Internet Explorer 11 prerequisites needed during deployment

Today I had a really bad day! I was doing a deployment on Internet Explorer (IE) 11 in a server environment without internet access. When deploying IE 10 or 11 multiple hotfixes are needed. When you look at Microsoft TechNet, the following hotfixes are needed: 
IE10: KB2729094, KB2731771, KB2533623, KB2670838, KB2786081
 
For IE11 there are needed even more hotfixes needed: 
IE11: KB2834140, KB2670838, KB2639308, KB2533623, KB2731771, KB2729094, KB2786081, KB2888049, KB2882822 
In my case there was something wrong about the updates. I used all 9 updates above and still IE11 was saying an update was needed. Let's have a look at the error message: 

 
Trick is, when you choose "Get Update" you go to the "Prerequisite updates for Internet Explorer 11" website, not mentioning the update needed! That really sucks if you ask me! ;)
 
When looking further I found "IE11_main.log" in C:\Windows folder. The following information was displayed here: 

• Version Check for (KB2834140) of C:\WINDOWS\System32\d3d11.dll: 6.1.7601.17514 >= 6.2.9200.16570 (False)
• Version Check for (KB2882822) of C:\WINDOWS\System32\tdh.dll: 6.1.7600.16385 >= 6.1.7601.18247 (False)
• PauseOrResumeAUThread: Successfully resumed Automatic Updates.
• Link clicked, opening URL in new window.
• Setup exit code: 0x00009C47 (40007) - Required updates failed to download.
• Cleaning up temporary files.

 
For it seems the updates used were from an older date. Strange enough you cannot see a version number in the update files at all? In this case 2 updates with a 6.1 release were used instead of a newer 6.2 release. IE 11 knows this and therefore a newer one must be downloaded. But how to do that when no internet connection is available during deployment? Very bad Microsoft! How's it possible that updates get a newer release, without change a name or seeing a version number on the update file?
 
It would be way easier when mandatory hotfixes needed were enclosed in the installation file. When extracting the existing one multiple files are included already, like: Spelling, Hypenation and SETUPDOWNLOADLIST.txt
 
After downloading the same hotfixes with a newer version number everything seems to work. Let's have a look at the logfile again: 

• Version Check for (KB2834140) of C:\WINDOWS\System32\d3d11.dll: 6.1.7601.17514 >= 6.2.9200.16570 (False)
• Version Check for (KB2882822) of C:\WINDOWS\System32\tdh.dll: 6.1.7600.16385 >= 6.1.7601.18247 (False)
• Download for KB2834140 initiated.
• Download for KB2882822 initiated.
• Download for nl-NL IE11_amd64 pack initiated.
• Download for nl Spelling pack initiated.
• Download for nl Hyphenation pack initiated.
• Waiting for 2 prerequisite downloads.
• Prerequisite download processes have completed. Starting Installation of 2 prerequisites.

 
Lessons learned today: Don't use already existing updates or updates that were downloaded before! Microsoft likes to change version numbers on there updates, and IE is checking on that information. Futhermore it would be easier to have internet connection during deployment, so additional updates can be downloaded. Hope that IE 12 will be easier to deploy in the future!
 
Additional source: How to package Internet Explorer 11 x64 for Windows 7 x64

Update (next day): Seems that above is still not working, because the URL's mentioned on Microsoft TechNet are not up-to-date either. Just use the URL's mentioned in the logfile (IE11_main.log) for the most up-to-date ones! > These are KB2834140 and KB2882822. Thank you Microsoft for making it so easy for us ;)

• Prerequisite download processes have completed. Starting Installation of 2 prerequisites.
• Launched package installation: C:\WINDOWS\SysNative\dism.exe /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IE1CB66.tmp\KB2834140\Windows6.1-KB2834140-v2-x64.cab /quiet /norestart
• Process 'C:\WINDOWS\SysNative\dism.exe /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IE1CB66.tmp\KB2834140\Windows6.1-KB2834140-v2-x64.cab /quiet /norestart' exited with exit code 0x800F081F (-2146498529)
• Error installing prerequisite file (C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IE1CB66.tmp\KB2834140_amd64.MSU): 0x800f081f (2148468767)
• PauseOrResumeAUThread: Successfully resumed Automatic Updates.
• Setup exit code: 0x00009C57 (40023) - Prerequisites failed to install.
• Cleaning up temporary files in: C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\IE1CB66.tmp

 
I have every sympathy with several hundred other people who are having the same problem, especially those who, like me, have spent days trying to deploy a browser (a browser!).

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!

Internet Explorer 10 Compatibility View

Something different then Microsoft System Center now. When starting Internet Explorer on Windows client or Windows server it's possible that web-portals and/or web-applications doesn't seem to work. I see that in my own work and sometimes at customer locations also. The solution for this is to start a Compatibility View. Not everyone seems to know how to start one, so therefore this short blogpost.

Just press F12 in any web-window to start a nice little bar with a lot of functionality. Within this bar the Browser Mode can be changed to Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9 and 10. In both my own work and at customer locations this did the trick to start web-portals and/or web-applications again. No need to use a different browser from now on. Hope it helps and have a nice weekend!