Posts on Christopher Kibble's Technical Ramblings

Radeon Driver Causing System Reboots with MS Teams

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I experienced a widespread issue that was also discussed in small groups on Reddit (here and here.)

Summary

Skipping the fluff, if you have the AMD Radeon Driver v32.0.13040.12005 driver installed, you may experience your PC rebooting unexpectedly when sharing camera or content in Microsoft Teams, and it may happen only (or more frequently) when the system has recently come out of sleep. To resolve, downgrade to 32.0.13040.12005, or upgrade to the latest version of the driver available at the time you come and read this.

Using Hyper-V for IGEL Managed Hypervisor Testing

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The IGEL Managed Hypervisor (IMH) is a relatively new add-on for IGEL and you may want to start testing it in your environment. Although I'm not able to find an official word on if it's supported to run in a Hyper-V environment, with a few tweaks it runs fine and is certainly good enough for toying around with.

In this post I'm going to show you how to setup an IMH on a Hyper-V virtual machine. I am writing this making some assumptions:

Setting up a WebDAV Server on IGEL OS

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In my test environment, the WebDAV server is physically far from my IGEL clients. Exporting images from IGEL to WebDAV can take hours, so I wanted a faster way to test the IMH Exporter experience without waiting for long uploads. To test what the IGEL Managed Hypervisor (IMH) Exporter looks like without needing to wait for the uploads to complete, I set up WebDAV right on my IGEL client.

In this post, I'll outline the steps I took to set this up.

Set up IGEL with Zscaler Root Certificate Authority

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In a previous post outlining how to set up IGEL for the first time, I mentioned that if you're using a technology that swaps out the SSL/TLS certificate on your network (the most popular solution being Zscaler), you'll run into problems getting a demo license. This will cause to several other issues down the line - this is just the first.

In this post I will walk you through installing your Root CA certificate during the build process of your IGEL client. I'm assuming your other clients are Windows and including steps on obtaining the certificate from Windows. There are methods to get it from a Mac, but I'm not familiar with those steps so I'm not including them here. You can also get the certificate from your Zscaler administrators.

IGEL First Time Setup

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past several months, I've been looking at IGEL as a Thin Client solution in some niche spots. There are plenty of guides and communities online, but most assumed you already understood the IGEL ecosystem (I didn't) or had prior experience setting up thin-client environments (I didn't). To further the complexity, I decided to step in right when many IGEL administrators were in the midst of a massive move from Version 11 to Version 12 of their OS, so much of the content I found was no longer applicable.

Finding or Recovering your WSL Data

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 14:47:00 -0400

After a recent complete failure of my Windows 11 insider build, I was forced to do a Windows reset. The process promises to preserve all of your files, but should probably be asterisked to note that data stored in WSL won't stick around (although technically is not deleted).

Where's my WSL Data?

Data stored in WSL v2 distros are kept in a VHDX file and is located in %LocalAppData%\Packages\ under a subfolder specific to the distribution. For my Ubuntu install, the folder was CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc. Once in that folder, open LocalState and you'll find your VHDX file. Don't bother trying to mount this file with Disk Manager or using diskpart, it's ext4 which Windows won't natively read (outside of WSL).

Lenovo Vantage IMController Vulnerability - ConfigMgr Query

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 09:19:00 -0400

Lenovo recently announced LEN-75210 where a privileged service can be vulnerable to attack. This service is used on many of their laptop and desktop classes. In this post I'll share a query to identify your systems impacted by LEN-75210

This query has the following rquirements:

Your ConfigMgr hardware inventory must be querying services (else we don't know if it's installed).
You must be gathering Software Inventory on EXE files and it must not exclude %WINDIR%. If you'd prefer not to include %WINDIR%, you can add %WINDIR%\Lenovo specifically. Without this data you won't have the version of the EXE.

Query Updated 2021-12-21 in an attempt to make it more future proof with the CASE statements.

Lenovo Thunderbolt Firmware Version Detection

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 09:48:27 -0400

When Lenovo announced HT508988 back in late 2019, I found there was no built-in method to get the firmware version on impacted Lenovo models using traditional hardware inventory or WMI. The only solution I found in the forums was to collect the data using the firmware update itself. Through trial and error, I found that although there are dozens of different firmware updates, the detection binaries from just two of them covered my entire fleet. Below, I'll share the steps you can use to gather this information yourself.

Import Teams Meeting Into Camtasia

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 16:45:29 -0400

I've had an issue loading meeting recordins from Microsoft Teams into Camtasia recently. The video imports perfectly, but the audio cuts out after about a minute. After a lot of message board posting and troubleshooting of my own, the consensus seems to be that it's something about the bitrate that the audio is saved as within the MP4. Folks have posted about similar issues with GoToMeeting.

To resolve, I'm using the free VLC application to convert the video file first, after which it loads fine into Camtasia. Below I will outline the steps I take to export to a useable video.

WizTree Scan Remote System

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 09:33:27 -0400

I'm a huge fan of the WizTree Disk Space Analyzer solution, which generates a graphical representation of what's taking up space on your disk. If you haven't used it before, it competes nicely with TreeSize and WinDirStat. WizTree is free for personal use, but requires a license to use in a commercial environment.

What WizTree is missing, however, is an option to scan a remote disk over the network. Since WizTree allows you to save a copy of the MFT (Master File Table) using the command line and then view it (in read only mode) later, I've overcome this limitation by capturing the remote MFT dump file and then viewing it locally.

Collecting Tenable Nessus Agent Status With Powershell

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 11:02:10 -0400

Information from the Tenable Nessus Agent, as far as I'm aware, is only available when using the Nessus Client command line application (NessusCli.exe). In this post, I'm going to show how we can capture this with PowerShell. I'm going to walk through how I do this step-by-step. If you're looking for just the script, you can skip all the way to the bottom.

The first step is to identify where to find our NessusCli.exe file. You could get dynamic about this if you wanted, but for the purposes of this post we'll assume it's always in the default location, like so.

Configmgr Comparison of Update Views

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 09:38:18 -0400

Inspired by this post on TechNet and trying to help out someone on the WinAdmins Discord, I took a bit of a dive into the v_Update_ComplianceStatus view and how it compares to v_Update_ComplianceStatusAll.

The v_Update_ComplianceStatus & v_UpdateComplianceStatus Views

I cover these views together because they are the same. The v_Update_ComplianceStatus view just pulls all records from v_UpdateComplianceStatus. I haven't looked into why, but I'd imagine one follows a newer name format but Microsoft didn't want to break old reports.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 9

Fri, 28 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this final page of the series, I'll list out some other resources that might be helpful now that you have a working Certificate Authority.

Excel COM Error Cant Load Library Fix

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 09:08:15 -0500

I've been getting the following error when trying to access a new Excel COM object:

Unable to cast COM object of type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.ApplicationClass' to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Application'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{000208D5-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}' failed due to the following error: Error loading type library/DLL. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80029C4A (TYPE_E_CANTLOADLIBRARY)).

The code I'm using was pretty simple PoSH that has worked for me before:

Running Powerpoint in Windowed Mode

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 10:28:49 -0500

I'm fortunate enough to have a single 44" ultrawide screen as my daily monitor when I'm docked. Unfortunately this means that when I'm presenting a slide deck, I lose access to other applications since I'm using a single monitor and it's taking up all of it.

Managing Chrome in the Enterprise

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 11:49:59 -0500

Thanks to everyone who joined me at The Browser Summit hosted by the Charlotte Systems Management User Group and sponsored by Jeremy Moskowitz PolicyPak.

Setup Google Cloud Certificate Authority - Part 2

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this post, we're going to stand up the issuing CA. There's no rule that says your issuing CA needs to be the child of a Root CA owned by Google. If you already have an internal Root CA, you could submit the certificate request to that root, however that is outside of the scope of this post.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 8

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this post we're going to talk about the operational work associated with managing the Microsoft CA. There are three things we'll touch on here. First, manually updating your Root CA CRL which should be done based on how you setup your CA. In this lab, that would be at least once every 6 months. Second, we'll talk about how to approve pending certificate requests. Finally, we'll cover how to revoke certificates that either no longer required, or that may have become compromised.

Setup Google Cloud Certificate Authority - Part 1

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 19:44:07 -0500

Google currently offers cloud based Certificate Authority in their suite of services available to enterprises. In this post, I'm going to stand up a new Root CA in the Google Cloud Platform.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 7

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this post, we'll discuss how to use the Certificate Enrollment Web Interface that we installed back in Part 2 of this series. The web interface doesn't seem to be widely used since the Certificates MMC snap-in does most of the work, but it's useful to know it's there.

How to Query the SCCM Database With SQL Server Mgmt Studio

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 12:27:08 -0500

I'm going to show you how to use SQL Server Management Studio to get data from Configuration Manager. I want to thank Adam Cook and Adam Gross who both gave me the encouragement to finally put this together.

For best SQL readability, make sure you're watching in HD.

Using Flash Beyond the End of Life Date

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

It really didn't matter how much notice that Adobe gave organizations, there were always going to be applications that were going to live beyond the end of life. It's one of those truisms that you learn when you've been in IT long enough. In this post, I'm going to share what your experience is going to be like with Flash once it goes end of life, what the supported (read: not free) options you have are, and what the quasi-supported option available is.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 6

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Finally – the moment you’ve been waiting for! Issuing Certificates! We’re going to cover three enrollments for our three different certificate templates created in Part 4.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 5

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this part of the series, we’re going to start getting ready to issue some certificates, and we’re going to do that by creating some Certificate Templates. This can be done from any workstation that has domain access and has the Certificate Templates console installed (part of the Remote Server Administration Tools), but we’re going to do it from our Intermediate Server in this lab since we know everything we need is already installed there from Part 2 of the series.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 4

Sat, 05 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this post we’re going to setup the trust for your Root Certificate in your environment. If we think about what we talked about back in Part 1 of this series, you’ll remember that once we trust the guy at the top, we trust anyone down the chain as well. By trusting your Root Certificate, we automatically trust your intermediate certificate and anyone who your intermediate authority generates a certificate for.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 3

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I'd like to tie together everything we've done so far. If you're following along, you've probably gotten through standing up two servers in a lab environment in under 30 minutes, but perhaps without understanding the implications of the changes you've made along the way. We're not going to make any changes to your environment in this part of the series, so you're welcome to skip it and you'll still end up with a perfectly valid environment, but I feel like there might be _some_ value here for you.

Standing Up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 2

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this post, we'll stand up a subordinate Certificate Authority server. This will be your domain joined, always online server that will actually hand out the certificates to clients.

Standing up a Microsoft Certificate Authority - Part 1

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I'm going to walk through the steps necessary to standup a pretty basic Certificate Authority (CA) within your on-premises Active Directory environment. This is an introduction to CA only, and I'll admit that all of my knowledge is from working with consultants to stand environments up and from reading Microsoft's documentation.

Error "The specified server cannot perform the requested operation" when using Export-CMApplication

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Quick post today because I couldn't find this error anywhere online. I'm running Configuration Manager 2002 and was exporting an application and was getting this error thrown in Powershell:

Export-CMApplication : The specified server cannot perform the requested operation.

After some digging around, I realized it was an older application with a source path that was moved on the SAN, but not ever updated in the application since it was already distributed to all of the DPs. I suspect changing the application source path would fix the issue, but to work around it, I just used -omitcontent on the Export-CMApplication function since I didn't need it anyway.

Script to Find Attached USB Mass Storage Devices

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following script to find and list attached USB Mass Storage Devices and determine the disks and partitions associated with them.

 1$usbKeysAttached = Get-PnpDevice -Class USB -Status OK -FriendlyName "USB Mass Storage Device"
 2
 3$aAttachedDisks = @()
 4
 5ForEach($key in $usbKeysAttached) {
 6 $pnpProperties = $key | Get-PnpDeviceProperty
 7 $pnpBusRelations = ($pnpProperties.Where({$_.KeyName -eq "DEVPKEY_Device_BusRelations"})).Data | Select -First 1
 8
 9 $usbDisk = Get-Disk -UniqueId "$pnpBusRelations\`:$env:COMPUTERNAME"
10
11 $usbPartitions = Get-Partition -DiskId $usbDisk.Path
12
13 If(-not($usbPartitions)) {
14 # There are no partitions, just show the disk info.
15 $oData = New-Object PSObject
16 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskName" -Value $usbDisk.FriendlyName
17 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskSize" -Value $usbDisk.Size
18 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "PnPInstanceId" -Value $key.InstanceId
19 $aAttachedDisks += $oData
20 } else {
21 ForEach($partition in $usbPartitions) {
22 $oData = New-Object PSObject
23 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskName" -Value $usbDisk.FriendlyName
24 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DiskSize" -Value $usbDisk.Size
25 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "PnPInstanceId" -Value $key.InstanceId
26 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DriveLetter" -Value $partition.DriveLetter
27 Add-Member -InputObject $oData -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "DriveSize" -Value $partition.Size
28 $aAttachedDisks += $oData
29 }
30 }
31}
32
33ForEach($drive in $aAttachedDisks) {
34
35 If($drive.DriveSize -ge 1TB) {
36 $drive.DriveSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DriveSize/1TB,2)) TB"
37 } elseif ($drive.DriveSize -gt 1GB) {
38 $drive.DriveSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DriveSize/1GB,2)) GB"
39 } elseif ($drive.DriveSize -gt 1MB) {
40 $drive.DriveSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DriveSize/1MB,2)) MB"
41 } else {
42 $drive.DriveSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DriveSize/1MB,2)) B"
43 }
44
45 If($drive.DiskSize -ge 1TB) {
46 $drive.DiskSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DiskSize/1TB,2)) TB"
47 } elseif ($drive.DiskSize -gt 1GB) {
48 $drive.DiskSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DiskSize/1GB,2)) GB"
49 } elseif ($drive.DiskSize -gt 1MB) {
50 $drive.DiskSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DiskSize/1MB,2)) MB"
51 } else {
52 $drive.DiskSize = "$([Math]::Round($drive.DiskSize/1MB,2)) B"
53 }
54
55 If($drive.DriveLetter.length -eq 1) {
56 $drive.DriveLetter = "$($drive.DriveLetter):"
57 }
58}
59
60Clear-Host
61$aAttachedDisks | Sort DriveLetter | FT PnpInstanceId,DiskName,DiskSize,DriveLetter,DriveSize

Recovering Data from Synology Mirror on New NAS

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

So, my DS218+ recently died and I picked up a new DS918+. After setting it up with two new 4TB disks, I thought I was going to be able to put my two old 2 TB disks that were setup as a mirror in my old system and just copy the data over, but unfortunately that's not an option. The solution in the community seemed to be to buy a hard drive caddy, hook it up to my laptop, and drag the files over that way. As I don't have a caddy available right now, I thought I'd try and figure it out on my own to get the data.

Quickly Editing a Microsoft Doc (Video)

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The following 60-second video is the one I demoed at MMS Jazz 2019 to show how to quickly edit a Microsoft Doc without needing to understand Git command line tools or using VSCode.

Better PoSH: Using $PSDefaultParameterValues

Mon, 15 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today's quick PoSH tip comes from a conversation I had with Kevin Crouch (@PsychoData) and Brett Miller (@BrettMiller_IT), and I got to learn about the $PSDefaultParameterValues variable, which I'd never used before.

Essentially, $PSDefaultParameterValue allows you to define ahead of your functions how certain parameters should be answered. A great use case is when using Active Directly cmdlets to ensure that multiple calls to Domain Controllers always use the same one. Instead of a drawn out explanation about how it's used, I think a few lines of code will draw a better picture.

Detecting Skype Activity with PowerShell

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I'm working on a project to get a number of drivers updated across an environment. One of the biggest problems is that if we update certain audio, video, or network drivers while the user is in a Skype call, the call will fail. Often in testing I found that reconnecting to the Skype call or presentation was difficult or impossible and they were left as a "ghost participant" in the meeting without actually being there. To avoid this problem, I started work on a short script to detect activity before the installation began.

Better PoSH: Avoid Using += for Arrays

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I've found myself hanging around some PowerShell chats lately, and I've been picking up on a lot of neat tricks to write better code. This one comes my way via Adam Cook from his blog post on his awesome new function Get-CMUnusedSources (seriously, if you're a ConfigMgr shop, check it out).

Since PowerShell is one of those languages we learn as we read other's code and hack things together (at least to start), it's easy to pick up on ways of doing things that are quick, but might not be the best idea in terms of performance. Most of the time it's insignificant as it'll barely matter on smaller scripts, but it's always a good idea in this bloggers opinion to get into good habits for when you do start writing larger and more complex scripts.

Updating Microsoft Docs using GitHub and Git Bash

Tue, 02 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In the six minute video below, I'm going to walk you through the process of forking a Microsoft Docs repository from GitHub, cloning it to your local machine, making changes, pushing those changes back into your repository, and finally creating a pull request with Microsoft to prompt them to bring your changed content into the public repository.

I'd encourage you to watch at full screen to see all of the code examples clearly.

Inventory Java with Configuration Manager

Wed, 08 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Short and sweet for those at MMS 2019 who were looking to inventory java usage with Configuration Manager. There is a 2018 System Center Dudes post on metering java. The post was based on a CI created by Steve Jesok of TCSMUG back in 2015. The original script doesn't account for problems with newer versions of Java, for non-Oracle Java, or for Java 64-bit. I've resolved this and posted the updated script on my GitHub.

Calling sendmail from PowerShell on Linux

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I haven't blogged about it a lot, but I am trying to learn what I can about PowerShell on Linux. I feel like more and more services are headed to the cloud, and (even in Azure) will be able to run on Linux devices. Being able to write portable scripts to move between what I manage today, and what I may be asked to manage in the future, can't be anything but beneficial.

Getting the Email Address of all Configuration Manager Users

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The following short and sweet snippet of PowerShell will extract the list of admins from your SCCM environment and then get their email addresses. At the end, you can dump $email into a text file, or perhaps set it to your clipboard to paste into Outlook.

 1# Script assumes you have CM Module Loaded
 2# Script assumes you have access to AD CmdLets.
 3
 4$users = Get-CMAdministrativeUser | Where-Object { $_.AccountType -ne 2 }
 5
 6$adUsers = @()
 7$index = 0
 8
 9ForEach($user in $users) {
10 $index++
11 Write-Progress -Activity "Getting Administrative Users from ConfigMgr ($index/$($users.count))" -Status $($user.DistinguishedName) -PercentComplete $($index/$($users.count)*100)
12 If(!$user.isGroup) {
13 $adUsers += $user.DistinguishedName
14 } else {
15 $adUsers += $(Get-ADGroupMember $($user.DistinguishedName) -Recursive) | Select -ExpandProperty DistinguishedName
16 }
17}
18
19$adUsers = $adUsers | Select -Unique # Users could be members of multiple groups, or listed directly plus in a group
20
21$email = @()
22$index = 0
23
24ForEach($user in $adUsers) {
25 $index++
26 Write-Progress -Activity "Getting Email Address ($index/$($adUsers.count))" -Status $($user) -PercentComplete $($index/$($adUsers.count)*100)
27 $email += Get-ADUser $user -Properties Mail | Select -ExpandProperty Mail
28}
29
30$email = $email | Select -Unique # Two AD accounts with the same email? Maybe?

Inventory of Missing and Disabled Configuration Manager Users

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following script to inventory the administrative users of my Configuration Manager (SCCM) environment as they relate to Active Directory. The end result is a list of users who no longer exist in Active Directory, users who are in Active Directory but disabled, and users who are granted rights in multiple ways (e.g. directly and through some groups).

There is some sample code on how to then remove them, but I urge you to run this in a test environment first and never trust random code you find online in your production environment until you've fully vetted it.

PowerShell Script to Query YNAB API

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In a post last week, I talked about how I've begun using YNAB in 2019 to manage my finances. As soon as I learned there was an API, you know I had to dig in and see what it could do. Below I've posted a short PowerShell script to query all credit cards and lines of credit and then dump them out to the console. Nothing fancy, but might be a good jumping off point if there was something you were looking to write.

Thirty-Four Days with YNAB

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

One of my two New Years resolutions for 2019 was to do a better job managing my personal finances. I've been a religious Quicken user for about sixteen years, but I was starting to realize that it was doing a great job at telling me what I'd spent my money on, and ensuring that I never spent more than I had, but I really wanted to start thinking more than a month ahead.

Visio cannot open the file or a component in the file because it is corrupt (Visio 2016)

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

After upgrading a number of systems to Visio 2016, I started to hear more and more about old pre-2010 Visio files in VSD format that would no longer open and would throw the following error:

The strange thing was that the files were still launching without issue for users who were still on Visio 2010 and 2013. The consensus as I searched around the Internet was that the older VSD files often had too many shaped embedded in them, and the fix was to open them in Visio 2010 or 2013, go through a process of removing unused shapes, and then saving in VSDX format. Saving the file in the new format without removing the shapes would not resolve the issue.

Making a ConfigMgr Task Sequence Available to a User Collection

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A recently had a requirement to bundle a number of applications together into a few different task sequences to make available to a user collection. After a bit of research, I discovered that this is a pretty common question, and that there is no built-in method to make this available. Below, I'll walk through how I was able to accomplish the task using a the task sequence, an application, and a bit of PowerShell.

Remove All Objects from an Excel Sheet

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

After pasting some content into Excel 365 (2016), I found that I had brought along thousands of little objects from the source data. These were tiny invisible objects, but they'd constantly get in the way of me clicking into a cell, because I'd inadvertently click on one of the objects instead. While I should have just gone back and gotten a cleaner copy of the data, I decided instead to see what I could do to clean them all up. Below are the steps I took to accomplish this.

Convert Office 365 Version Numbers to Build Numbers for SCCM Reporting

Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I've written the following three PowerShell functions to build a mapping of Office 365 ProPlus version numbers (e.g. 16.0.10205.2009) to more reportable build numbers (e.g. 1806). I've created the following three functions to start:

Get-Office365BuildToVersionMap

Get-OfficeBuildListToCase

Get-OfficeBuildListToSQLTable

You can find the code, as well as examples up on GitHub.

Here is a query I wrote with the table created in that third function to output the build numbers with the number of systems running that build:

So, you've deleted the Windows Store. Ooops.

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Those enterprises who jumped on the Windows 10 bandwagon early and didn't like the idea of the Windows Store being installed by default may have taken it upon themselves to force the removal of the Windows Store before reading some of the best practices for either disabling it, or setting up a Windows Store for Business. You've now found yourself in an unsupported scenario and unsure how to get the store back when you want it without reinstalling the OS. Assuming you didn't delete the underlying WindowsApp files, the following script will help you get the Store reinstalled.

SCCM Console Setup Terminates with Exit Code 6

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If you're trying to automate the deployment of the SCCM Console through Configuration Manager, you may find that running it quietly throws something like this in AppEnforce.log:

Process 9976 terminated with exitcode: 6

For some reason, Microsoft has decided not to define a default installation path when running the console installer silently. This is included in their documentation. You can get around this error by simply specifying the installation path as part of your application, like so:

Allowing Reboot without Shutdown on Windows 10

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How it is possible in mid-2018, with 2.6 million results in google when searching, that we don't have a policy where we can prevent shutting down a system but allow rebooting? There are dozens of workarounds, some of which I'll go over below, but no actual ability to set this policy.

My Problem:

First, there are two places that most people turn to when setting this policy. The first is a GPO under Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar \ Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands. According to the help (shamelessly stolen from StartMenu.adml):

Three ways to find the right view in your SCCM Database

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to data in SCCM, there is no shortage of what you can get access to, but where exactly do you find it? Below I'll outline three methods I've used in the past.

First, the TechNet documentation. I'm going to be honest, I haven't actually looked here in quite some time. It's available, but since I've been querying SCCM for quite some time, I've memorized most of the views. Except when I forget them, which is often, which is why I have two more options below.

Adding Individual Office 365 Product to Existing Installation

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I was having a discussion last week about how if you want to add a new product to an existing Office 365 ProPlus installation (such as adding Microsoft Access after already laying down Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), you need to supply an XML with the apps you want to exclude (no longer including Access) but you don't always know what's on the system to start with during a large deployment.

Stop Using the Pipeline in PowerShell

Tue, 22 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I Fred Bainbridge and Ryan Ephgrave's MMSMOA session where they showed us that we shouldn't be using the pipeline anymore. Before beginning the session, I was as confused as you might be about why. The guys did a great job explaining it and I'm going to show you why in the same manner they showed me.

Let's start with a really basic array of numbers:

1$numbers = 0..200000

Now, you want to do something with these numbers, right? Let's say we're going to write them out to a file:

Midwest Management Summit 2018 - Day 5

Fri, 18 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

You caught me. There is no Day 5 to the Midwest Management Summit - but as I'm getting ready to depart the Mall of America this Friday morning, I'm going to share a quick list of things that I'd like to share about the overall conference over the week. So in no particular order . . .

The venue is a fantastic choice. I'm so spoiled being able to wake up in the morning, get ready, leave at 7:57am, and be seated in my session by 8am.
Get on Twitter. I can't stress this enough for most conferences. Catching #MMSMOA posts from others was how I kept up on everything all week. If you're not signed up, what are you waiting for?
Network Network Network. I can't stress this enough either!!! I met some really great guys this week who were just regular attendees like me, running into the same problems I am, and there were some really creative solutions out there that I'm going to take back with me. The badges were barcoded with contact information, so snap a picture! On top of this, the speakers and MVPs are super approachable. Lot's of great conversations on the best way to do things.
There are 15 minute breaks between each session - this wasn't really clear when I was picking my sessions, and I think it's good for potential attendees to know.
There is no official lunch in many (most? any?) of the noon sessions, but there are plenty of places to eat quickly. If you sign up for a session that doesn't include Lunch, plan accordingly. Plenty of people actually brought food from elsewhere into the session.
Nerds of a Feather - come prepared with some things to bring up. Even if you never get your question out, these are attendee driven and they're going to be very boring if no one has anything to discuss.
Most of the rooms get really cold. I'd prefer this over a bunch of geeks sweating it up next to each other, but carry in something light to wear.
The WiFi doesn't quite "suck", but it's not your home or work network. This is true of nearly every conference. It's not unusable, I could get email and get to twitter most of the time, but don't plan on fast and consistent connectivity. Thankfully all of the presenters were prepared for this, and when connectivity was lost, they had something to fall back on.

Midwest Management Summit 2018 - Day 4

Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Day three is under my belt and the information overload keeps coming. In case you missed it, I'm at the Midwest Management Summit at the Mall of America (MMSMOA) - you can read more about day 1, day 2, and day 3 in previous posts.

Certificates and PKI for System Admins

Speakers: Jason Sandys

Jason did a fantastic job dumbing down PKI for those of us who might be completely clueless.

What I'm excited about:

Midwest Management Summit 2018 - Day 2

Wed, 16 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Day two is complete and a lot of more great things. In case you missed it, I'm at the Midwest Management Summit at the Mall of America (MMSMOA) - you can read more about day #1 here.

Ten Things You Need as an Enterprise Scripter

Speakers: Fred Bainbridge and Ryan Ephgrave

Two great speakers on all things PowerShell in an enterprise environment. I'm going to have a lot to go back and work on.

Midwest Management Summit 2018 - Day 3

Wed, 16 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Reporting: How Sure Are You?

Speakers: Bryan Dam and Garth Jones

This was Bryan's first time speaking at MMS, but you wouldn't know it. He was a natural up there. Bryan showed us the ups and downs of patch reporting, the issues he's run into, the issues he's solved, and the issues that are just unsolvable (kind of).

Midwest Management Summit 2018 - Day 1

Tue, 15 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I'm really excited to be attending the Midwest Management Summit (MMS) for this first time this year. For those who don't know, MMS has been running since 2015 and picks up where Microsoft dropped off. It's held yearly at the Mall of America, which is also great since it's my first time making it out here. The core focus seems to be in making sure that the System Center (mostly configuration manager) community stays connected in and that we're all learning from each other.

Acrobat Redaction Bleeds into Multiple Pages

Sat, 24 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I ran into an issue today where using redaction on a PDF in Acrobat X caused black marks throughout the document, even in places where I hadn't used redaction. After a few hours of troubleshooting, I was able to determine what I suspect to be the root cause, and came up with a resolution.

To show you an example of the issue, I created a sample PowerPoint presentation. Below are the three slides I created.

Using PowerShell to Rerun an SCCM Client Advertisement

Sat, 30 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following function to rerun an advertisement on a remote client computer using either the AdvertisementID or the PackageID. Like all sample code found online, please run through a test environment first, and use at your own risk!

 1<#
 2
 3*******************************************************************************************************************************
 4** All code is for demonstration only and should be used at your own risk. I cannot accept liability for unexpected results. **
 5*******************************************************************************************************************************
 6
 7Use: You're welcome to use, modify, and distribute this script. I'd love to hear about how you're using it or
 8modifications you've made in the comments section of the original post over at ChristopherKibble.com.
 9
 10#>
 11
 12Function Start-CCMRerunAdvertisement {
 13
 14 <#
 15 .SYNOPSIS
 16 Restarts an SCCM advertisement on a remote computer.
 17 .DESCRIPTION
 18 This script will remotely connect to a computer running the CCM Client,
 19 find an advertisement by the Advertisement ID or the Package ID (or
 20 both), and then restart the advertisement.
 21 .NOTES
 22 File Name : Start-CCMRerunAdvertisement.ps1
 23 Version : 2017-09-21 (v1.0)
 24 Author : Christopher Kibble (www.ChristopherKibble.com)
 25 Tested : PowerShell Version 5
 26 .PARAMETER ComputerName
 27 The name of the remote computer to connect to.
 28 .PARAMETER AdvertisementID
 29 All or part of the Advertisement ID to run. Wildcards accepted.
 30 Defaults to *. Either this or PackageID must be specified.
 31 .PARAMETER PackageID
 32 All or part of the Package ID to run. Wildcards accepted.
 33 Defaults to *. Either this or AdvertisementID must be specified.
 34 .PARAMETER MaxRun
 35 If more than one advertisement meets your criteria, how many of the
 36 advertisements to run. Defaults to 1.
 37 .PARAMETER MoreThanPing
 38 In environments where ICMP may not allow pinging a remote computer,
 39 this switch will make the script attempt to connect to C$ on the remote
 40 computer in order to determine if it's online.
 41 .EXAMPLE
 42 Start-CCMRerunAdvertisement -ComputerName SANDIAGO-001 -AdvertisementID "US000001"
 43 #>
 44
 45 [CmdLetBinding()]Param(
 46 [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][string]$computerName,
 47 [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][string]$advertisementId = "*",
 48 [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][string]$packageId = "*",
 49 [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)][int]$maxRun = 1,
 50 [Parameters(Mandatory=$false)][switch]$moreThanPing = $false
 51 )
 52
 53 # TODO LIST:
 54 #
 55 # - Better error control when WMI connections fail.
 56 # - Are we using the best method to sort when using MaxRun?
 57 #
 58
 59 if($advertisementId -eq "*" -and $packageId -eq "*") {
 60 Write-Error "You must supply either an AdvertisementID or a PackageID"
 61 return "Missing Parameters"
 62 break
 63 }
 64
 65 $searchString = "$advertisementId-$packageId-*"
 66
 67 if(!(Test-Connection -ComputerName $computername -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
 68
 69 if($moreThanPing) {
 70 if(!(Get-ChildItem "\\$computername\c$" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
 71 Write-Error "System Offline"
 72 Return "System Offline"
 73 break
 74 }
 75 } else {
 76 Return "System Offline"
 77 break
 78 }
 79
 80 }
 81
 82 Write-Verbose "Getting ID of ScheduleMessage on $computername"
 83
 84 $schMsgs = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $computername -Namespace "root\ccm\policy\machine\actualconfig" -Class CCM_Scheduler_ScheduledMessage
 85
 86 $thisMsg = $schMsgs | ? { $_.ScheduledMessageID -like $searchString } | Sort ActiveTime -Descending | select -First $maxRun
 87
 88 if(!$thisMsg) {
 89 Write-Verbose "Cannot Find Advertisement/Package on Target Computer"
 90 Return "Cannot Find Advertisment"
 91 break
 92 }
 93
 94 $thisMsg | % {
 95
 96 [xml]$activeMessage = $_.activeMessage
 97
 98 $amProgramId = $activeMessage.SoftwareDeploymentMessage.ProgramID
 99 $amAdvId = $activeMessage.SoftwareDeploymentMessage.AdvertisementID
100 $amPkgId = $activeMessage.SoftwareDeploymentMessage.PackageID
101 $ScheduledMessageId = $_.ScheduledMessageId
102
103 Write-Verbose "Restarting $amArogramId (ADV=$amAdvId) (PKG=$amPkgId) for Schedule Message $ScheduledMessageId"
104
105 $softwareDist = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $computername -Namespace "root\ccm\policy\machine\actualconfig" -Class CCM_SoftwareDistribution -Filter "ADV_AdvertisementID = '$amAdvId' and PKG_PackageID = '$amPkgId'"
106
107 $original_Rerun = $softwareDist.ADV_RepeatRunBehavior
108
109 if($original_Rerun -ne "RerunAlways") {
110 write-verbose "Changing Rerun Status from $original_Rerun to RerunAlways"
111 $softwareDist.ADV_RepeatRunBehavior = "RerunAlways"
112 $softwareDist.put() | Out-Null
113 }
114
115 Write-Verbose "Triggering Schedule on $computername"
116 Invoke-WmiMethod -ComputerName $computername -Namespace "root\ccm" -Class "SMS_CLIENT" -Name TriggerSchedule $ScheduledMessageId | Out-Null
117
118 Write-Verbose "Sleeping for 5 seconds"
119 Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
120
121 if($original_Rerun -ne "RerunAlways") {
122 Write-Verbose "Changing Rerun Status back to $original_Rerun"
123 $softwareDist.ADV_RepeatRunBehavior = "$original_Rerun"
124 $softwareDist.put() | Out-Null
125 }
126
127 Return "Reran Advertisement"
128
129 }
130
131}

Backing up an iPhone with Broken Screen

Sat, 23 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Making Registry Changes for All Users with PowerShell

Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had to throw together a quick script to modify the registry of each current user on a set of given laptops, as well as any future users. While a GPO is normally the way to go for something like this, it wasn't an option for me here. This builds a little more on my May 2017 post where I just needed to get the profile folders.

Feel free to steal, use, and abuse - but like all samples found online, please run through a test environment first, and use at your own risk!

Modify Access Application Options in PoSH

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I put together the following script to help a small group configure Microsoft Access during login in a kiosk environment. You're welcome to steal and modify as you see fit. For all the options you can possibly set, see this MSDN page (ignore the comment that it's for Visual Basic...)

 1<#
 2
 3*******************************************************************************************************************************
 4** All code is for demonstration only and should be used at your own risk. I cannot accept liability for unexpected results. **
 5*******************************************************************************************************************************
 6
 7Use: You're welcome to use, modify, and distribute this script. I'd love to hear about how you're using it or modifications you've made in the comments section of the original post over at ChristopherKibble.com.
 8
 9Lot's of help from here:
10https://msdn.microsoft.com/VBA/Access-VBA/articles/set-options-from-visual-basic
11
12#>
13
14$title = "Microsoft Access Configuration"
15$access = New-Object -ComObject Access.Application
16
17# Invisible is the default, but setting here so that it can be changed for troubleshooting if necessary.
18$access.visible = $false
19
20if(!$access) {
21 #Add-Type -AssemblyName "System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"
22 [void][System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show('We were unable to configure Microsoft Access at this time.', $title) # Casting the method to [void] suppresses the output. 
23}
24
25# Default Open Mode for Databases
26# 0 = Shared
27# 1 = Exclusive
28
29# Default Record Locking
30# 0 = No Locks
31# 1 = All Records
32# 2 = Edited Records
33
34try {
35 $access.SetOption("Default Open Mode for Databases", 0)
36 $access.SetOption("Default Record Locking", 2)
37 $access.SetOption("Use Row Level Locking", $true)
38} catch {
39 #Add-Type -AssemblyName "System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"
40 [void][System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show('There was an error setting one or more Microsoft Access Settings', $title) # Casting the method to [void] suppresses the output. 
41}
42
43$access.Quit()

SCCM SQL Query to Build Uninstaller Batch File

Fri, 26 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I created the follow SQL query to create a batch file that uninstalls all known versions of a piece of software. Feel free to use and tweak as you see fit. You should build the query first to make sure you're only identifying the GUIDs for software you really want to uninstall. You'll need to setup SSMS to output as text instead of grid view, then copy and paste into a new batch file and trim the top and bottom a bit to remove the junk that comes with the output.

Get List of User Profile Folders (PoSH)

Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The following snippet of PowerShell will collect the list of profiles active on a system from the registry and populate an array.

I remove any profile folder that does not exist, as well as any that are within the Windows folder (e.g. NetworkService, LocalSystem), but you can modify as you see fit if that doesn't meet your needs. I use this when I need to add files, remove files, or make changes to files within a users profile.

SCCM SQL Query to Find Machines Impacted by AMT Firmware Exploit (INTEL-SA-00075)

Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The following SQL should help identify the state of impacted systems. Please review thoroughly before relying on this information, while I believe the results should be accurate, you should do your own due diligence. Please let me know if you find any errors or have any suggestions to return better data.

More information on INTEL-SA-00075 here.

 1select v_r_system.Name0
 2 , v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.Manufacturer0
 3 , v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.Model0
 4 , v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM_PRODUCT.Version0 as SystemProductVersion
 5 , v_GS_PC_BIOS.SerialNumber0
 6 , v_gs_workstation_status.lasthwscan
 7 , v_r_system.operating_system_name_and0
 8 , v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0
 9 , v_GS_AMT_AGENT.BuildNumber0
10 , case when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionMode0 = 1 then 'Enteprise Provisioning Mode'
11 when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionMode0 = 2 then 'Small Business Provisioning Mode'
12 else 'Unknown (' + cast(v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionMode0 as varchar) + ')'
13 end as ProvisionMode /* https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd339697.aspx */
14 , case when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionState0 = 0 then 'Factory Setup Mode'
15 when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionState0 = 1 then 'Set-up Mode'
16 when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionState0 = 2 then 'Operational Mode'
17 else 'Unknown (' + cast(v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ProvisionState0 as varchar) + ')'
18 end as ProvisionState /* https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd339697.aspx */
19 , case when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '6.0.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '6.1.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '6.2.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '7.0.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '7.1.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '8.0.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '8.1.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '9.0.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '9.1.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '9.5.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '10.0.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '11.0.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '11.5.%' or v_GS_AMT_AGENT.AMT0 like '11.6.%' then
20 case when v_GS_AMT_AGENT.BuildNumber0 < 3000 then 'Impacted - Unresolved (Build < 3000)'
21 else 'Impacted - Resolved (Build >= 3000)'
22 end
23 else 'Not an impacted version'
24 end as Impact /* https://security-center.intel.com/advisory.aspx?intelid=INTEL-SA-00075&languageid=en-fr */
25 from v_r_system
26 join v_GS_AMT_AGENT
27 on v_r_system.resourceid = v_GS_AMT_AGENT.ResourceID
28 left join v_gs_workstation_status
29 on v_r_system.resourceid = v_gs_workstation_status.resourceid
30 left join v_gs_computer_system
31 on v_r_system.resourceid = v_gs_computer_system.resourceid
32 left join v_GS_PC_BIOS
33 on v_r_system.resourceid = v_GS_PC_BIOS.ResourceID
34 left join v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM_PRODUCT
35 on v_r_system.resourceid = v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM_PRODUCT.ResourceID
36 where v_gs_workstation_status.lasthwscan >= GetDate()-30

Remove Recent Printers from Chrome Preferences File (PoSH)

Tue, 25 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Chrome does not remove "Recent Printers" from the print option box when a user or an administrator deletes a printer from the machine. This can cause problems when a printer is removed by policy or is updated with a new print server name, but a user continues totry and print to the old server. This script will remove the printer from the PREFERENCES file. You can provide no printer list and all Recent Printers will be removed, or you can specific a specific printer.

Recursively Query User View in Configuration Manager

Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The following query will allow you to search the view v_R_user in the Microsoft Configuration Manager database so that you can identify a manager and then find everyone who works for that manager all the way down the tree. I've found this useful in the past for joining with other information in the database to identify all the systems used by a specific group within an organization. This requires that you collect the manager name during user discovery. You can remove any fields that you don't discover. It also requires that you have managers identified in Active Directory for discovery.

Video: How to use VLOOKUP in Microsoft Excel

Wed, 09 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

In this video demo I'm going to show you how use VLOOKUP on a table in Excel.

In order to see the text clearly, please set the video to one of the two HD options using the gear icon.

Attachment: Using the VLOOKUP Function

Citrix - Installation Error DVCRenderingAdapter.dll Failed to Register

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I recently was troubleshooting the following error on roughly 400 systems that we were deploying the Citrix Receiver v14 to:

CustomAction +DVCRenderingAdapter.dll.827545C6_7013_4DE1_8E6C_DAEE4C57F54A returned actual error code -2147319780 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)MSI (s) (5C:9C) [10:08:57:789]: Product: Online Plug-in -- Error 1904. Module C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICA Client\DVCRenderingAdapter.dll failed to register. HRESULT -2147319780. Contact your support personnel. Error 1904. Module C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICA Client\DVCRenderingAdapter.dll failed to register. HRESULT -2147319780. Contact your support personnel.

PowerShell Script to Report SCCM DP Disk Space

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following script to quickly output how much disk space my SCCM Distribution Points consumed. If you're not running a CAS, you'll want to change line 21 to point to your primary. This requires that you have the Configuration Manager console installed on the machine.

It's not pretty but it did the trick. I'm certainly open to suggestions in the comments.

 1# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2#
 3# Script Created by Christopher Kibble
 4# www.ChristopherKibble.com
 5#
 6# You are free to copy, modify, distribute, etc. as you see fit. A little recognition would be appreciated, however ;)
 7#
 8# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 9
10Clear-Host
11
12Import-Module ($Env:SMS_ADMIN_UI_PATH.Substring(0,$Env:SMS_ADMIN_UI_PATH.Length-5) + '\ConfigurationManager.psd1')
13
14# Create Empty Array to Store Results
15$allDisks = @()
16
17# Get DP List from CAS
18Write-Host "Getting Distribution Point list"
19$startPath = Get-Location
20cd CAS:
21$dp = Get-CMDistributionPoint
22$count = $dp.Count
23
24# Loop Over DPs to Get Disk Info
25$i = 0
26
27$dp | % {
28
29 $i++
30
31 $dpName = $_.NetworkOSPath
32 $dpName = ($dpName).Substring(2,$dpName.Length-2)
33
34 Write-Progress -Activity "Collecting Disk Information" -Status "$dpName ($i/$count)" -PercentComplete (($i/$count)*100)
35
36 $disks = Get-WmiObject Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter "DriveType='3'" -ComputerName $dpName
37
38 if ($disks -eq $null) {
39 Write-Host "Error Connecting to $dpName"
40 } else {
41 $allDisks += $disks
42 }
43
44}
45
46$allDisks | % {
47
48 $pctFree = (($_.Freespace/$_.Size)*100)
49 $pctFree = [math]::round($pctFree)
50
51 $sizeGB = ($_.Size/1024/1024/1024)
52 $sizeGB = [math]::Round($sizeGB,2)
53
54 $freeGB = ($_.FreeSpace/1024/1024/1024)
55 $freeGB = [math]::Round($freeGB,2)
56
57 $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name PctFree -Value $pctFree -Force
58 $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name SizeGB -Value $sizeGB -Force
59 $_ | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name FreeGB -Value $freeGB -Force
60
61}
62
63$allDisks = $allDisks | ? { $_.SizeGB -gt 10 }
64
65Write-Host "All Disks:"
66$allDisks | FT PSComputerName,DeviceID,Size,SizeGB,FreeGB,PctFree
67
68Write-Host "Disks with 20% or Less Free Space:"
69$allDisks | ? { $_.PctFree -le 20 } | Sort PctFree | FT PSComputerName,DeviceID,Size,SizeGB,FreeGB,PctFree
70
71Write-Host "Disks with 10GB or Less Free Space:"
72$allDisks | ? { $_.FreeGB -le 10 } | Sort FreeGB | FT PSComputerName,DeviceID,Size,SizeGB,FreeGB,PctFree

Video: Text Manipulation in Microsoft Excel

Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In this video demo I'm going to show you how concatenate strings, as well as the functions LEFT, MID, RIGHT, FIND, TRIM, and LEN, and then how to use them together to get what it is you're looking for. At the end of the demo, we'll touch on the IF function and show you how you can manipulate the table based on some set of criteria.

In order to see the text clearly, please set the video to one of the two HD options using the gear icon.

Seven Geeky Essentials for my European Trip

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I was fortunate enough this year to be able to take a considerable amount of time off and explore some absolutely stunning regions in Europe. This wasn't one of those "disconnect from the world" trips, however. While I did remove my office mail profile, Microsoft Lync, and my work OneDrive from my phone, I still stayed connected with friends a family through my phone, ipad, and DSLR. Before leaving, I did a little research, a little downloading, and some purchasing so that I didn't end up disconnected. Below, I've described my seven geeky essentials for getting through around ten European hotels across four countries.

PowerShell Script to Output GPO Versions across DCs

Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following PowerShell script so that I could easily watch my GPO changes replicate around the globe, letting me know when I could have someone at a specific site update policy when new policies or changes were rolled out. To use, just replace $gpoGUID = "{12345678-1234-5678-9123-ABCDEFEDCBA0}" with the GUID of the policy you want to check on. You can find the GPO GUID in the properties of the GPO and on the details page in the Group Policy Management Console.

Resolving VMWare Error "There are no un-bridged host network adapters" after Windows 10 Upgrade

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

After upgrading to Windows 10, all of my VMWare Professional v10.x guest machines lost their connection to the network. Taking a look at their network connections, I found that I'd lost the default vmnet0 network, and trying to add it back as a bridged network threw the error "There are no un-bridged host network adapters".

Looking online, there were reports of Anti-Virus conflicts and some network cards not being supported, but I was pretty confident that neither of these were the issue since the bridged connection worked fine in Windows 8.1. I found that restoring the default within the Virtual Network Editor resolved this issue.

First Impressions of Windows 10

Mon, 10 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Just shy of a week ago, a few days after Microsoft released Windows 10 to the public, I downloaded and installed it. I had run some pre-release versions in Virtual Machines and on a test laptop over the last few months, but this was my first venture into upgrading with my everyday machine, and the one I'm writing from now. With a single exception, which I'll mention below, the upgrade went completely smoothly. I didn't lose any data, and all of my applications continue to function perfectly. In the post below, I'm going to discuss how I upgraded, and seven of the things that have come up as "first impressions". Specifically, things that have changed since Windows 8.1.

Using WinDirStat to Cleanup Disk Space

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

WinDirStat, by the company of either the same name or of no name, is in my opinion one of the best tools for quickly understanding where all the space on your hard disk has gone. After scanning your disk, it graphically reports back to you a Windows Explorer like view of your directory structure sorted by space consumed, a list of file extensions with how much space each consumes, and a colored block view that is representative of the size of individual files.

The Sonos Music Ecosystem

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

When I purchased my first Sonos device back in 2012, I had been looking for something like this system for at months. I didn't seem to think that my requirements were that out of the ordinary, but I had a hard time finding something that met all my needs at a price that I considered reasonable. What I'm looking for is an easy way to share all kinds of music across multiple speakers in multiple rooms and control it all easily. I wanted the ability for them to stay completely in sync or to all be playing something independently.

Finding the Create & Modify Dates of Google Calendar Event

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

While using shared Google calendars is great way to keep yourself, your family, or your groups organized, they lack any type or real auditing at the event level. Specifically, I often need to find out when an event was created or modified. While this isn't available today through the GUI, it is available under the hood. Below I'll show you step by step how to find this data.

Within Google Calendar, drop down the settings gear and select Calendar Settings.
Click on the Calendars link, and then click on the calendar you'd like to manage.
Click on the iCal button that uses the private address of your calendar
Click on the Private Address link that pops up.
Save the ICS file and open it using Notepad or your favorite text editor. Within the file, search for the item that you're looking for. It will likely be labeled as "Summary". Somewhere above that line will be a BEGIN:VEVENT, and slightly below will be END:VEVENT. In between these two lines is your calendar event. Within this event will be your create and modify dates in YYYY MM DD format, as shown below.

SCCM SQL Query to Determine Installed Browsers

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I recently wrote the following SQL Query to help identify which browsers are installed across our environment. A straight Add/Remove Programs (v_AddRemovePrograms) query didn't really return the data in such a way that made it easy to determine major version of Firefox or Chrome, and doesn't include Internet Explorer since that's not listed in Add/Remove Programs. This view alone also does not capture user based installations of Chrome. You may need to modify slightly for your environment.

Creating an SCCM Collection from an List of Computers in Excel

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I frequently use this trick to manage collections of computers in SCCM where the original list comes from Excel, or from a query of another system that I can dump into Excel. Doing it this way, you don't have to rely on adding computers one at a time to a collection query or dumping systems into tools like the the ConfigMgr 2012 Right Click Tools (which by the way are awesome).

Use Ninite to Install Your Windows Apps

Tue, 26 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

As it's been around for years, I'm still surprised at how often I find someone who hasn't at least heard of Ninite. This application can possibly save you hours of setup and configuration each time you buy a new computer, or rebuild your existing one. Ninite aggregates the most popular freeware on to a single web page, let's you hand select the ones you need, and then custom builds an installer for those applications.

Google Domains Beta Review

Mon, 18 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I've had the opportunity to play in the Google Domains Beta program over the last two months. I submitted my name into the program sometime in late 2014 and was accepted (along with a lot of other people) in December. I moved my first domain over from my current registrar in February 2015 and registered my first new domain through them in March 2015. In this post, I'll discuss my experience transferring in an existing domain, registering a new domain, how the service works (with screen shots) and what I like and don't like about it.

SCCM 2012 DP Errors: SendFiles Failed

Tue, 12 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

One of my distribution points recently stopped getting DP updates. I tried my normal troubleshooting steps - creating a new package, checking disk space, source folder permissions, server reboot, etc., but no dice. I reviewed the DISTMGR.LOG on the primary site responsible for the distribution point, and found the following:

UpdatePackageData: Failed to get class of SMS_PackagesInContLib. Error code: 0x80041002 SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 5/12/2015 6:46:04 PM 20164 (0x4EC4) Failed to update package share data into WMI on the distribution point SMS_DISTRIBUTION_MANAGER 5/12/2015 6:46:05 PM 20164 (0x4EC4)

Setup was unable to compile Sql CE script file CIStateDBUpgrade.sqlce during CCM Setup

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I was troubleshooting a Windows 7 Service Pack 1 system where the CCM Client would not install manually or via push. The following was reported in the CCMSETUP.LOG:

MSI: Setup was unable to compile Sql CE script file C:\Windows\CCM\CIStateDBUpgrade.sqlce. The error code is 87D00244. MSI: Action 13:27:05: Rollback. Rolling back action: File C:\Windows\ccmsetup\{181D79D7-1115-4D96-8E9B-5833DF92FBB4}\client.msi installation failed. Error text: ExitCode: 1603 Action: CcmCompileSqlCEScripts. ErrorMessages: Setup was unable to compile Sql CE script file C:\Windows\CCM\CIStateDBUpgrade.sqlce. The error code is 87D00244.

SCCM Query to Get Screen Resolutions

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following queries to find the video resolutions used by clients reporting into SCCM. They currently only look at Windows Workstations 6.x (excludes servers, and also anything older than Windows Vista or whatever v7 ends up being), and only those who have submitted a hardware inventory in the last 30 days. Feel free to steal & modify.

This query lists every card with resolution:

 1/* List of Video Cards with Resolutions */
 2select vid.AdapterCompatibility0
 3 , vid.name0
 4 , vid.CurrentHorizontalResolution0
 5 , vid.CurrentVerticalResolution0
 6 , cast(vid.CurrentHorizontalResolution0 as varchar) + 'x' + cast(vid.CurrentVerticalResolution0 as varchar) as ResolutionFinal
 7 , sys.Operating_System_Name_and0
 8 from v_r_system sys
 9 join v_GS_VIDEO_CONTROLLER as vid
10 on sys.resourceid = vid.ResourceID
11 join v_GS_WORKSTATION_STATUS hw
12 on sys.resourceid = hw.ResourceID
13 where vid.CurrentHorizontalResolution0 is not null
14 and vid.CurrentVerticalResolution0 is not null
15 and sys.Operating_System_Name_and0 like '%Workstation%6.%'
16 and hw.LastHWScan >= GetDate()-30

This query sums up the resolutions reported in the previous query:

Deleting Inactive AD Computers from SCCM 2012

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following script to find inactive computers in Active Directory and then find & delete them from SCCM. Feel free to use & abuse as you see fit, but always run through a test environment first. My version makes sure to target only Windows Operating Systems, and excludes anything with Server in the caption - you'll want to adjust the filter as needed in your specific environment.

 1# Import Necessary Modules 
 2
 3# Christopher Kibble, July 2014
 4
 5# Script will find inactive computers in AD (with defined filter) based on variable number of days since last logon timestamp
 6# and then will scour the CAS to remove those objects from AD. Please note that the Resource IDs may not be cleared from all
 7# tables until a site maintenance task runs.
 8
 9# Credits:
10# - Daniel Ratliff and "agressiv" (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ff9a91f7-3df8-4e09-a0a5-9eff297ca0c9/powershell-equivalent-to-deleting-a-sccm-computer-object)
11# - "TSO" (http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Get-Inactive-Computer-in-54feafde)
12
13# Requires Configuration Manager Console (*Change as appropriate*)
14import-module "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\ConfigurationManager.psd1"
15
16# Requires Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)
17import-module activedirectory
18
19# 20 Weeks Offline considered inactive
20$DaysInactive = 140
21
22# Date that is DaysInactive Ago
23$time = (Get-Date).Adddays(-($DaysInactive))
24
25# Get all AD computers with lastLogonTimestamp less than our time that are Windows clients but not servers
26$oldComputers = Get-ADComputer -Filter {LastLogonTimeStamp -lt $time -and OperatingSystem -notlike "*Server*" -and OperatingSystem -like "*Windows*"}
27
28$i = 0
29$iDeleted = 0
30$iSkipped = 0
31$max = $oldComputers.count
32
33# Loop Over Each Computer and Delete from SCCM
34$oldComputers | ForEach-Object {
35 $i++
36 $pct = ($i/$max)*100
37 Write-Progress -Activity "Deleting Objects from SCCM - $_.Name" -Status "$i of $max" -percentcomplete $pct
38 # **** CHANGE THIS LINE BELOW TO MATCH YOUR SERVER NAME & SITE CODE **** 
39 $ResourceObject = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName "YOUR_SCCM_SERVER_NAME" -Namespace "ROOT\SMS\site_CAS" -Query "SELECT * FROM SMS_R_SYSTEM WHERE Name='$($_.Name)'"
40 If (!$ResourceObject) {
41 $iSkipped++
42 } else {
43 $ResourceObject.PSBase.Delete()
44 $iDeleted++
45 }
46}
47
48# Write Status
49write-host "$iDeleted Hosts Deleted and $iSkipped Hosts Skipped"

Querying for Advertisement Status in SCCM

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The following query can be run in SQL against your CAS or Primary Site to collect the status of one or more advertisements. I find it useful to run this instead of the built-in reports because I can more easily link out to other sources, in this case my Active Directory Users table (v_r_user) and add/drop data as needed.

 1select computer.Netbios_name0 as 'Host Name'
 2 , ws.LastHWScan as 'Last HW Scan'
 3 , ad.AdvertisementID as 'Advertisement ID'
 4 , ad.AdvertisementName as 'Advertisement Name'
 5 , pkg.Name AS 'Package Name'
 6 , ad.ProgramName as 'Program Name'
 7 , adState.LastAcceptanceStatusTime as 'Adv. Acceptance Status Time'
 8 , adState.LastAcceptanceStateName as 'Adv. Acceptance State'
 9 , adState.LastAcceptanceMessageIDname as 'Adv. Acceptance Status'
10 , adState.LastStatusmessageIDName as 'Adv. Status Message'
11 , adState.LastStatusTime as 'Adv. State Time'
12 , adState.LaststateName as 'Adv. State'
13 , adState.LastExecutionResult as 'Adv. Last Result Code'
14 , adState.LastExecutionContext as 'Adv. Last User Context'
15 , users.Full_User_Name0 as 'Top User Full Name'
16 , users.Mail0 as 'Top User Email'
17 from v_Advertisement ad
18 join v_Package pkg
19 on ad.PackageID = pkg.PackageID
20 join v_ClientAdvertisementStatus adState
21 on ad.AdvertisementID = adState.AdvertisementID
22 join v_r_system computer
23 on computer.Resourceid = adState.resourceid
24 left join v_GS_WORKSTATION_STATUS ws
25 on computer.resourceid = ws.resourceid
26 left join v_GS_SYSTEM_CONSOLE_USAGE usage
27 on computer.ResourceID = usage.ResourceID
28 left join v_R_User users
29 on usage.TopConsoleUser0 = users.Unique_User_Name0
30 where ad.AdvertisementID in (
31 /* Use subquery to make it easier to find multiple advertisements,
32 or to swap out to find pacakges, or any other criteria */
33 select AdvertisementID
34 from v_advertisement
35 where advertisementname like '%Lync%'
36 );

Looping over User Profile Directories

Sun, 27 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote the following script a few years ago to help me loop over all user profiles to make changes to a configuration file that was stored there. The target systems were all Windows XP and Windows 7 at the time, but I couldn't be certain where the profiles would be (C:\Documents and Settings, C:\Users, D:\Users, etc), and I wanted to make sure to hit only valid profiles and not old copies such as username.old, that were left behind from troubleshooting.

Microsoft Volume Activation Management Tool 3.0 (VAMT 3.0) Shared Setup - Step by Step

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The Microsoft Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) is an administrative console meant to make it easier for IT Staff to remotely manage the Microsoft licenses on devices on the network. It can deploy and activate keys for products like Windows (both desktop & server platforms) and Microsoft Office. While the previous version of VAMT was a standalone MMC where you could optionally store data in flat files, this version now uses a SQL backend to store both your product keys in, as well as computers that you've inventoried. This guide will attempt to walk you through the installation of VAMT 3.0 and setup of your VAMT database.

Troubleshooting Windows Installer Self Heal Issues

Fri, 17 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

While there are plenty of benefits to vendors using the Windows Installer, if you've used Windows long enough, and you've installed enough applications, you've probably been plagued by messages such as these:

In this post I'm going to talk about why this happens, and steps you can take to resolve it.

Fixing Error “Word Cannot Publish This Post” When Publishing from Word

Sat, 11 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had to troubleshoot an issue where a number of people were unable to publish to their blog from Microsoft Word 2010. They would get the error Word cannot publish this post, and pressing CTRL+SHIFT+I revealed error 701797 in the dialog box. The same error occurred on both SharePoint 2010 and WordPress. There are a number of posts online which attempt to identify solutions for this problem; however none of them worked for me. I also found that there was no one place where all of the possible solutions are together, and I had to find many of the links in the Wayback Machine. So, this is my attempt at consolidating the solutions, as well as including my own.

Running a Command Against a List of Machines in Limited Parallel

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I've often had the need to take a list of computers or servers and run the same command against all of them, and then take some result from that command to report back on. For example, I may want to ping a list of machines and log the response times, or perhaps check the status of BitLocker using manage-bde. Typically, I would have two ways to do this:

The serial batch file method

In this method, you would create a batch file that did what you wanted and the command would get run against each machine one at a time. Maybe I generated the list using Excel and had a file filled with "ping ComputerA >> ComputerA.txt" (and so on for each computer), or maybe I put the list in a text file and used a FOR loop to loop over each one. The pro of this approach is that it's easy, but the con is that if it's a long list, it's going to take a long time doing one computer at a time.

Adjusting DCOM Settings via Script

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This post was previously released under a different blog and is being republished by me below. That site is no longer available. I am the original author.

I was recently tasked with adjusting the DCOM Security Settings (DCOM: Machine Access Restrictions and DCOM: Machine Launch Restrictions) in the local security policy on a number of computers. These can be changed manually by opening the Local Security Policy and browsing to Local Policies and then Security Options, but it needed to be more automated than that and needed to be rolled out to a few hundred Windows XP Computers.

Updated PingCell Function for Excel

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This post was previously released under a different blog and is being republished by me below. That site is no longer available. I am the original author.

I’ve updated my Microsoft Excel PingCell code that I published previously. The new function returns all results from Win32_PingStatus back to Excel. You can now ping and choose the results you’d like to see returned (example below code). The Win32_PingStatus class is documented on Microsoft’s Website.

Creating an SMS 2003 CCR within Excel

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This post was previously released under a different blog and is being republished by me below. That site is no longer available. I am the original author.

I created the following function to create Microsoft SMS 2003 Client Configuration Requests from within Excel and dump them all out into a temporary directory for me to copy to the SMS inbox. For those that are unaware, you can “ask” SMS 2003 to remotely install the client by putting a CCR file into the INBOXES\CCR.BOX folder on the SMS Site server. Basically you just select your range of computer names, execute this sub, and it’ll let you know where the CCRs were generated (in a temporary folder). Just take a peek, copy them out to the CCR.BOX folder and (if SMS is setup correctly) you’re good to go!

Problems with Notepad++ FTP_Synchronize Plugin

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I was excited to find out recently that Notepad++ has a plug-in that will allow you to edit files on an FTP server. The plug-in, which has come with Notepad++ since v4.7, is FTP_Synchronize. Unfortunately, although I’m on Notepad++ 5.2, the plug-in did not work out of the box for me.

While I could connect to and browse my FTP server, any attempt to download a file resulted in the error “Unable to create directory for file C”. After browsing the forums and googling around, it seems that some people were able to upgrade to the latest unstable releases from CVS or reinstall Notepad++ to resolve the issue. My solution for this problem was to run Notepad++ as an administrator. When running it as admin, I found that it created the folder C:\program files\notepad++\plugins\FTP\_synchronize. This folder is where files that were being edited are cached.

Generating a List of Values in Excel (VBA)

Sat, 09 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I frequently find myself needing to create lists of values I have in Excel in one cell. For example, I might get have a column of IDs and I need to create a comma delimited list of them to put into a SQL Query. I have the following function I put in an XLA that loads with Excel to generate these lists.

 1Public Function GenerateList(r As Range, Optional strDelimiter As String = ", ")
 2
 3 Dim rCell As Range
 4 Dim strList As String
 5
 6 For Each rCell In r
 7 strList = strList & rCell.Value & strDelimiter
 8 Next
 9
10 If strList <> "" Then
11 strList = Left(strList, Len(strList) - Len(strDelimiter))
12 End If
13
14 GenerateList = strList
15
16End Function

Now in any cell I can enter something like =GenerateList(A1:A250,”;”) and have a semi-colan delimited list of the values in cells A1 – A250. If you cannot tell from the function, if you do not include a delimiter parameter (the second one), it will default to “comma space”.

Microsoft Office Registered User Setup via Script

Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The following AutoIt script will allow you to set the Microsoft Office Registered User Name, Initials, and Company via a script by getting the name information from Active Directory and modifying the keys . This is useful in corporate environments where you don’t want it to have a generic name when you’re being told someone else has your file open. To compile this script into an EXE that you can run, you’ll need to download the AutoIt compiler from this website. You’ll want to change Dim $sCompany = “Generic Company” to have your company name, although it doesn’t look like Office ever reads this key, it’s probably using your Windows company name instead.

Ignoring Netware Tree or Server Error with SafeBoot

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote this tip for the McAfee Community back in December 2008 and thought it would be useful to post here

With the Netware client we’re using, we found that when implementing SSO through Safeboot that if a laptop was off our network but on another network (such as home wireless) that the user would get an error regarding the tree or server not being able to be found. It asks the user if they want to continue to logon to NT without logging into Netware. This is happening because normally our users would know to check “Workstation Only” when on another network, but they don’t get this option with Safeboot. Before I explain how I did it, I’ll give the standard disclaimer that I do not work for McAfee or for Safeboot and I’m only posting this because I had to go through the motions to get this fixed anyway and I thought it might help some others out. This change may or may not be supported by McAfee. You should complete the steps on a test or proof of concept system and you should always backup any files before modifying or deleting them.

Troubleshooting McAfee EE / SafeBoot SSO

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote this tip for the McAfee Community back in November 2008 and thought it would be useful to post here. I do not work for McAfee or for SafeBoot and I’m only posting this because I documented it all out when I was having trouble so that I could fix it in the future and thought it might help someone else. You should complete the steps on a test or proof of concept system and you should always backup any files or registry keys before modifying or deleting them. This information is posted by me alone and does not represent the thoughts of McAfee, SafeBoot, or my employer.