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http://www.systemcentercentral.com/taking-my-opsmgr-with-me-with-xian-wings/

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How to change the ConfigMgr Management Console language

When using ConfigMgr (2012) best thing is to offload the server and install the Management Console on endpoints or Management server. By default however the console is displayed in the language choosen in Regional Settings. This is not recommended because when looking on TechNet it's hard to find the right object in ConfigMgr Console.

In my case I want the console displayed in English instead of Dutch language. Two solutions are possible to change the default language:

1) Change the default language in Regional Settings. That way all language will be changed in Windows however.
2) Change the language pack folder in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\<Language>

In my case I renamed the [nl] folder to [_nl] and the [nl_NL] folder to [_nl-NL]. Just close the ConfigMgr Management Console and start it again. The language will be changed to English now!

How to configure Endpoint Protection Malware detection E-Mail Alerts

Within Endpoint Protection (SCEP) you can have antivirus/antimalware functionality by adding the Endpoint Protection role. That way (by Client settings) the SCEP agent can be installed on systems. With antimalware policies you can decide how the SCEP agent behaves and which exclusions to set. There is also a nice dashboard for total overview and malware detected. In this blogpost I will explain how Malware detection E-Mail Alerts can be configured.

First Email notification must be set. this can be found in Administration > Sites > Configure Site Components > Email Notification. Just enable the rule (Enable email notification for alerts), type in FQDN or IP-address of the SMTP server, sender address and "Test SMTP Server". That way you know for sure if communication is done okay.

After that choose properties on the collection where you want the E-Mail Alert. Choose Alerts and enable the rule (View this collection in the Endpoint Protection dashboard). Click Add and choose the four Endpoint Protection options, which are Malware detection, Malware outbreak, Repeated malware detection and Multiple malware detection. Leave default settings on the other options (Alert name, Alert severity and Malware detection threshold).

When above is done go to the Monitoring tab, choose Alerts > Subscriptions, and "create subscription". Type in a Subscription name, Email address and tick the four Endpoint Protection options again, which are Malware detection, Malware outbreak, Repeated malware detection and Multiple malware detection. Then everything is done and a test is needed to see if the E-Mail Alert is working.

Just create a EICAR test file (http://www.eicar.org/86-0-Intended-use.html) and let's see what happens. if everything is done well an E-Mail Alert will be received after a few minutes. In my case multiple E-Mail Alerts were received: Malware detection alert, Malware outbreak alert and Repeated malware detection alert. Hope it will be clear this way how to configure Malware detection E-Mail Alerts.

Sysprep fails when Internet Explorer 10 is installed

Last days I was building a Windows 7 reference image with some applications and updates in it. You can say that's not a best practice and that's right for sure. But because of fast deployment reasons sometimes this is the case. In my situation I installed Windows 7 x64, Office 2010 x86, DotNet Framework, Internet Explorer 10 and 200+ Windows/Office updates. That way the reference image can be deployed with default applications and updates in it already.
 
During image creation however there was something going wrong badly. Within ConfigMgr nothing seems to go wrong, but when deploying the image the computername wasn't changed and domain join wasn't done. I ended up with an image where the default Administrator account were disabled.
 
In the logfiles (smsts.log, setupact.log, setuperr.log) the following error was displayed, at the end of ConfigMgr task sequence: 

 

[0x0f0085] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Could not load DLL C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll[gle=0x000000c1]
[0x0f0070] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:An error occurred while running registry sysprep DLLs, halting sysprep execution. dwRet = 193[gle=0x000000c1]
[0x0f00a8] SYSPRP WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep cleanup providers; hr = 0x800700c1[gle=0x000000c1]

This seems to be an sysprep issue on Internet Explorer! 
When looking at more information I found the following blogpost:
Sysprep fails on a machine that has Internet Explorer 10 installed
The sysprep issue seems to be causes by Internet Explorer 10. To solve this issue the following must be done before starting sysprep. The reason for this error, is that registry keys which contain this information are pointing to incorrect locations.

Navigate to: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Cleanup, Set permission for group Administrators (Full Control)
For the Value named {EC9FE15D-99DD-4FB9-90D5-5B56E42A0F80}, change the Value Data from: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE to: C:\Windows\System32\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE

Navigate to: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Generalize, Set permission for group Administrators (Full Control)
For the Value named {EC9FE15D-99DD-4FB9-90D5-5B56E42A0F80}, change the Value Data from: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE to: C:\Windows\System32\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE

Navigate to: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Specialize, Set permission for group Administrators (Full Control)
For the Value named {EC9FE15D-99DD-4FB9-90D5-5B56E42A0F80}, change the Value Data from: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE to: C:\Windows\System32\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE

After that sysprep is running fine again and the reference image can be created and used for ConfigMgr deployment. Yeah!

ConfigMgr 2012 R2 bug found in task sequence account details

Today I did a "Build and Capture" on a Windows 7 image with software and updates. Everything went fine, till it was on 99% of the task sequence. Build and Capture fails capturing with error 0x80070056. When looking in the task sequence on the last step and click Verify and Test connection there's an error message: The specified network password is not correct. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070056).  

Another time I was seeing this error message: The user name or password is incorrect (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007052E). 

Strange thing is when I enter account information again, everything seems to be okay. "The connection was successfully verified."

After closing the task sequence and do Verify and Test connection again, same error message as above!

I closed the ConfigMgr console, created a new task sequence, did a reboot of the Primary Site server, nothing seems to solve the issue. When looking at another step in the task sequence (join domain credentials) it goes wrong also. "The user name or password is incorrect." and 0x8007052E error message.

Very strange however that account details are wrong, while I have filled in domain and account details before successfully. For it seems ConfigMgr is not saving my domain and account information in the task sequence(s), while other properties are going fine.

Does someone recognize above issue and has an solution!?
Maybe it's better if Verify and Test connection button can be pressed only once, and is greyed out after that. This prevents mistakes!

Update: Kenny Buntinx has posted: It is certainly not a bug, but a security decision. All “secrets” including all passwords are encrypted in delivery and by client using Windows data protection API.

Update: Nicholas Jones is right in this post: SCCM 2012 Network Access Account password problem. Verify the password only once, and you should have no issues.

How to import Lenovo drivers in ConfigMgr easily

Good news! When you are using MDT and/or SCCM/ConfigMgr and want to create driver packages, you can download them for Dell, HP and Lenovo systems. That saves a lot of time, because to need to download every single driver available. Let's have a look at the different methods for companies. More about that here: Download Driver packages for Dell, HP and Lenovo systems

When looking for Lenovo driver packages, there are a lot of models missing. You can browse the Lenovo website, download each individual driver, extract the driver and import them into ConfigMgr, but this must be done for every model then. Looking on the internet I found the following blogpost: Getting Lenovo drivers into SCCM – The easy way

It mentions using the Lenovo Update Retriever (download) and a VBS script to get the job done. That way every single driver per model can be downloaded at once. The script is extracting all drivers to a different location so drivers can be imported in ConfigMgr easily afterwards. The VBS script needs some modification on a few values, but works perfectly. Really easy this way!

The order for ConfigMgr integration will be:
1. Download (Lenovo Update Retriever)
2. VBS script (copy from website)
3. Import drivers in ConfigMgr
4. Create driver packages in ConfigMgr

That's all for now. Hope it helps!

Save The Date for TechEd Europe 2014

Rumours were right after all. Microsoft announced today that TechEd Europe will be held October 27-31, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. This was mentioned (off the record) by multiple people already. Great that besides of TechEd North America there is another choice now also!

TechEd Europe is one of Microsoft’s largest annual events for IT Professionals and Enterprise Developers. It provides the technical education, product evaluation, and community resources to plan, architect, deploy, manage and secure a connected enterprise. It will be an exciting week to engage with the top minds in your field and get the latest technology insights. Watch for registration to open in the spring of 2014.

Let's hope it will not be the last one after all. Still curious if Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) will be a part of TechEd Europe also? We will hear it soon probably!

For more information:
Henk's blog: No MS TechEd next year anymore?
Could 2014 be the last year Microsoft holds a TechEd event? 

How to install Citrix XenDesktop VDA and PVS Agent during deployment

Last week I had some troubles to install Citrix XenDesktop VDA and PVS agent during deployment. Citrix XenDesktop VDA deployment was installed partly and PVS did an unexpected reboot during installation. In both situations we had no good result. Lucky me someone else wrote blogposts about this. Let's have a (short) look.

Recently I have been struggling a little to get the XenDesktop VDA agent installed correctly during a ConfigMgr OSD deployment. I ended up with the following solution: Installing Citrix XenDesktop VDA Agent in ConfigMgr 2012 TS 

The PVS Agent on a VM is necessary to create the vDisk in Citrix PVS. In this small post I describe the steps to take in order to get this successfully deployed during a ConfigMgr OSD TS. Installing Citrix Provisioning Services Agent during ConfigMgr OSD deployment

Hope it helps!

Source: ConfigMgr 2012 & Citrix PVS/XenDesktop

More blogposts on this topic:
How to install Citrix XenDesktop VDA during deployment (part 2)