to use Java MSI installers to distribute through WSUS, SCCM and SCUP.
I recently have had some issues with machines not PXE booting for me to be able to deploy an image to new machines. I couldn’t quite figure it out as all of our worldwide sites were working perfectly and the office I was working at was also working in one part of the building but…
I’ve been working on getting AutoCAD LT 2014 into our Software Catalog for some time now and I finally cracked it this week which I was delighted about! The idea was that any users that should have AutoCAD can upgrade their software or new starters can install it themselves without our desktop support staff having…
Microsoft have today released the preview of Windows 8.1. This download is available from the link below: Windows 8.1 Preview Download As expected, Microsoft have reinstated the Start button which is probably the main reason that most people will install this update! I’ve got Enterprise so I’m waiting for the ISO’s to become available but…
As most blogs are reporting, Microsoft have released CU for System Center Configuration Manager 2012 SP1. This update is available to download from the link below: SCCM 2012 SP1 CU2 Download Link Microsoft are reporting on their website that the following items have been fixed: Administrator Console The Add Site Server Roles Wizard incorrectly blocks…
After the success of our Autodesk serial collection and reporting blog post nearly a year ago now, we have had many requests to update the scripts to include the latest versions of Autodesk products and also include a wider range of Autodesk products like Revit. If you are new to this, it would be worth…
We are pleased to announce the release of the Shoretel Batch WAV Converter v2. There have been some improvements to make it more user friendly and to have a much better folder structure. We are working on v3 already which will have a GUI front end so it will be even easier to use and…
Due to the increasing amount of files and code that we are starting to upload, we have decided to open ourselves a SourceForge site to help with the storage instead of using my personal SkyDrive account. You can visit the SourceForge site if you want to browse all our files or leave a review by…
Everyone seems to be playing Candy Crush Saga at the moment, but the most infuriating thing about it is when you get stuck on a level and then run out of lives. This means that you then have to wait 30 minutes to regenerate one life and up to 2 hours 30 minutes to fully…
There is a cheat within The Simpsons Tapped Out game where you can get a free Jebediah Statue! All you have to do is tickle Homer 10 times (tap him 10 times!) and he’ll give you the statue which will then be available in your inventory box. You can then place this into your Springfield!
I’ve recently been trying to create a custom built Windows 8 image for future deployment using SCCM 2012 SP1. I built a clean Windows 8 base image and then installed all the programs that I wanted on the image and then run Windows Update. I made some changes to the Metro front screen and updated,…
We have recently allowed a few more people to utilise some of the functionality that the SCCM Console offers and installed the console onto their machines (albeit with heavily restricted permissions and they have to pass a training session first!!). However, a few of the machines were receiving the error that they could not connect…
As stated in my previous post, I have been asked recently about installing Endpoint Protection (SCEP) during the SCCM OSD process. This is pretty easy to do and the knock on affect is that you also can have SCEP available to install from your Software Catalog. To prepare the SCEP software for deployment in your…
]I’ve had a few requests recently asking whether it is possible to install System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) during the task sequence for an operating system deployment. I’ve also been asked if it is possible to put SCEP into the Software Catalog. Well, the answer to both questions is yes and I’ll be breaking the…
If you have a Software Center in your SCCM environment, you will want it to look as professional as possible. There are a number of ways to do this, one is to add your corporate name, setup your customise colours, but to top it all off, you can add an icon to each application. There…
I had been given a task to build a Software Catalog application where Outlook must be closed to allow the successful installation of the software. We had previously just packaged the software and made it available to the Software Catalog with a message stating that users must first shut down Outlook before attempting to run…
I have been working on a method to send our helpdesk an email notification when an OSD task sequence has completed. I started by looking into using the Status Filters and Powershell but this didn’t seem to work well enough for what I wanted to do, which was to create a fancy looking email by…
I ran into an issue today where my newly created folders and runbooks in Orchestrator were not showing up in my SCCM (MDT) Execute Runbooks task sequence. I started to run some checks and found out that these folders and runbooks were not showing up in my Orchestrator Web Console either, although all my previous…
