Windows Servers-One Less Tricky Pony

Exchange: We won’t be able to deliver this message to John Doe because it is too large

2015-10-19T23:16:00.001-07:00

You may get this error message in Outlook when sending email to a particular user ( s ) due to Message Size Restriction parameters in Mailbox properties.

We won’t be able to deliver this message to John Doe because it is too large.

Usually Message Size Restriction is turned off, meaning within Exchange organization users are able to send bigger sized attachments. To increase the Message Size Restriction or to disable it, change it in the mailbox properties in Exchange console.

Open the Exchange Console
Search for the mailbox in Recipients –> Mailbox section
Double click or right click the mailbox & select Properties.
Select Mailbox features and click on View details under Message Size Restrictions.
Uncheck boxes to disable the size restriction or enter an message size value in KBs.
Click OKs to close and save the setting.

Use Skype for Business with older Lync Servers (Fix for error: Server version is incompatible)

2015-09-25T17:00:00.001-07:00

Skype for Business 2013 or 2016 will throw this error if you try to use it with older Lync servers.

Cannot sign in because the server version is incompatible with Skype for Business.

Fix: Add DisableServerCheck registry key. Reboot your computer (to reload the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive). Your Skype for Business client will work after reboot.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\lync
Name: DisableServerCheck
Type: DWORD
Value: 1 (00000001)

You may download this file (right click the downloaded file and select Merge to add to the registry).

Office: “Add to dictionary” option greyed out

2015-09-19T17:05:00.001-07:00

I have helped someone with their Word (& PowerPoint) for not able to add custom words into Dictionary. When the user selected an word and right click, the option for Add to dictionary is greyed out like below picture.

Fix/Solution: Add a Custom Dictionary and select a language in Proofing options.

Click File –> Options
Select Proofing –> Custom Dictionaries
Select the CUSTOM.DIC and a Language (English (United States) in my case) if not selected. If you don’t see your language, add it.

4. That’s all. Click OK’s to close all dialog boxes. Your problem is fixed. You can now add words into custom dictionary.

Exchange: Hide Distribution Group Members

2015-02-04T21:43:00.001-08:00

Other day I have been asked to find out if we can hide DL Members. So Users can see the DL in Address Book, but can’t see the members. I found it’s very easy to do. (Microsoft Exchange Rocks!!!)

Here is how you do it.

Open Active Directory Users and Computers console.
Click View Menu and select Advanced Features (to enable it)
Find your Distribution List or Security Group (mail enabled) in the OU
1. DO NOT search your group. Because if you open the DL/Group properties from search windows, it will NOT show the Attribute Editor which is the advanced feature)
Double click to open the DL/Group to see the properties. Go to Attribute Editor tab.
Find hideDLMembership attribute, double click to open and select True. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes.

It takes a while to take effect the changes while Exchange generates Offline Address Book and Outlook get it. If you want to make the offline address book process faster, follow my blog post here.

In Outlook, DL properties shows like this with hidden members.

If we check the DL in OWA, it shows like this:

Hope it helped you. Leave me a reply.

IIS: Publish Windows Share to WebDAV site

2014-04-24T23:23:00.001-07:00

Publishing local folders as WebDAV site is very easy with IIS. There is plenty of help available that.

BUT there is not much help on publishing a Windows share via WebDAV. So I decided to publish one after we successfully published it at my work. It works beautifully.

One Liner: The trick is to replace ApplicationPoolIdentity (by default it is IIS_IUSRS local group on the server) and use different Application Pool.

More info about IIS_IUSRS local group is here: http://www.iis.net/learn/get-started/planning-for-security/understanding-built-in-user-and-group-accounts-in-iis

Step by Step instructions: (for Windows Server 2012 R2)

1. Create or find an service account in your Active Directory domain. (e.g., Contoso\svc-webdav )
2. Give the service account at least read permissions for the whole Windows Share. My case I gave modify permissions for my NetApp CIFS share.
3. Logon to the Web server and open IIS Administration Console.
4. Go to Application Pools section and create a new application pool by clicking Add Application Pool… on the Actions pane.
5. Open Basic Settings of the newly created Application Pool. Change the Managed pipeline mode to Classic.

6. Open Advanced Settings of the same new Application Pool. Find Identity under Process Model. Change ApplicationPoolIdentity with the chosen service account (e.g., CONTOSO\svc-webdav)

7. Create a new Virtual Site and Open Basic settings of the virtual site. Type the Windows Share path in Physical path text box. click Test Settings… button. Click OK to close the dialog box.

8. If you are hosting HTTPS site, select Basic authentication. If you are not using HTTPS, select Windows Authentication for the HTTP site.

9. Enable WebDAV at Root of the site (e.g., Default Site) at WebDAV Authoring Rules. (click on Enable WebDAV on the action pane)

10. Enable Directory Browsing on the Virtual Site settings.

That’s all. Try accessing your WebDAV folder from the client. You may have to enter your user name/password to enter to the site. Enjoy and leave me a reply if it helped you.

RDS 2012R2/Profile Disk: Adobe Reader X says “There was an error opening this document. Access Denied”

2014-04-16T23:02:00.001-07:00

PDF attachments from application is not opening correctly. Adobe Reader spits this error message.

We use RDS 2012 R2 and Profile Disks for the users. Somehow PDF files on the profile disk is having same issue with Adobe Reader.

Solution: It turn out to be new Adobe Reader software has Protected Mode feature. This feature has issues with Profile Disks and Roaming profiles. Just disable Protected Mode under Security (Enhanced) section in Preferences.

Hope this helped you. Leave me a reply.

Security Warning: The current web page is trying to open a site in your Trusted sites list.

2014-03-18T21:27:00.001-07:00

If you are getting this message, you are messing with IE Security settings and missed one.

Solution:

Open Internet Explorer
Select Tools – Internet Options
Select Security Tab – Trusted Sites – Custom Level
Find the setting Websites in less privileged web content zone can navigate into this zone and Enable this setting.

PowerShell: How to return multiple values from a Function?

2014-03-18T15:28:00.001-07:00

If you like to return multiple values from a function, simply populate a hash table variable in function and return the variable. See my example below. Feel free to use my example function and Enjoy.

Function Get-UserInfo($username)
{
    #Create an hashtable variable
    [hashtable]$Return = @{}

    Import-Module ActiveDirectory

    $ADUser = Get-ADUser -Identity $username -Properties Department, employeeNumber,l,Manager

    #Assign all return values in to hashtable
    $Return.Name = $ADUser.name
    $Return.EmployeeNo = $ADUser.employeeNumber
    $Return.Location = $ADUser.l
    $Return.Department = $ADUser.department
    $Return.Manager = ( Get-ADUser $ADUser.manager ).Name

    #Return the hashtable
    Return $Return
}

# Example usable of the Get-UserInfo function
# to show how to return multiple values

$User = Get-UserInfo("JohnDoe")

"Name: " +$User.Name
"Manager: " +$User.Manager
"Location: " + $User.Location
"Department: " + $User.Department
"Employee Number: " + $User.EmployeeNo

Make sure the virtual machine's configuration allows the guest to open host applications

2014-03-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

If you see this error on a RDS or Citrix published application, Session host/XenApp server is messed up with file associations. I was trying to open a link to a site in RDS session. That means Internet Explorer is not default program to handle the links or HTM/HTML files.

Solution: Remote Desktop to the Session host or XenApp server and go to Control Panel –> Default Programs. Find Internet Explorer and click on Set this program as default.

If you are trying to open something else (e.g., PDF), verify the correct program is set to default to open the file or you can check file associations (by check Properties of the PDF file).

PowerShell: Search User Accounts in Active Directory

2014-03-07T23:33:00.001-08:00

Active Directory Module has many cmdlets to process many AD related tasks. BUT we don’t have simple search cmdlet.

I had a requirement to check a list of users in AD to see if they exist or not. Get-ADUser doesn’t cut it for my requirement. If a user doesn’t exist, Get-ADUser errors out. So I wrote my own function. It can be used in a script or pipe the user names (SAM Account Name). This function search active directory and returns the AD User object if exists. Otherwise it returns an null value.

Download the script here: http://1drv.ms/1fSd9PH

Feel free use it for you purpose.

# Function: Search-User
# Parameter: user’s SAM Account Name
#
# Description: Search Active Directory with given
# SAM Account Name. Return the AD User object if
# user exists, or return null value
#
# Written by: Anand Venkatachalapathy
#
Function Search-User
{

param([Parameter(ValueFromPipeline)] $User)

BEGIN {import-module activedirectory}
PROCESS
{

   $filter = "(&(ObjectClass=User)(sAMAccountName=$User))"
   $userobject = Get-ADObject -LDAPFilter $filter

   if ($userobject -eq $null)
   {
        return $null
   }
   return (Get-ADUser $userobject)
}

}

To use this function, call the function with a user’s SAM Account Name. E.g.,

$user = “JDoe”
$userobject = Search-User($user)
If ($userobject –eq $null)
{ “$user doesn’t exists in Active Directory” }
else
{ $userobject }

How to Create a bootable Windows 2012 R2 USB Disk? (applies to Windows 8.1 also)

2014-03-06T21:06:00.001-08:00

Pre-requisites: 7-Zip software (Download it from here: http://7-zip.org/), Windows 2012 (R2) ISO (or Windows 8.1 ISO), 8GB or more USB disk

Open Command Prompt in elevated mode (Run as Administrator)
Type diskpart and press Enter
Type list disk and press Enter. Note the list of existing disks.
Insert the USB Disk
Type list disk and press enter again. Note the new disk showed up which is our USB disk. I assume the new disk is 2 for example purpose.
Type select disk X where X is your USB disk. E.g., select disk 2. Press Enter.
Type clean and press enter.
Type create partition primary and press enter to create primary partition 1.
Type select partition 1 and press enter.
Type active and press enter to make the partition 1 active
Type format fs=ntfs and press enter. This will format the partition 1 as NTFS volume.
Type assign and press enter to assign the USB disk to a drive letter.

Now right click on Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1 ISO file, select 7-Zip –> Extract Files…
Select your USB disk to extract the ISO contents to the USB disk

That’s all. Boot the server or computer using the bootable USB disk.

Did it help you? Leave me a Thanks.

Active Directory: Bulk User Password Reset by PowerShell

2014-02-26T20:28:00.001-08:00

If you need to reset password for bulk number of user accounts, the following PowerShell scripts is for you.

This first script requires an file with usernames listed one per line. Check the UserList.txt file location in this file. Change your favorite password in ConvertTo-SecureString cmdlet in this script. Then you are good go.

#
# Script: ResetPwd.ps1
# Description: Reset the password for bulk number of users, and
# set the property to change passwrod required at next logon
#
# Written by: Anand Venkatachalapathy
#

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

# Set the default password
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText "AwesomeP@ssw0rd" -Force

# Get the list of accounts from the file on file
# List the user names one per line
$users = Get-Content -Path c:\MyScripts\UserList.txt

ForEach ($user in $users)
{
    # Set the default password for the current account
    Get-ADUser $user | Set-ADAccountPassword -NewPassword $password -Reset

    #If you need to set the property "Change password at next logon",
    #leave the next alone. If not, comment the next line
    Get-ADUser $user | Set-AdUser -ChangePasswordAtLogon $true

    Write-Host "Password has been reset for the user: $user"
}

# ------------- End -----------

This second script does bulk password changes for similar named user accounts. e.g., TestUser001 to Testuser100. Change your own password and user account name in the filter.

#
# Script: ResetPwd.ps1
# Description: Reset the password for bulk number of users, and 
# set the property to change password required at next logon
#
# Written by: Anand Venkatachalapathy
#

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

# Set the default password
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText "AwesomeP@ssw0rd" -Force    # Set the default password for all users named TestUserXX 
# e.g.,TestUser001 to TestUser100
Get-ADUser -Filter { SAMAccountName -like "*TestUser*"} `
| Set-ADAccountPassword -NewPassword $password -Reset
    
#If you need to set the property "Change password at next logon", 
#leave the next alone. If not, comment the next line
Get-ADUser -Filter { SAMAccountName -like "*TestUser*"} `
| Set-AdUser -ChangePasswordAtLogon $true
    

# ------------- End -----------

LastLogonTimeStamp: How to parse the 18 digit number in PowerShell?

2014-02-12T23:15:00.001-08:00

This command generates the following results:

PS H:\> Get-ADUser JohnD -Properties LastLogonTimeStamp | select Name,LastLogonTimeStamp | fl

Name : John Doe
LastLogonTimeStamp : 130364862459391289

If you are wondering how to parse the 18 digit number of LastLogonTimeStamp property value. This LastLogonTimeStamp is expressed using Windows File Time.

A Windows file time is a 64-bit value that represents the number of 100-nanosecond intervals that have elapsed since 12:00 midnight, January 1, 1601 A.D. (C.E.) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Windows uses a file time to record when an application creates, accesses, or writes to a file. More info at HERE.

To convert to human readable date format, use .Net function FromFileTime and convert the output to [DateTime] format.

e.g.,

$u = Get-ADUser JohnD -Properties LastLogonTimeStamp

[DateTime]::FromFileTime([Int64] $u.LastLogonTimeStamp)

Displayed output: 02/09/2014 22:10:45

I wrote the following script to list all of my domain computers with OS and LastLogonTimeStamp vaule. This script also creates a TAB delimited output in text file.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

$computers = Get-ADComputer -Filter * -Properties name,operatingsystem,lastlogontimestamp -ResultPageSize 0
"Computer Name`tOperating System`tLast Logon Date/Time" | Out-File -FilePath .\DomainComputers.txt
foreach ($computer in $computers)
{
$computer.name + "`t" + $computer.OperatingSystem + "`t" + [DateTime]::FromFileTime([Int64] $computer.lastlogontimestamp)
$computer.name + "`t" + $computer.OperatingSystem + "`t" + [DateTime]::FromFileTime([Int64] $computer.lastlogontimestamp) | Out-File -FilePath .\DomainComputers.txt -Append
}

PowerShell 4.0: “Get-ADUser : One or more properties are invalid”

2014-02-11T21:47:00.001-08:00

This applies to Get-ADComputer cmdlet too. When I try to get all properties of an AD account like Get-ADUser JohnDoe –Properties * it gives following error.

Get-ADUser : One or more properties are invalid.
Parameter name: msDS-AssignedAuthNPolicy

It used to work in older PowerShell versions (Windows 8 or Windows 7). Now my scripts are all stopped working.

Well I believe it is a bug in ActiveDirectory PowerShell module. But also on other hand we should be using –Properties * in a script. That would be bad scripting, it takes more time to process obviously. Right way is use it like –Properties <propertyname1>,<propertyname2>.

What if I don’t know the properties I want. What if I have to figure the correct property name. Do NOT worry, there is a workaround. Pipe the Get-ADUser or Get-ADComputer to a Get-ADObject cmdlet like below.

Get-ADuser JohnDoe | Get-ADObject –Properties *

Hopefully it will be fixed on next updates or MS don’t want us to use * in properties parameter. Enjoy.

Citrix/RDS: Publish Internet Explorer without Address Bar

2014-02-09T00:46:00.001-08:00

Publishing IE for a web application without address bar is easier than you think. Simply publish the following VBScript or PowerShell script to launch IE without address bar and go to specific intranet website.

Copy either one of the script into Notepad and save as LaunchIE.vbs for vbscript OR LaunchIE.PS1 for PowerShell. Change the website address in the script. Run the script to make sure it works as you expected. Publish the script in Citrix or RDS.

Here is the VBScript Code. You can download this script from here: http://sdrv.ms/1cijdke

'
' Script: LaunchIE.vbs
' Purpose: Launch IE without Address bar with the given website
' Written by: Anand Venkatachalapathy
'
'
' Note: Replace your own webstie below in 12th line
'
Dim objIE
Set objIE = WScript.CreateObject ("InternetExplorer.Application")
objIE.Toolbar = false 'Turning off the tool/address bar
objIE.Navigate "http://anandthearchitect.com"
objIE.Visible = true
'
' End of Script
'

Here is the PowerShell Code. Download the script from here: http://sdrv.ms/1cijnYN

#    __                           __       __________
#   / /   ____ ___ ______ _____/ /_     / _/ ____/
# / /   / __ `/ / / / __ \/ ___/ __ \    / // __/
# / /___/ /_/ / /_/ / / / / /__/ / / / _/ // /___
#/_____/\__,_/\__,_/_/ /_/\___/_/ /_/ /___/_____/
#
# Launch IE without Tool bar and Address bar
# Written by: Anand the Awesome Venkatachalapathy
#
# Replace your website on next line
$site = "http://anandthearchitect.com"

#Get IE Application object
$ie = New-Object -ComObject "InternetExplorer.Application"

#Hide Address Bar and Tool Bar
$ie.AddressBar = $false
$ie.ToolBar = $false

#Launch the IE with the specified website address
$ie.Navigate($site)

#
#-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The End *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

RDS: Trusting the certificate used for publishing by GPO

2014-01-31T22:10:00.001-08:00

When you run a published RDS RemoteApp and you are getting this following warning dialog box, that means the certificate used to publish the RemoteApp is not in trusted by the local computer.

“A website wants to run a RemoteApp program. Make sure that you trust the publisher before you connect to run the program.”

There is a easy fix, but not very well documented anywhere. Technet document says simply add the RDS Certificate thumbprint into credentials delegation section in GPO. It’s all well and good, but they forgot to mention thumbprint have to in UPPERCASE and no spaces. I have mentioned step by step instructions below to add the certificate thumbprint in to GPO. GPO needs to apply to all domain computers that used to access RDS RemoteApp.

1. Open your RDS Certificate like below and go to Details and find Thumbprint. (below is yahoo’s SSL certificate used as example)

2. Select and Copy the Thumbprint into clipboard. (e.g., ‎e9 c0 09 f9 4e f5 e9 92 e2 fa 56 5d 13 f5 a2 56 76 da 6e 7b)

3. Convert all characters to Uppercase and remove the spaces. You could use the following PowerShell commands to do just that. Replace your cert thumbprint with mine below.

$thumbprint = “‎e9 c0 09 f9 4e f5 e9 92 e2 fa 56 5d 13 f5 a2 56 76 da 6e 7b”

($thumbprint).ToUpper().Replace(” “,”")

Copy the Result to clipboard. Note: leave the first character.

My thumbprint converted to E9C009F94EF5E992E2FA565D13F5A25676DA6E7B.

4. Open GPMC (Group Policy Management Console). Create a new Policy or edit an existing policy that applies to all computers. E.g., Default Domain Policy.

5. Right click on GPO and select Edit the Policy.

6. Go to User Configuration ==>Policies ==>Administrative Templates ==> Windows Components ==> Remote Desktop Services ==>Remote Desktop Connection Client

7. Double click the setting: Specify SHA1 thumbprints of certificates representing trusted .rdp publishers. Enable this policy. Under Options, paste the converted thumbprint into the text box. Click OK.

8. Double click on the setting: Allow .rdp files from valid publishers and user’s default .rdp settings.

You can close the Group Policy Management Editor and apply the setting to the users. But you can do more. You can specify the servers to which the user's default credentials can be delegated (default credentials are those that you use when first logging on to Windows). Edit the same GPO as below.

1. Go to Computer Configuration ==> Policies ==> Administrative Templates ==> System ==> Credentials Delegation

2. Double click on Allow delegating default credentials. Click Show button in Options next to “Add servers to the list”.

3. Add your Connection Broker, RDS Gateway and common name FQDN as following format.

TERMSRV/RDCB.company.com
TERMSRV/RGGW.company.com
TERMSRV/remoteapp.company.com

4. Do the same for Apply delegating saved credentials.

That’s all. Enjoy.

Outlook 2013 (&2010): Pictures in Signature–How to?

2014-01-20T22:20:00.001-08:00

In Outlook 2013 (& 2010) if you paste or insert an picture (e.g., Logo) in Signature Editor, it is not resizable. You are stuck and not able to do a correct sized picture in Logo. But No worries. There is an very simple trick that you can make the signature however you want.

Click New E-mail in Outlook 2013 (or 2010)
Type and insert the picture and make the signature that way you want.

Now Copy the whole thing in the compose window.
Click Insert –> Signature –> Signatures..
Click New and type a name, click OK.
Paste the copied signature

That’s it. Enjoy.

RDS 2012 R2–Single sign on using Windows Authentication for RDWeb page

2014-01-19T20:07:00.001-08:00

WebSSO is great and it works beautifully if configured correctly. If you go https://rdwebserver.company.com/RDWeb, you will be presented with form based authentication page.

What if we present the published apps/icons without presenting form-based authentication page, meaning use Kerberos or NTLM authentication with logged of user. This makes sense for internal corporate users, they are already logged in with their domain credentials and who do they have to logon again.

This blog is to achieve Windows Authentication for RDWeb logon. It’s really easy to do in Windows Server 2012 R2.

Logon to Remote Desktop Web Access server.
Open Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages
Make a backup copy of web.config file.
Open Notepad as Administrator
Open C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\web.config
Uncomment Windows Authentication section and comment Formbased authentication. The end result would like this:

That’s all, BUT there is one more thing. Since we don’t use form-based authentication, how would you specify it’s Public or Private. On RDWeb page there is a check box to make the RDWeb sessions private. It shows up in the bottom as below.

I made this Private checked by default since all my users are internal (& I have different Remote desktop web access server for external users with form-based authentication). To make that happen follow the steps below.

Logon to Remote Desktop Web Access server.
Open Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US
Make a backup copy of Desktops.aspx file.
Open Notepad as Administrator
Open C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US\Desktops.aspx
Modify the variable bPrivateMode to true (from false). The modified variable line looks like this:

public bool bShowPublicCheckBox = false, bPrivateMode = true, bRTL = false;

Now it looks like this, since Private mode is checked by default.

Hope this helps you. Enjoy!!

RDS 2012: Profile Disks and Temp Profiles

2014-01-08T22:46:00.001-08:00

The huge pain with using Profile Disks in Windows Server 2012 RDS is to dealing with TEMP profiles. When the user’s profile corrupts and started creating TEMP user profiles, Admins has to deal with fixing the issue and it’s NOT easy. But if you want to know how to fix it, here it is.

1. Delete User’s profile disk (.VHDX). To find the user’s correct profile disk, you have to check the NTFS security tab in properties of the xxxxx.vhdx file.

2. Check all Remote Desktop Session Host servers C:\Users folder to check which server has the corrupt user profile. (hint: check \\sessionhost\c$\users from your computer)

3. Once you find the server, Remote desktop to that server. You will see the following event log message on that server in System Logs.

Remote Desktop Services could not apply a user desktop for a user account with a SID of <GUID>. A temporary profile was enforced for the user. Verify that the user profile disk settings are correct. The error code is 0x800700AA.0

4. Open REGEDIT and expand to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

5. Click each sub key section and watch ProfileImagePath value. This value will say username in the path.

6. Once you find the correct key, Delete it.

7. Have user logon again to the RemoteApp or VDI. RDS will create new profile disk.

Hope that fixed your issue. If so, please leave me a thanks note.

Exchange 2010 (& Service Pack) Setup: A Restart from a Previous Installation is Pending

2013-12-29T21:58:00.001-08:00

Exchange 2010 or Exchange 2010 Service Pack fails on Exchange Analyzer on checking pre-requisites. This should be easy to resolve. If you are seeing this same error after reboot, there must be orphaned registry values left from previous setup files. Check and fix the following two registry keys and setup should continue normally.

To remove an orphaned UpdateExeVolatile registry key value

Open a registry editor, such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.
Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\
In the right navigation pane, double-click the UpdateExeVolatile key.
Configure the key with a value of 0
Close Registry Editor.

To delete the orphaned PendingFileRenameOperations registry key

Open a registry editor, such as Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.
Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\
In the right navigation pane, right-click the PendingFileRenameOperations key and select Delete.
Close Registry Editor.

I found this info at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164360(v=EXCHG.80).aspx.

Windows Installer: The feature you are trying to use…

2013-12-15T21:35:00.001-08:00

If you are stuck on Windows Installer error dialog box saying:

The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.

No worries. This is related to Cached Installers issue. Microsoft support got your back. They have an handy dandy Microsoft Fix It program to fix the Windows Installer issues. You can use either to Install or Uninstall a software from your computer using this Fix It program.

Download the Fix It program and run it on the troubled computer. Get it from http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

Windows 8.1/Windows Server 2012 R2: Task Manager Gadget on your desktop

2013-11-20T22:40:00.001-08:00

How about to display CPU,Memory, Disk and Network performance details on your desktop without any third-party software? Windows 8.1 has built-in cool display, gadget like, in Task Manager application.

It looks like this:

With that you can monitor you computer/server performance at a glance. To get this view,

Open Task Manager (right lick on task bar and select Task Manager) on your computer or server
Go to Performance Tab

Double click on one of the graphs on the left side strip

Enjoy the tip. Hope you like it.

RDS 2012: How to login to RDWeb page without typing Domain Name?

2013-11-10T14:51:00.001-08:00

Logon to RDWeb site with just username and password, saves time and confusion for the users. We can make user to bypass typing Domain Name with few easy steps.

There is two steps I did. One add “DomainName\” by script and second steps to change the text from “Domain Name\User name:” to just “User name:” in logon page.

To do the first step, follow the instructions below.

1. Remote Desktop to your RD Web Access Server.

2. Open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages. Backup renderscripts.js file.

3. Open Notepad as (run as) Administrator. Open C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\renderscripts.js

4. Find “strDomainUserName = objForm.elements("DomainUserName").value;” and add the following script blob

// add default domain...
        if ( strDomainUserName.indexOf("\\") == -1 )
        {
          strDomainUserName = "INTSURG\\" + strDomainUserName;
          objForm.elements("DomainUserName").value = strDomainUserName;
        }

So it would look like this..

if ( objForm != null )
    {
        strDomainUserName = objForm.elements("DomainUserName").value;
        // add default domain...
        if ( strDomainUserName.indexOf("\\") == -1 )
        {
          strDomainUserName = "MYDOMAIN\\" + strDomainUserName;
          objForm.elements("DomainUserName").value = strDomainUserName;
        }
        strPassword = objForm.elements("UserPass").value;
        strWorkspaceId = objForm.elements("WorkSpaceID").value;

5. Save renderscripts.js file.

Now user can just provide username and password. Domain name will be added if it is not present.

Now it the RD Web access log on page will still display Domain Name\User name:. That can be changed very easily also. Follow the steps below for the second step.

1. Remote Desktop to your RD Web Access Server.

2. Open Windows Explorer and go to C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\en-US. Backup login.aspx file.

3. Open Notepad as (run as) Administrator. Open C:\Windows\Web\RDWeb\Pages\login.aspx

4. Modify the following text as below:

Before:

const string L_DomainUserNameLabel_Text = "Domain\\user name:";

After:

const string L_DomainUserNameLabel_Text = "User name:";

5. Save login.aspx file.

That’s all. If you ever update with RDS patches, you will have to redo these steps again.

Enjoy.

RDS 2012: Redirect RDWEB page from IIS Default (root) site

2013-11-09T17:01:00.001-08:00

After you successfully deployed RD Web Access server users have to type https://RemoteApps.company.com/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/Default.aspx or you create a link to reach this page.

To make it easier you may want to redirect https://remoteapps.company.com to https://RemoteApps.company.com/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/Default.aspx. It’s easier than you thought. Follow the steps below.

Remote Desktop to RD Web Access Server.
Open Server manager and Click on IIS on the left side bar.

Right click on RD Web Access server and select Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Expand to Default Web Site.

Double click on (HTTP Redirect) under IIS section.
Match the settings as in the picture below.

Check the box Redirect requests to this destination
Type /RDWeb/Pages as redirect destination
Uncheck the box for Redirect all requests to exact destination…
Check the box for Only redirect requests to content in this directory..
Select Status code as Found (302)

That’s all now, try typing https://remoteapp.company.com (or whatever your website URL is), it will redirect to the RDWeb page. Enjoy.

Windows Server 2012 R2: Changing “Work Resources” name in RDS Logon page

2013-11-09T13:11:00.001-08:00

By default RDS 2012 names the REWeb page to “Work Resources”. You can change it easily using Set-RDWorkspace cmdlet in PowerShell.

Before you change the name, have you added all the RDS 2012 servers into All Servers section in Server Manager. This makes things very easier. (hope you are using Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012). If not just logon to RDS Connection Broker server.

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator. (All RDS cmdlets runs on elevated PowerShell)

2. Type Import RemoteDesktop

3. Type Set-RDWorksapce –Name “My Awesome Company Apps” –ConnectionBroker RDS-CB.company.com (Of course, you will have to change the name to your own text and provide your connection broker’s FQDN)

4. That’s all. Try opening RDWeb page.

For more information, here is the help on Set-RDWorkspace cmdlet information.

PS C:\> Get-Help Set-RDWorkspace -Full

NAME
Set-RDWorkspace

SYNTAX
Set-RDWorkspace [-Name] <string> [-ConnectionBroker <string>] [<CommonParameters>]

PARAMETERS
-ConnectionBroker <string>

        Required?                    false
        Position?                    Named
        Accept pipeline input?       false
        Parameter set name           (All)
        Aliases                      None
        Dynamic?                     false

-Name <string>

        Required?                    true
        Position?                    0
        Accept pipeline input?       false
        Parameter set name           (All)
        Aliases                      None
        Dynamic?                     false

    <CommonParameters>
        This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,
        ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,
        OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, see
        about_CommonParameters (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113216).