Akfash's Blog

TechNet Webcast: Everything You Wanted to Know and Ask about Windows Deployment

2012-05-01T02:28:34Z

In this demonstration-rich, question and answer webcast, Windows Product Manager Stephen Rose moderates an open conversation with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Product Manager Michael Niehaus and deployment guru Johan Arwidmark. They discuss the new Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 release as well as tips and tricks from the experts about using the Windows Deployment Toolkit.

You can register for the sessions by visiting

Part 1 Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 – 9-10am (pacific) (16th May 12am-1am Singapore)

Part 2 Thursday, May 17th, 2012 – 9-10am (pacific) (18th May 12am-1am Singapore)

These 2 sessions will be very informative

Windows 8–Windows To GO

2012-03-06T14:17:59Z

One of the new and coolest features of Windows 8 for me is the Windows To Go (Portable Workspace). Windows To Go enable you to run Windows from a USB drive. I am not talking about Installing Windows from a USB drive rather, booting and running Windows off the USB drive how cool is that?

This can be like running a managed desktop on an unmanaged client, to explain a bit more on that, imagine you have your personal notebook (unmanaged client), which is not part of your companies directory server or doesn’t have any policies of your enterprise. If you require to run your office desktop on your personal computer, you can simply do it without formatting or installing anything. You have to capture your enterprise image to a USB drive and boot your personal computer from the USB and you have a managed desktop.

Below are the steps to enable Windows To Go on a USB storage.

Requirements: 32 GB USB Drive, your Windows 8 customized WIM or the WIM which can be found in the Windows 8 Beta ISO (\sources\install.wim), ImageX.exe utility (which is inside WAIK http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=10333)

The USB stick has to be prepared first before we proceed with Windows 8 Installation

Plug in the USB to your computer and note the assigned drive letter

Open up CMD with Administrative privilege
Type Diskpart and hit enter
Type List Disk (this will show the attached hard drives and the USB drives) hit enter
Type Select Disk 1 (disk 1 is my USB drive) hit enter
Type Clean (this will clean the disk) and hit enter
Type Create Partition Primary (This will create a partition on your USB Drive) and hit enter
Type format fs=ntfs quick (this will format your USB drive) and hit enter
Type Active (this will activate the partition) and hit enter
Type Exit (to exit Diskpart) and hit enter

By now you should have the Windows 8 image created. This can be a custom image (image that you can create by configuring a reference pc with windows 8 and capture the image using ImageX) or you can use the Image (.wim) file which comes along with the Windows 8 Beta ISO (You can find it in \sources\install.wim)

I will be using INSTALL.WIM for this testing purpose and I have copied both the WIM file and the IMAGEX.EXE tool to my I:\ drive

Navigate to I:\ in command prompt and type imagex.exe /apply install.wim 1 h:\

(H:\ is my USB Drive where I will be deploying the image)

The image is applied successfully (might take some time)

Once done with the image, you will have to set the boot configuration details

bcdboot.exe H:\windows /s H:

That’s about it and now you are ready to go with Windows To Go. You can plug this USB drive on any computer and boot from it and you will have Windows 8 (it can be a MAC or a Linux as well), only thing is that the host computer should be able to boot from a USB. Windows To Go will not modify any of the Host machine files or details.

click Windows To Go – Overview for more information

Installing Active Directory on Windows Server 8 Beta

2012-03-05T14:08:05Z

After installing Windows server 8 in my lab environment, I wanted to check on whether there are any changes to the Active Directory implementation comparatively to its previous versions.

I tried running DCPROMO and boom got the following message

It says the ADDS installation wizard is relocated in the server manager.

After I got the above message I opened up the server manager, The loading of the server manager was different and it looked nice

There you go, a look at the new server manager in Windows Server 8

After clicking the Add roles and features, the before you begin screen prompted, click next

Since I do not have a group of servers and only one server, I went with option 1 and clicked next

Next was to select the server and click next

Select the role of ADDS and click next

Click next

Introduction to ADDS, click next

View the confirmation and click on install

Installation begins

Installation completed, but configuration required by clicking on the hyperlink or

click the notification

Since this is my test lab and the first domain of a new forest I selected “Add a new forest” option and typed the domain name, click next

Select the forest and domain functional role (note the default role selected), give the DSRM password, select the DNS option and since this is my first DC it automatically becomes a GC

An error, because the authoritative DNS for my domain cannot be found, but this can be fixed after the DNS is installed for my domain which will be done during this installation

NetBIOS name is being resolved

The default installation paths

Review your selection (note that you have an option to view the powershell script)

The prerequisite check is being done and successful

Installation begins and proceeds

Installation is done and server restarts

Windows restarts and logs on to the domain

Active Directory users and Computers snap in

The DNS management console

Installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview Step by Step

2012-03-01T10:10:39Z

Now that I have downloaded the ISO for Windows 8 Consumer Preview, I started to install it on a Acer Iconia Tab W500 and the installation went smoothly. Performance wise this is great, all the apps are working (some new apps comparatively to the developer preview), touch is awesome so smooth and similar to Windows Phone 7.5 touch experience. No drivers were needed at all.

The following are the steps

I booted from a USB drive

Select the necessary options and click Next

Click Install Now

Installation Setup is Starting

Product Key to be entered (which is DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J)

Accept the Licensing terms

select the type of installation (Custom to do a fresh installation)

Create, Select and Format the partition and click Next

Installation Starts and Setup Restarts

New – Set the Background color using the slider

Give your computer a name and click Next

I selected the Express Settings

You can either use a Live account (.NET passport) or click next to create a local account

Click on Local Account (this is to create the local account)

Fill the details

Setup is Finalizing your settings

Automatically logs in after you enter the password

Installation Done

Now its all about Customizing, said that I miss the Start Button!!

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

2012-03-01T00:56:23Z

Ok Folks, it’s the 29th of February 2012 and another milestone has been met by Microsoft. The next version of Microsoft Client Operating System Windows 8 reaches the Consumer Preview Stage.

The Microsoft Springboard Site has the the links to download the binaries of Windows 8 Consumer Preview as well as vast amount of other resources containing information related Microsoft Windows 8.

The Springboard site can be accessed http://technet.microsoft.com/windows/windows-8 for all these information as well as the DOWNLOAD for FREE.

Enjoy Downloading and Using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Build.

Windows 8 Picture Password

2012-02-14T00:04:40Z

Password to log in to your computer has come in different forms, initially we had and still have text passwords, where one uses the keyboard to type, then the finger print scanners (bio metric) were introduced, then there is face recognition (I am not sure how far this was successful), and now with Windows 8, Microsoft has introduced a new way to enter your passwords and its called Picture Passwords . This is one of the newest and coolest features I have used so far. Its not that difficult to configure either (that’s the best part)

The idea behind this feature is that, you will have to select a picture and up to 3 different gesture combinations that you use to interact with it. These interactions can be either in a circular form or just lines, for an example, in a picture you can start connecting all your family members faces with a line and that can be a password or may be circle the face of your best friend.

How to do?

Click on the Control Panel App
Tap on Users
Create Picture Password
Enter your password
Once the account is authenticated it will give you an overview on the Picture password feature and will allow you to choose the picture
Select the Picture and position it and click use this picture
Create you gestures and confirm the gestures (Circles, lines and taps)

Once you receive the success message then you are done

Below video would give more detailed info

Format Painter in Microsoft Office

2012-02-06T06:38:04Z

This is one of those features within the Microsoft Office family that I use a lot.

Scenario: If you have formatted a Letter, Word, Sentence or a Paragraph with lots of different formatting types like, change of fonts, colors, bold, italics, underline, alignment, etc. which needs a lot of clicks and if you want to apply the same formatting to another letter, word, sentence or paragraph in the same document, you do not have to redo everything again.

Simply, select part of the text from which you want to copy the formatting from and click on the “Format Painter” button within the clipboard group under the Home tab. Select the destination text and the formatting will be applied.

If you need to apply the formatting on to no consecutive, multiple places in the same document, double click on the Format Painter button and you can apply any where in the document.

Windows 7 Boot Environment Details

2012-02-06T02:26:19Z

To view the locations of Bootmgr and Winload in Windows 7 you may use the following command

Open CMD with elevated privileges
type Bcdedit /enum

Incase of BOOTMGR missing or corruption

Start your computer with a Windows 7 DVD and enter Windows RE (by selecting Repair my computer option)
Open up command prompt and navigate to \Windows\System32
type Bootrec /rebuildBcd

Installing Microsoft Exchange 2010 with SP1

2012-02-05T09:12:39Z

It’s been a while.

I had to setup an Exchange 2010 Server and wanted to write on how to Install Exchange 2010 Step by Step.

Here goes:

Before you install Exchange 2010, you need to have your AD forest setup. The forest and domain under which you are to install Exchange 2010 should meet the following

Domain Controller can either be x86 or x64, Every AD site you plan to have/install Exchange 2010, you should have a writable domain controller running on Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
The AD Schema Master can either be x86 or x64, should be a Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 or a Windows Server 2008 R2 (I went with a Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise)
Global Catalog can either be x86 or x64, Every AD site you plan to have/install Exchange 2010, you should have a Global Catalog running on Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
Active Directory forest and domain functional level should be a minimum of Windows Server 2003.
The user account which you use to install Exchange should be a member of Schema Admin, Enterprise Admin as well as the Domain Admin group.
You can either manually extend the Schema of your forest and Prepare you Active Directory to accommodate Exchange Related attributes as well as the Exchange Server

Note that these commands has to be run from an elevated prompt of PowerShell (Run Setup from the directory where your Exchange 2010 installation files are located)

We are preparing for an installation which will be a typical installation which will combine all HUB, CAS and MBX server roles together in one server.

Lets look at the other server roles and component required

Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Pack (click here to download and install the x64 pack)
To install the rest of the prerequisites, Open PowerShell with admin privileges and import the ServerManager module by typing Import-Module ServerManager
Type the following to install the roles and features Add-WindowsFeature NET-Framework,RSAT-ADDS,Web-Server,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Metabase,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console,WAS-Process-Model,RSAT-Web-Server,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Dyn-Compression,NET-HTTP-Activation,RPC-Over-HTTP-Proxy –Restart
Goto command prompt and run sc config NetTcpPortSharing start= auto

Now we can start the Exchange server 2010 installation by Auto running the CD

Click on “Step 3: Choose Exchange Language Option” and select Install only languages from the DVD

Click on “Step 4: Install Microsoft Exchange”

Setup will copy the necessary files

Initializing

Click next on the introduction screen

Accept the licensing agreement

Select your preference on the error reporting screen

we will select the typical exchange server installation as our requirement is to install HUB. CAS and MBX on the same server. if you need to install these roles on individual server box or separately, you may select the “Custom Exchange Server Installation” option. Click Next

Note the check box at the bottom which is a new GUI improvement in Exchange 2010 with SP1 setup. if you enable this, this would install all the server roles and features required for Exchange Server 2010

Specify the name of your Exchange Organization ( I am leaving it as default)

Note the checkbox Apply Active Directory split permissions security model, this is a new GUI improvement with SP1. Enable this only if you have two set of different administrators administering your AD and Exchange. By enabling this check box the Exchange Server or the Exchange Administrator/s will not be able to create any Active Directory Objects or attributes

Click Yes if you have any Outlook 2003 clients, otherwise click No and next

If you are to configure external access to your server, eg: access it through OWA, ActiveSync, RPC/HTTPS you will need to give a domain name on this page and click next

Let the prerequisites and preparation being done. Once done review for any errors

If you are ready click install

Installation in progress

Installation being done successfully

Restart notification

And after the restart you are done with the Exchange Installation

BOOTMGR Missing error

2011-11-26T05:03:37Z

Today, I was deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 using an image which I captured from another server using Sysprep and ImageX utilities.

After I deployed the image to my server using the same ImageX utility, and as soon as I started the server BOOM, got a startup error “BOOTMGR MISSING”

To fix this issue, I started my server using a WinPE CD to the Windows Pre Installation Environment, and typed the following command

BCDBOOT C:\Windows

Restart the server

That fixed the issue

Using Multiple Live ID’s with Internet Explorer

2011-09-24T08:22:12Z

One of my common task at work involves me to sign in to multiple Microsoft websites using different Live ID’s (.NET Passport addresses). The problem is that usually I have, like 15-20 Internet Explorer tabs open and sometimes one of these tabs uses one Live ID which I have signed in with, and when I try to open a new site and sign in with another Live ID, the newly opened site uses the already used Live ID, so have to go through every tab and sign-out and then use the other Live ID to sign in, this is a tedious process and a headache at times.

One easy way to solve this is Open a new browsing session. To do this

On the Internet Explorer window, click File => and then click New Session

This will enable you to start a new browsing session in which you will be able to use different Live ID’s.

Windows 8 (Developer Preview Pre-Beta) Installation Step by Step

2011-09-14T08:51:00Z

This is what I have been waiting for quite some time now an official version of Windows 8 to try it out. After they released the Developer Preview Pre-beta version of Windows 8 yesterday at the BUILD conference I managed to download the ISO.

Since it was a Pre-Beta I started to install on top of a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V machine ( I know the touch features – but something I want to sacrifice until later)

I created a new hyper-V virtual machine and started to install and it was almost the same as a Windows 7 installation except for the Windows 7 starting splash screen being replaced with another (refer screen shot below)

Here you go!

Loading Files

The changed splash screen from Windows 7

Language Settings

Installation Confirmation

Setup is Starting

Installation Option

Disk Selection

Installation Progress

Restarting

Setting up registry for the fist time and first time only

Preparing to load

Preparing the attached hardware devices

License Agreement

Initial startup and configuration

Personalizing – Computer Name

Setup Option – I selected “Express”

Creating the first User Account

Finalizing

Loading User

Preparing PC

Icons “Tiles” which can be clicked

More tiles and icons

Desktop (revamped start button)

Ribbon enabled Windows Explorer

Built in Internet Explorer 10

My Computer

System Properties

Hover over start button

Other settings accessed through desktop settings

WOW… isn’t this mind blowing? Awesome stuff.. stay tuned.. I am to explore more and try this on my slate (reason why I was waiting till later)

Windows 8 Developer Preview Available for Download

2011-09-14T01:52:40Z

The Official Pre-Beta of Windows 8 for developers is available for download from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/

This was announced during the ongoing BUILD conference which started yesterday.

Microsoft Lync Status Presence

2011-09-12T10:16:12Z

PowerShell “cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system” error

2011-09-08T14:56:08Z

Recently after a Windows Server 2008R2 implementation I had to use the new Microsoft Command Shell the so called “Windows PowerShell” to run a script. After installing the server I opened up notepad and wrote a simple script and as you’ll know I had to save the file with a PS1 extension so that PowerShell can execute the script. and I did save the file with the PS1 extension.

As soon as Opened PowerShell and typed the path to the PS1 file and press enter, I got an error as shown below

Which says “File <filepath> cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get- help about_signing" for more details.”

If you get this error, don’t panic by default PowerShell is designed like this for security reasons, The Execution Policy which is in Windows PowerShell is set to Restricted which means none of the scripts will run (even if you write with your user credentials).

In Windows PowerShell type Get-ExecutionPolicy to verify

In order to be able to run scripts using Windows PowerShell type Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

This would enable to run script using PowerShell on your computer