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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://blogs.technet.com/utility/FeedStylesheets/atom.xsl" media="screen"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-US"><title type="html">The Windows Servicing Guy</title><subtitle type="html">Tips and tricks from a Windows support engineer on issues related to servicing</subtitle><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/atom.aspx</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/" /><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/atom.aspx" /><generator uri="http://telligent.com" version="5.6.50428.7875">Telligent Evolution Platform Developer Build (Build: 5.6.50428.7875)</generator><updated>2012-05-07T04:47:00Z</updated><entry><title>Features on Demand (Part 2)</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2013/03/29/features-on-demand-part-2.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2013/03/29/features-on-demand-part-2.aspx</id><published>2013-03-29T15:09:08Z</published><updated>2013-03-29T15:09:08Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;In part 1, I talked about how to remove a Role/Feature using Features on Demand. In this blog, I will be talking about how to add a feature back after it has been removed.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Adding previously removed Features back to a computer using Features on Demand&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;As I mentioned in part 1 there are three available sources for adding roles and features back to a computer after their payloads have been removed using the Features on Demand option.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;· Installation Media&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;· Network location of install.wim from media&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;· Windows Update (if configured)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;To add features back into an image, administrators will need to use DISM.exe from an elevated command prompt, the Windows PowerShell cmdlets for DISM or Server Manager and path to the Windows Image file (.WIM) that holds the necessary payload for the feature to be restored. Source paths are not required if GPO’s have been defined for the environment. I’ll talk about that later.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;To restore features using DISM.exe&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;1. Locate the .WIM file that contains the payload for the restore operation. This can be located on locally attached storage or a network share.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;2. Run the command: DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:WindowsServerBackup /source:wim:c:\install.wim:2 /limitaccess (where the WIM index is the image in the WIM file that contains the source of the feature payload)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;a. The limitaccess switch will prevent the installation from attempting to contact Windows Update/WSUS Servers.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;You can get the WIM index using the following command:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/0435.clip_5F00_image001_5F00_6A5C9B7C.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image001" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image001" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/1106.clip_5F00_image001_5F00_thumb_5F00_633D5F04.png" width="244" height="136" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;If you didn’t specify the source path you would get the following:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/5238.clip_5F00_image002_5F00_43225247.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image002" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/2185.clip_5F00_image002_5F00_thumb_5F00_37F8C7FD.png" width="244" height="91" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;When restoring Roles/Features using the Server Manger GUI interface you will get the following notifications if the GPO is not configured.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/0042.clip_5F00_image004_5F00_17DDBB40.jpg"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image004" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image004" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/8546.clip_5F00_image004_5F00_thumb_5F00_62D12C0F.jpg" width="244" height="175" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/4744.clip_5F00_image006_5F00_57A7A1C5.jpg"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image006" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image006" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/0535.clip_5F00_image006_5F00_thumb_5F00_378C9508.jpg" width="244" height="194" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;h6&gt;&lt;a name="_Toc325032459"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a name="_Toc325024675"&gt;Group Policy for Features on Demand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h6&gt;  &lt;p&gt;As I mentioned earlier there is a new Group Policy option in Windows Server 2012 allows for the configuration of an installation source for domain joined clients. The Group Policy is located in the Group Policy Editor in the Administrative Templates\System node and named &amp;quot;Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/2021.clip_5F00_image007_5F00_69843592.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image007" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image007" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/5153.clip_5F00_image007_5F00_thumb_5F00_306D5890.png" width="244" height="119" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Available policy settings include the following:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;· Alternate source file path: Specifies the network location for use in installation operations. This must be a fully qualified path and can be either a folder location or WIM file. You can specify multiple paths by using &amp;quot;;&amp;quot; between the paths. Valid syntax is wim:&amp;lt;path to wim&amp;gt;:&amp;lt;index&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;· Never attempt to download payload from Windows Update: Disables the use of Windows Update as an installation source&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;     &lt;tr&gt;       &lt;td valign="top" width="17%"&gt;         &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/3582.clip_5F00_image008_5F00_77567B8D.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image008" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image008" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/3000.clip_5F00_image008_5F00_thumb_5F00_3E3F9E8B.png" width="28" height="28" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Note:&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;/td&gt;        &lt;td valign="top" width="83%"&gt;         &lt;p&gt;Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is not configurable as a recovery source for Features on Demand&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;/td&gt;     &lt;/tr&gt;   &lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/2514.clip_5F00_image010_5F00_573B6ED0.jpg"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image010" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image010" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/6646.clip_5F00_image010_5F00_thumb_5F00_09330F5B.jpg" width="244" height="225" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Values for this policy are in the registry under the following key:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Servicing &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;LocalSourcePath&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;RepairContentServerSource&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;UseWindowsUpdate&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Possible registry values include:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;• LocalSourcePath – Specifies location to use for installation source. Can specify more than one source when separated with a “;”. Valid sources include a network folder path or a WIM file (using the syntax wim:&amp;lt;path to wim&amp;gt;:&amp;lt;index&amp;gt;)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;• UseWindowsUpdate – Enables use of Windows Update as an installation source&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="1"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;     &lt;tr&gt;       &lt;td valign="top" width="17%"&gt;         &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/2526.clip_5F00_image0081_5F00_6918029D.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image008[1]" style="display: inline;" border="0" alt="clip_image008[1]" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/5658.clip_5F00_image0081_5F00_thumb_5F00_3001259B.png" width="28" height="28" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Note:&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;/td&gt;        &lt;td valign="top" width="83%"&gt;         &lt;p&gt;If the Never attempt to download payload from Windows Update checkbox is not checked, or if you do not use the /limitaccess switch using dism or powershell, features on demand will always attempt to use Windows Update first for the payload files.&lt;/p&gt;       &lt;/td&gt;     &lt;/tr&gt;   &lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3561803" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>How to troubleshoot error 0x800F081F when installing roles and features</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/30/how-to-troubleshoot-error-0x800f081f-when-installing-roles-and-features.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/30/how-to-troubleshoot-error-0x800f081f-when-installing-roles-and-features.aspx</id><published>2012-11-30T15:33:14Z</published><updated>2012-11-30T15:33:14Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;I’ve seen a couple of issues now where customers are having issues installing roles and features, particularly the .Net Framework 3.5, in Windows 8 and Server 2012.&amp;#160; The general process is that you’ll have an application that needs the older .Net Framework and run through the UI wizard in an attempt to download the files from Windows Update.&amp;#160; If this fails, you’ll see the error with exit code 0x800F081F.&amp;#160; The means that we cant find a source for the files we need to install the feature you’re requesting.&amp;#160; So, how do you troubleshoot this?&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Make sure the source you’re using isn't corrupted.&amp;#160; If you have a download ISO from MSDN/TechNet/VL/etc, make sure that the ISO is good or try another source just to make sure.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Make sure the component store isn't corrupted.&amp;#160; I’ve spoken in the &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/09/26/fixing-component-store-corruption-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx"&gt;past&lt;/a&gt; about the Inbox Corruption Repair feature (aka in-box CheckSUR) and it usually resolves a lot of these problems.&amp;#160; You can check your system for problems by running the command: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth from an Internet connected machine.&amp;#160; Any corruption and repair operations will be logged to the CBS.log&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;If you have a WSUS server on your network, use the /LimitAccess switch from DISM and install the component that way.&amp;#160; For example, for the .Net Framework, this command is: DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /Featurename:NetFX3 /Source:G:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess (where G: is the appropriate letter for the location of the DVD/ISO)&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Update your source media.&amp;#160; I reference how to do this in this prior &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/14/how-to-update-local-source-media-to-add-roles-and-features.aspx"&gt;post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;If all else fails, open a support ticket with us so we can take a look at your logs and determine what’s going on.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Most of the time, I’ve seen steps 1-4 (or a combination of them) resolve these types of issues.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Hope that helps, let me know if you have questions.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3535723" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>Features on Demand in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/20/features-on-demand-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/20/features-on-demand-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx</id><published>2012-11-20T15:27:04Z</published><updated>2012-11-20T15:27:04Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;This was written by a co-worker of mine, Jim Collins.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Features on Demand is a new feature in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 that will allow you to remove files associated with specific roles and features, typically referred to as payload files. The major benefit of this feature is to conserve disk space. Once removed, these binaries will need to be added back from a valid installation source before the feature can be used again. Unlike the stage and un-stage process used by the component store, Features on Demand removal results in a permanent removal of those binaries. Available sources include Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 WIM files, an expanded Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 DVD (flat), an available network location with Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 installation files and Windows Update.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Removing Roles/Features from a computer using Features on Demand&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;First let’s talk about removing Roles and Features from an installed Operating System. Features on Demand is exposed via the DISM command line interface as well as the new DISM and Server Manager Windows PowerShell cmdlets. Below are examples of the new DISM and Server Manager Windows PowerShell cmdlets.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/6082.clip_5F00_image001_5F00_2786DEA0.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image001" style="display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="clip_image001" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/0333.clip_5F00_image001_5F00_thumb_5F00_1B553EAC.png" width="244" height="232" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;DISM PowerShell Cmdlet&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/7181.clip_5F00_image002_5F00_14920F5C.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image002" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/8267.clip_5F00_image002_5F00_thumb_5F00_18ABC154.png" width="244" height="77" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Server Manager PowerShell Cmdlet&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;It’s important to note that in Windows 8 features on demand is only exposed via DISM and DISM PowerShell cmdlets. This is important because DISM does not understand the parental dependencies. So DISM will only remove the packages you specify and will not remove any dependent packages, if they exist. For this reason it is highly recommended to only use the Server Manager PowerShell cmdlets to remove features in Windows Server 2012.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Below I will give an example of how you would remove the payload for the Windows Server Backup feature using all three methods:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;DISM:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:WindowsServerBackup /Remove&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;To verify the payload has actually been removed you would run the following:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/4454.clip_5F00_image003_5F00_422F66BA.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image003" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="clip_image003" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/5543.clip_5F00_image003_5F00_thumb_5F00_113C8982.png" width="244" height="77" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;You can see from the above screenshot, that the State is Disabled with Payload Removed&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;DISM PowerShell Cmdlet:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature –Online –FeatureName WindowsServerBackup –Remove&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;To verify the payload has actually been removed you would run the following:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/7510.clip_5F00_image004_5F00_66FCB5CC.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image004" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="clip_image004" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/8508.clip_5F00_image004_5F00_thumb_5F00_3B4BEBD0.png" width="244" height="48" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;You can see from the above screenshot that the State is&lt;font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"&gt; DisabledWithPayloadRemoved&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Server Manager PowerShell Cmdlet:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;Remove-WindowsFeature Windows-Server-Backup –Remove&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;To verify the payload has actually been removed you would run the following:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/3884.clip_5F00_image005_5F00_7B15D255.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image005" style="margin: 0px; display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="clip_image005" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/4863.clip_5F00_image005_5F00_thumb_5F00_73F695DD.png" width="244" height="33" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;You can see from the above screenshot, that the Install State is &lt;font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"&gt;Removed&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;To get a list of all Roles/Features that have been Removed you can run the following command&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;Get-windowsfeature | Where-Object {$_.InstallState -eq &amp;quot;Removed&amp;quot;}&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/0257.clip_5F00_image006_5F00_1AC4AC1E.png"&gt;&lt;img title="clip_image006" style="display: inline; background-image: none;" border="0" alt="clip_image006" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/8270.clip_5F00_image006_5F00_thumb_5F00_13A56FA6.png" width="244" height="43" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Removing Roles/Features from an installation source&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;An administrator can also remove Roles and Features from an installation source so that they can reduce the size of their image as well as limit the Roles and Feature a specific group will have available to them. In this scenario, administrators must consider some factors to ensure the removal does not inversely effect the environment. First you will need to know what type of installation source will be used when adding roles or features back to the image. You will also need to take into account how much disk space will be needed for the addition of Roles and Features. Administrators will want to keep at least 10 GB of space free for potential component store growth.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Below are the steps to remove the Windows Server Backup feature from an installation source&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;1. Copy the installation WIM to a local directory (in this example C:\)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;2. Create a mount directory to mount the WIM to (in this example C:\image)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;3. Find the index of the image you will be editing:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;DISM /get-imageinfo /imagefile:c:\install.wim&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;4. Mount the image to the folder created in step #2:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;DISM /mount-image /imagefile:c:\install.wim /index:3 /mountdir:c:\image&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;5. Remove the Feature from the image:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;DISM /image:c:\image /disable-feature /featurename:WindowServerBackup /remove&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;6. Verify the state of the feature is removed:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;DISM /image:c:\image /get-featureinfo /featurename:WindowsServerBackup&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;7. Commit the changes to the WIM:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;font color="#008040" face="Courier New"&gt;DISM /unmounts-image /mountdir:c:\image /commit&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;8. Prepare the image for deployment by adding it to a WDS or MDT deployment point.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3533663" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>How to update local source media to add roles and features</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/14/how-to-update-local-source-media-to-add-roles-and-features.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/14/how-to-update-local-source-media-to-add-roles-and-features.aspx</id><published>2012-11-14T16:29:00Z</published><updated>2012-11-14T16:29:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve talked in the past about the new Features on Demand option in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.&amp;nbsp; However, let&amp;rsquo;s say you build out an image, remove some roles and features and then patch the overall install.&amp;nbsp; If you attempt to add back in roles and features previously removed, the operation will fail because it needs updated source files (RTM+patch level) to complete this operation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My colleague Ben Herila from the Server Core team has some information about this on their team blog: &lt;a title="http://blogs.technet.com/b/server_core/archive/2012/11/05/using-features-on-demand-with-updated-systems-and-patched-images.aspx" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/server_core/archive/2012/11/05/using-features-on-demand-with-updated-systems-and-patched-images.aspx"&gt;http://blogs.technet.com/b/server_core/archive/2012/11/05/using-features-on-demand-with-updated-systems-and-patched-images.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This post is to show you how you can update a recovery source to match that of your environment so it can successfully be used later to install roles and features.&amp;nbsp; For the purposes of this discussion, I&amp;rsquo;ll use KB2756872 (&lt;a title="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2756872" href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2756872"&gt;http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2756872&lt;/a&gt;) as most people received this package during the initial Windows 8 release.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First, you want to download the contents of the needed updated from the Microsoft Update Catalog (&lt;a title="http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx" href="http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx"&gt;http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx&lt;/a&gt;).&amp;nbsp; In this case, you&amp;rsquo;d just type in the KB number and get the following results:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/2438.image_5F00_01BDA522.png"&gt;&lt;img style="display: inline; background-image: none;" title="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/2047.image_5F00_thumb_5F00_33B545AC.png" alt="image" width="791" height="43" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Choose the appropriate downloads needed for your environment to a local computer, in this case we&amp;rsquo;ll use the 2012 update.&amp;nbsp; When the updates are downloaded, they will look like this in explorer.&amp;nbsp; These are the files we&amp;rsquo;ll need to use to update the source&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/0068.image_5F00_660C1B87.png"&gt;&lt;img style="display: inline; background-image: none;" title="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-76-56-metablogapi/4762.image_5F00_thumb_5F00_5EECDF0F.png" alt="image" width="656" height="115" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once you have the files downloaded, mount an install.wim for the operating system you need to update as a source.&amp;nbsp; On a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machine, this can all be done from an elevated command prompt using the IMAGEX commands.&amp;nbsp; In the commands below, we&amp;rsquo;ll walk through the steps to mounting the install.wim to a temporary location and updating it to be a new source directory.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Copy install.wim from DVD to a temp directory&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;copy d:\sources\install.wim z:\install.wim&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Make a mount directory for the install.wim&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;mkdir c:\mountdir&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Remove the Read-Only attribute from the copied file so we can modify its contents&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;attrib.exe -r z:\install.wim&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Get index information from the WIM file so we can verify the proper source index we wish to modify&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;dism.exe /get-wiminfo /wimfile:z:\install.wim&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mount the &amp;lsquo;2&amp;rsquo; index of install.wim to our mount location&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;dism.exe /mount-wim /WimFile:z:\install.wim /&lt;span style="background-color: #ffff00;"&gt;index:2&lt;/span&gt; /mountDir:c:\mountdir&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I highlighted the image index above because you&amp;rsquo;ll want to ensure you&amp;rsquo;re updating the proper index when performing these operations.&amp;nbsp; The Server WIM contains 4 indexes (typically) and indexes 2 and 4 contain the full operating system binaries where indexes 1 and 3 contain only the Server Core binaries.&amp;nbsp; We&amp;rsquo;ll also need to make sure we know which index we updated so we can later use it for adding the roles and features back to the OS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With the WIM mounted, you&amp;rsquo;ll need to use DISM to add the package to the index you&amp;rsquo;d previously mounted.&amp;nbsp; The command for this if you&amp;rsquo;d downloaded the files above to your C:\ folder would be:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;dism.exe "/Image:c:\mountdir" /Add-Package "/PackagePath:C:\2756872\Update for Windows Server 2012 (KB2756872)"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE: We use the source folder for this command and not an individual MSU inside the folder&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once this step is completed, commit the changes you&amp;rsquo;ve made to the WIM and unmount it:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;dism.exe /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:c:\mountdir /commit&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now you have a new source directory that can be used to add roles and features back to your patched images.&amp;nbsp; So, if you were on Server Core and wanted to add back the shell components using your updated index 2 source, the command would be:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="color: #008000; font-family: Courier New;"&gt;Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell &amp;ndash;Source:wim:z:\install.wim:2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Organizations will need to determine how often they need to update their source recovery media.&amp;nbsp; Any time an update is released, the source is potentially invalid for reinstallation or repair operations.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hope that helps.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3532554" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>More on Minimal Server Interface</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/10/09/more-on-minimal-server-interface.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/10/09/more-on-minimal-server-interface.aspx</id><published>2012-10-09T21:29:13Z</published><updated>2012-10-09T21:29:13Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Quick post today following up on my prior post about Features on Demand and role persistence:&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/08/20/understanding-features-on-demand-and-role-persistence-in-windows-server-2012.aspx"&gt;http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/08/20/understanding-features-on-demand-and-role-persistence-in-windows-server-2012.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I've noticed&amp;nbsp;people on the forums and other places have&amp;nbsp;clicked through the setup process on Windows Server 2012 and ended up in Server Core (as expected btw).&amp;nbsp; I've seen several people mention they'd need to rebuild their machines to get back to a user interface, which was the case in Server 2008/2008 R2&amp;nbsp;but isn't true in Server 2012.&amp;nbsp; My colleague Mike Stephens recently authored an excellent post on how to manipulate the shell in Server 2012 using Features on Demand.&amp;nbsp; It's located here and I think its&amp;nbsp;a worthwhile read for those of you interested in the servicing of Windows: &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2012/09/20/windows-server-2012-shell-game.aspx"&gt;http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2012/09/20/windows-server-2012-shell-game.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3525028" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>Fixing component store corruption in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/09/26/fixing-component-store-corruption-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/09/26/fixing-component-store-corruption-in-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx</id><published>2012-09-26T17:13:00Z</published><updated>2012-09-26T17:13:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;One of the most used tools when fixing corruption for Windows Vista, 7, 2008 and 2008 R2 was the System Update and Readiness Tool (KB947821), commonly called CheckSUR.&amp;nbsp; The CheckSUR tool was an excellent way for most people to see what corruption had happened on their store, and potentially fix that corruption if the tool contained the payload to do so.&amp;nbsp; I&amp;rsquo;ve written in the past how to use this mechanism to also fix corruption when the CheckSUR utility doesn&amp;rsquo;t include the payload for your files to &amp;ldquo;fool&amp;rdquo; CheckSUR into resolving the problem without needing to do all sorts of whacky permission changes (&lt;a title="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2010/05/26/using-checksur-and-update-packages-to-fix-corruption.aspx" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2010/05/26/using-checksur-and-update-packages-to-fix-corruption.aspx"&gt;http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2010/05/26/using-checksur-and-update-packages-to-fix-corruption.aspx&lt;/a&gt;).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The way this works in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 is different, in a fantastic way.&amp;nbsp; It&amp;rsquo;s called Inbox Corruption Repair and it brings the functionality of CheckSUR into Windows rather than requiring a separate download to get the utility like you do now.&amp;nbsp; This is exposed in two ways, the first is really unseen by the end user and happens when we detect a corrupted state when attempting to install fixes via Windows Update.&amp;nbsp; When this happens, we'll fix the corruption silently and then re-install the prior packages.&amp;nbsp; The manual way to&amp;nbsp;use this tool is via DISM.&amp;nbsp; The way this is exposed is via the &lt;strong&gt;DISM /Cleanup-Image&lt;/strong&gt; functionality.&amp;nbsp; Here&amp;rsquo;s what the available switches do:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;/CheckHealth: This checks to see if a component corruption marker is already present in the registry.&amp;nbsp; We&amp;rsquo;ll inform the user if there is corruption but nothing is fixed or logged anywhere.&amp;nbsp; This is merely a quick way to see if corruption currently exists.&amp;nbsp; Think of it as a read-only CHKDSK. This operation should be almost instantaneous.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;/ScanHealth: This checks for component store corruption and records that corruption to the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log but &lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;no corruption is fixed using this switch&lt;/span&gt;.&amp;nbsp; This is useful for logging what, if any, corruption exists.&amp;nbsp; This operation takes ~5-10mins.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;/RestoreHealth: This checks for component store corruption, records the corruption to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log and &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;FIXES&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; the corruption using Windows Update.&amp;nbsp; This operation takes ~10-15mins or more depending on the level of corruption.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As an example, if you wanted to run this utility against your local component store to check for corruption and you wanted it to repair everything as it found it you would run the following command: &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So a couple of things of note here:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;CheckSUR.log is not created using Inbox Corruption Repair, this logging has now been rolled into CBS.log&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;I would typically recommend you run /RestoreHealth if you suspect corruption as it will record and fix issues and takes about the same time as /ScanHealth.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;This functionality is also present in Windows PowerShell and can be scripted across an environment&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Windows Update or a network available WIM are valid recovery sources but WSUS installations are not.&amp;nbsp; This is important because if you have WSUS enabled in your environment, there is a chance that your repair operations may be captured by the WSUS Servers and not be properly serviced.&amp;nbsp; You can control this behavior using Group Policy or the /LimitAccess switch&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If you decide to block Windows Update and use a local source WIM, the WIM will only be able to recover payloads present in that WIM.&amp;nbsp; This means that you&amp;rsquo;ll need to update your WIM files accordingly to match the patch level of your environment or you wont successfully recover.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;CheckSUR will continue to be available for down-level operating systems prior to Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 and will continue to get updated&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These changes are really fantastic in my opinion because you no longer need to attempt to move files from other servers, manipulate permissions or &amp;ldquo;hack&amp;rdquo; other utilities to get corruption resolved.&amp;nbsp; Windows Update is updated frequently so that it contains all of the payloads necessary to repair corruption.&amp;nbsp; And above all else, Inbox Corruption Repair can repair both payload files and manifests (CheckSUR only did manifests) which is a HUGE win for you and I as customers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As always, ask questions here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3522632" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 8 are now available</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/09/14/remote-server-administration-tools-rsat-for-windows-8-are-now-available.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/09/14/remote-server-administration-tools-rsat-for-windows-8-are-now-available.aspx</id><published>2012-09-14T14:44:49Z</published><updated>2012-09-14T14:44:49Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;The RTM version of the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 8 is now available here: &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28972&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Please take a moment to download them and update any prior RC versions that you might have in your environment.&amp;nbsp; For those of you who aren't aware, the RSAT tools are a tools management suite that can be used to remotely manage Windows Server 2012 servers from a Windows 8 client installation. Let me know if you encounter any issues with using them.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3520201" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>Understanding Features on Demand and role persistence in Windows Server 2012</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/08/20/understanding-features-on-demand-and-role-persistence-in-windows-server-2012.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/08/20/understanding-features-on-demand-and-role-persistence-in-windows-server-2012.aspx</id><published>2012-08-21T00:28:00Z</published><updated>2012-08-21T00:28:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;A new option in Windows Server 2012, Features on Demand, allows for the removal of unwanted feature payloads from a Windows Server 2012 image before or after deployment. The way Features on Demand works is that it takes the payload (binaries for all components and permissions, registry settings, etc. for previously installed and configured components) defined by the component and feature manifests and it removes them from the file system. What this means is that unwanted role and feature payloads can now be permanently removed from an online or offline Server 2012 image. In a typical Server 2012 with Gui installation, roles and features that are not installed are in a state known as &lt;i&gt;staged&lt;/i&gt; or &lt;i&gt;disabled&lt;/i&gt;. I've spoken about this in the past but this basically means that the files are not installed but are still cached locally on the disk in the component store (%Windows%\winsxs) and therefore are taking up disk space. When a feature is removed using Features on Demand, the payload is actually removed from the file system and that space is reclaimed. This is a great option for administrators looking to cut down on virtual disk space usage as it allows you to customize your images exactly how you want them. Features which have had their payload removed are shown as &amp;ldquo;disabled with payload removed&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;removed&amp;rdquo; in DISM and Windows PowerShell.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But how does this work in relation to features and roles installed on the system already? The answer here is, it depends. There is also a new interface option called Minimal Server Interface. This lives between Server Core and Server with GUI and offers administrators the ability to remove the shell while still administering the server with some user interface functionalities. So, here's what happens to roles and features as you move through the various stages of user interface.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Server Core&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In Server Core, when installed from Setup, everything has been removed aside from the role and features supported by Core. This list can be found here: &lt;a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj574158.aspx"&gt;http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj574158.aspx&lt;/a&gt; . Inside of Server Core, you can further remove the roles and features that it supports to continue to optimize the size of the image but everything else has already been removed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Minimal Server Interface&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Minimal Server Interface installs a lot of dependency features that are needed in order to support various user interface elements, with the exception of Desktop and Shell features. It gives you virtually all of the functionality available in the Server with GUI option, but without the patching cost of the Shell and Desktop features. The disk space savings is not as noticeable as with Server Core. With Minimal Server Interface, you benefit from a reduction in servicing and surface area. Minimal Server Interface is a great compatibility option if you are running legacy server applications that don&amp;rsquo;t support Server Core, but also don&amp;rsquo;t require the Shell. You also can&amp;rsquo;t install Minimal Server Interface directly; you must build up to it from Server Core or down from Server with GUI.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For information on configuring Minimal Server Interface, see &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/server_core/archive/2012/05/09/configuring-the-minimal-server-interface.aspx"&gt;Configuring the Minimal Server Interface&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;Server with Gui&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In Server with Gui, formerly called "Full Server", pretty much everything is either staged or installed. This has the largest of the three footprints, and similar to Minimal Server Interface, roles and features can be removed from the image to reduce the footprint.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With that out of the way, what happens to an installed role that is configured in Server with GUI but then I convert to Server Core using Features on Demand to reduce my footprint? Again, the answer is it depends. If the role is part of the Server Core role listing, nothing happens. The role stays installed but configuration options will obviously not include a user interface. If the role was NOT a part of the Server Core role listing, that role is removed via Features on Demand because it cannot exist in Server Core.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here's an example, I install Server with Gui and then install the Active Directory Domain Services role and the Windows Deployment Services role. I later decide I would like to have a much smaller footprint for my Windows installation because I want to virtualize it. So I convert to Server Core using the &lt;b&gt;&amp;ndash;remove&lt;/b&gt; option to remove the binaries completely using Features on Demand. The AD-DS role continues to stay installed but the WDS role is removed as part of the transition to Server Core. If I were to later change my mind again and move to Minimal Server Interface or Server with GUI, the role will NOT be reinstalled, it will need to be reinstalled and (and possibly re- configured).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;NOTE: You can also use the Windows PowerShell &lt;b&gt;&amp;ndash;WhatIf&lt;/b&gt; cmdlet to see what will be added/removed in an operation without actually doing the operation against the image&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The main point to take away is this, when you're planning your Server 2012 infrastructure and you're considering space optimization, look over the various user interface options first and then pare back the roles and features accordingly. Server Core is a fantastic option for core infrastructure roles and you can make a virtual machine with a very small footprint using it. However if you want to use roles outside of the Server Core role listing, Minimal Server Interface is the best option and then features and roles should be removed from there. Only use Server with a GUI when you absolutely have to because of a dependency on the shell.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3515301" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author><category term="&amp;quot;Server 2012&amp;quot;" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/tags/_2600_quot_3B00_Server+2012_2600_quot_3B00_/" /><category term="&amp;quot;Features on Demand&amp;quot;" scheme="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/tags/_2600_quot_3B00_Features+on+Demand_2600_quot_3B00_/" /></entry><entry><title>Now that we've RTM'd, what you can expect from the blog</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/08/02/now-that-we-ve-rtm-d-what-you-can-expect-from-the-blog.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/08/02/now-that-we-ve-rtm-d-what-you-can-expect-from-the-blog.aspx</id><published>2012-08-02T17:23:02Z</published><updated>2012-08-02T17:23:02Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;As many of you probably heard, we RTM'd Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Windows RT yesterday.&amp;nbsp; In the event that you've been under a rock, you can read the release about RTM here: &lt;a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/08/01/windows-8-has-reached-the-rtm-milestone.aspx"&gt;http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/08/01/windows-8-has-reached-the-rtm-milestone.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now that we have hit RTM and bits will soon be available for some of you, I wanted to give an update as to how things will occur here on the blog with regards to the changes in servicing.&amp;nbsp; First, I've taken a new role here at Microsoft and am no longer in support.&amp;nbsp; That means that I don't know how much time I will have for super regular posts, but I will do my best.&amp;nbsp; I really enjoy servicing and I like the little corner of the world I've built here, so I think I'll stay a while.&amp;nbsp; With that out of the way, some things I plan on talking about in the future here include the following, if you have other things you'd like to talk about, please post in the comments and we'll go from there:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Using Features on Demand to minimize image footprint&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feature and Role persistence when working with Features on Demand&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Using In-Box corruption repair and how it's NOT CheckSUR&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Determining offline capability of updates&amp;nbsp;to make better decisions for&amp;nbsp;future downtime planning&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Those are a couple of things I have at the top of my mind for right now.&amp;nbsp; I'll start writing on them shortly after release.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3512274" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry><entry><title>A dying breed</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/05/07/a-dying-breed.aspx" /><id>http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/05/07/a-dying-breed.aspx</id><published>2012-05-07T11:47:00Z</published><updated>2012-05-07T11:47:00Z</updated><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Recently, I interviewed for a new role within Microsoft.&amp;nbsp; As is the norm here, the last 15 minutes of the interview allows the interviewee to ask questions of the interviewer.&amp;nbsp; I usually ask the same two questions of each interviewer:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1.&amp;nbsp; What do you think makes a good &amp;lt;insert position name here&amp;gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2.&amp;nbsp; Why did you choose to work for this group and what are your most and least favorite things about the group?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was having a conversation about how my interviews were going with a co-worker and they asked me what my answers to those two questions would be.&amp;nbsp; I thought it might make an interesting blog post as I am regularly asked by the high school and college students I speak to at Microsoft events about what they can do to "get into Microsoft" or the skills required to do my job.&amp;nbsp; Many people think you need a ton of fancy degrees and certifications or loads of external work experience, and all of those definitely help.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But as I thought about how I would answer the two questions though, it became clear to me that question number one is an easy answer that's becoming increasingly hard to find in&amp;nbsp;potential candidates I speak with.&amp;nbsp; So anyways, here are my answers to the question one above.&amp;nbsp; Keep in mind this is MY opinion and doesn't have any bearing on the way groups inside of Microsoft hire.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you think makes a good support engineer?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For me, this is relatively simple, it comes down to two traits&amp;nbsp;and I think one trait begets the other.&amp;nbsp; You must have a passion for technology first and foremost.&amp;nbsp; I'm not talking about someone who "likes" technology and buys a lot of gadgets, although that's not a bad start.&amp;nbsp; I'm speaking of someone who lives and breaths technology.&amp;nbsp; Someone who looks for interesting ways to make technology more a part of their lives&amp;nbsp;or even define solutions for problems in their lives with technological answers.&amp;nbsp; Does this mean that the person doesn't interact with humans?&amp;nbsp; Hardly.&amp;nbsp; You still need to be able to speak to people (respectfully I might add), but I want you to be as comfortable speaking to a machine as a person.&amp;nbsp; And I would prefer that you're comfortable doing that with any machine and not just a computer.&amp;nbsp; As an example, we recently got new phones here at work and I spent the better part of my lunch hour just trying to reprogram the ringtones (harder than it sounds) so that it would be annoying to the co-worker that sits across from me - sorry Scott.&amp;nbsp; It should have been as easy as adding that dog whistle ringtone to the list, but once it wasn't, I dug into the phone and its software&amp;nbsp;and tried to modify the WAV file to match the bitrate that the phone application was looking for in an attempt to get it to work. &amp;nbsp;It's a small, childish example, but many people&amp;nbsp;are prone to&amp;nbsp;just get their phone, plug it in and make calls on it.&amp;nbsp; I want someone who wants to play with the device to see how it works, even if for nefarious means.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second trait is the ability to troubleshoot.&amp;nbsp; As I said, I think an interest in technology begets an interest in troubleshooting and vice versa.&amp;nbsp; However this is becoming increasingly rare to find in candidates that I speak to.&amp;nbsp; There are plenty of brilliant people out there, most much more so than me, but if you cant troubleshoot, you cant do my job no matter how intelligently gifted you are.&amp;nbsp; Microsoft, like many tech companies, we're fairly notorious for asking questions about manhole covers, light bulbs and moving Mt. Fuji.&amp;nbsp; While we don't really ask questions like that any longer (it's a shame if you ask me), but we do still test your ability to troubleshoot.&amp;nbsp; I recently did a round of interviews of college candidates and the skill I am usually assigned to interview on is "problem solving".&amp;nbsp; A question I love for this is an oldie but goody: "How do you troubleshoot a keyboard?".&amp;nbsp; I love this question because of the possibilities of it and it does give you information on how much a particular person has "played" with computers throughout their lives.&amp;nbsp; Do they even think about PS2?&amp;nbsp; Do they try other devices, computers or combinations?&amp;nbsp; How do they test the keyboard they have in the scenario is good by itself?&amp;nbsp; I get all sorts of answers but rarely does someone give me more than 3-4 attempts before saying it must be a hardware problem and to buy a new keyboard.&amp;nbsp; While I agree, that's a fine answer, I really want someone who is going to exhaust every possibility they can (and maybe the aforementioned candidates are), especially if its to the point where I cant think of anything else they could have done.&amp;nbsp; Now that's a great candidate for the work I do.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sadly, that's a rare and dying breed.&amp;nbsp; If you're interested in critical thinking type questions, I highly recommend the book "How&amp;nbsp;would you move Mt. Fuji?". Its a classic from 2003/2004: &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Would-Move-Mount-Fuji/dp/0316778494/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1336390776&amp;amp;sr=8-3"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/How-Would-Move-Mount-Fuji/dp/0316778494/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1336390776&amp;amp;sr=8-3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although I haven't read all of it, I hear that the authors book on Google hiring is equally interesting: &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Work-Google/dp/031609997X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1336390776&amp;amp;sr=8-2"&gt;http://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Work-Google/dp/031609997X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1336390776&amp;amp;sr=8-2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;--Joseph&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3496424" width="1" height="1"&gt;</content><author><name>joscon [Microsoft]</name><uri>http://blogs.technet.com/joscon/ProfileUrlRedirect.ashx</uri></author></entry></feed>