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Windows Server 2012 (codename “8”) Beta Resources

Posted 3 days ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 2 Comments
Last month the official name of Windows Server “8” was confirmed as being Windows Server 2012 , so with beta documentation and guides you can expect the terms to be used interchangeably. Here is a collection of useful links for those interested in looking...
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Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy event 1502 not being logged after successful application of GPOs

Posted 4 months ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Recently I encountered a customer who had several Windows 7 clients which initially had the symptom of the group "Offer Remote Assistance Helpers" not being present, but the underlying cause turned out to be something entirely unrelated at first...
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Available Updates for Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) in Windows Server 2008 R2

Posted 4 months ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
KB2601888 is a comprehensive list of hotfixes applicable for W2K8R2 Remote Desktop Services, updated today and broken down into sections defining the different categories of issue resolved. Our recommendation is the standard one when it comes to LDR hotfixes...
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Q: When is System32 not System32?

Posted 6 months ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 1 Comments
A: When the question comes from a 32-bit process on a 64-bit version of Windows. In 32-bit Windows there is just one "System32" folder which contains many native binaries (or hard links), and there is no way to execute 64-bit code on...
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Script error ‘res://ieframe.dll/preview.js’ trying to print from Outlook 2003 in a TS/RDS session with IE9 installed

Posted 6 months ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 9 Comments
Update 2012-01-11: There is now a hotfix available for Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 to address this issue – KB2647169 Update 2012-02-16: The above hotfix has now been extended to cover Windows Vista / Server 2008 A customer had a case recently where a Windows...
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Windows 8 Developer Preview

Posted 8 months ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 1 Comments
If you head on over to the Windows Dev Center , you can download the Developer Preview version of Windows 8 (Client) in 32-bit and 64-bit flavours. If you have an MSDN subscription , you will find additional ISOs for the Server version and goodies like...
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How does Last Known Good work?

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
There are a few places (including Windows Internals ) which loosely describe the “Last Known Good” feature of Windows, but as I wasn’t familiar with the specifics I decided to dig into it a bit with a Windows Server 2008R2 SP1 virtual machine in my lab...
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Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), Legacy Windows & 64-bit Windows Server

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
The Internet Printing role service in Windows Server 2008R2 is under the Print and Document Services role, and has a requirement of the IIS service (with ASP) to function. What it provides is a method to install "web printer connections" on...
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Post-SP1 hotfixes recommended for W2K8R2 Hyper-V hosts

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 2 Comments
Here is a quick round-up of post-SP1 hotfixes that it is good to know about, if you are running Hyper-V – I have summarized the file(s) updated and their version details for quick reference so you can see if they are applicable for you. KB2263829...
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RSAT Tools for Windows 7 SP1 now available

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) can now be downloaded so you can use Hyper-V Manager from a Windows 7 SP1 client to administer Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts properly.
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XP clients using RDC 7.0 & RD Gateway = no SSO

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
I have summarized in a previous blog the requirements for getting SSO to work on XP clients, but there is something to be aware of which many people miss, regarding Single Sign-On (SSO) and Windows XP clients connecting through an RD Gateway to an RD...
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Service Pack 1 Has Landed (W2K8R2 / Windows 7)

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Announced yesterday (2011-02-09): ” Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 SP1 will Release to Manufacturing (RTM) today. ” What this means for availability to download: ” On February 16 , both will be available to current customers of the Windows Volume...
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User Profiles – Location, Location, Location

Posted over 1 year ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
When a user logs on, regardless of whether they have a local, roaming, mandatory (or even no) profile, they will have a folder created in the location specified under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProfilesDirectory – by...
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Enabling CredSSP on XP SP3 clients via script

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Following on from my previous blog entry , while the manual method is simple enough, and we could just import a .REG file to force “Security Packages” and “SecurityProviders” to fixed values, it would be more elegant to have a smarter solution that will...
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XP Clients, CredSSP, SSO, Connection Broker and other animals

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 8 Comments
Imagine the following scenario: DC01 is a Domain Controller for test.net with the Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker service role installed. RDS01 and RDS02 are W2K8R2 member servers in test.net and have the Remote Desktop Services Session Host...
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UAC Virtualization – Allowing standard users to update a system protected area

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
You should know the score by now – I install application FOO into “C:\Program Files\Foo Inc\Foo” and it has a built-in manifest stating that asInvoker is used for its requested privilege level, allowing standard users to run it. Attempts by standard users...
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USER Account Control… but I’m an ADMIN!

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 6 Comments
User Account Control (UAC) has now been with us for almost 4 years, and still it is a mystery to a lot of people – what it does, why it does it and what value it adds… so I shall try to shed some light on this for those that want “complete control” of...
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More info on SP1 for Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Following on from my previous blog entry , there is now a public FAQ to address the questions being asked practically every day – below are my top 5 of which to be aware: Q: When will SP1 be released? A: Service Pack 1 will be released within the...
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SCVMM Self-Service Portal

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
The Self-Service Portal is a web application provided as part of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and allows “non admin” users to be able to work with specific VMs, and possibly even have the right to deploy new ones. Being a web application...
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View TS/RDS Configuration Remotely

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Here is a VBScript which can be used to get the following information from a W2K, W2K3, W2K8 or W2K8R2 server via WMI: - is Remote Desktop enabled? - is Terminal Services / Remote Desktop Services configured for Application Server or Remote Administration...
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GDR & LDR : The Next Generation

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Following on from: GDR, QFE, LDR… WTH? Branching Out Service Packs – Levels vs Installers One of the questions I have received a few times after publishing the previous blogs is “how do I see if a given binary is on the GDR or LDR branch on my system...
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Service Pack 1 BETA available for download for Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
If you need to test the new RemoteFX or Dynamic Memory features in W2K8R2 RDS or Hyper-V respectively, then you can download the beta of the upcoming first service pack for Windows Server 2008 R2 (and Windows 7 for the client-side bits) here . I wouldn...
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Windows Server 2008R2 Server Core Installation & Setup Notes

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 1 Comments
After setting up a W2K8R2 “Server Core” Hyper-V host recently, I thought it a good idea to jot down some notes as to how to navigate the command prompt (mostly) so it can be configured – a flashback to the days of MS-DOS in some ways ;) NOTE: All of the...
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Debugging Process Startup

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Attaching a debugger to a hung process or one that is running that we can cause to crash through an action is one thing… but sometimes a process will not even reach a running state and simply throw an error at the very start. If you’re lucky the error...
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Remote Desktop Client 7.0 KB979425 now available for Vista

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
KB979425 (A combo box item in a RemoteApp application is updated incorrectly when you connect by using Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 7.0) is now available for Vista. RDC 7.0 ships in-box in Windows 7 and had this fix a while ago, but the OOB (“Out Of...
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Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 public beta ETA announced

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Pop on over to the Windows Server Division Weblog for the detailed announcement, but the snippet of interest to people waiting for SP1 is this bit: “ …the public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 will be released by the end...
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Batch Files – Basic Error Checking and Running as Scheduled Tasks

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 2 Comments
Batch files may be considered “old hat” by a lot of people (or a complete mystery to the younger ones!) but they are sometimes still the easiest way to execute simple jobs as they have practically no requirements other than a command shell process to...
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Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2 – What to expect from SP1?

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Windows Service Packs are traditionally roll-up packages of hotfixes into a single, manageable package for easier updating of the OS to a known (minimum) state – they almost certainly contain extra changes that were not in any package delivered through...
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Hyper-V VMs in a Lab Environment

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Before I start, a note on “differencing disks”… these are .AVHD files which contain a list of the changed sectors when compared with a parent VHD, and their data, and they are always dynamic. Without its parent, a differencing disk is useless – they can...
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SCVMM Console-ation - Addendum

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Update to my blog entry from March 30th , there is now a public KB article describing the issue. Exactly the same information (I did the tech review), but it’s a more “official” article.
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Trust what I say… but make sure you understand what I’m saying

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
As a general rule we trust software, to various degrees (based on its source, reputation of vendor, purpose and our own personal sense of paranoia). Some types of software we place more trust in than others because of what it is designed to do – one example...
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Printers in sandboxes

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Previously I have described how the spooler process can fall over due to any 3rd party module loaded into it: http://blogs.technet.com/mrsnrub/archive/2009/04/24/who-is-more-the-spool-the-spool-or-the-spool-who-follows-the-spool.aspx With Windows 7, and...
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VDI Connection BrokeN?

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
There a couple of step-by-step guides available for setting up VDI deployments that are very good reads: Deploying Virtual Desktop Pools by Using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection Step-by-Step Guide Deploying Personal Virtual Desktops by Using Remote Desktop...
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SCVMM Console-ation

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 2 Comments
The Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, other than being a mouthful to say and hence referred to as SCVMM, is a great consolidation tool for managing Virtual Server, Hyper-V and even VMWare ESX hosts and the VMs on them. This isn’t a sales...
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You U2U? Me too!

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Windows Vista and 7 have a “Remote Assistance” feature where users can attempt to share control of another user’s desktop in order to assist them – there is a full description over on TechNet , and it can be invoked from the command line using msra.exe...
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Remote Desktop Services & WebSSO

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 2 Comments
With Windows Server 2008 R2 we introduced “Web Single Sign-On” (WebSSO) to eliminate some of the authentication prompts when users open up RemoteApps. There is a very detailed introduction here , but there are some points worth highlighting as...
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Avoid expansion if you’re snap-happy

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 5 Comments
Occasionally the purpose of snapshotting VMs in Hyper-V is misunderstood (and hence misused), and people find that their initial guesstimate as to required disk space was insufficient, so try to extend it after the fact. If there was an eleventh commandment...
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Q: When is a validity period not a validity period?

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 3 Comments
A: When it’s a Certificate Authority after Windows 2000. Back Story… Those helpful chaps over at the Windows PKI Blog provided a script ( setupca.vbs ) to install a Certificate Authority on Windows Server 2008 and R2, and recently we had a request...
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The Browser Choice in Europe - Addendum

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
For those that wish/need to block the Browser Choice from being presented (for example in large deployments with lockdown policies), there is now an article which describes how to prevent it from appearing (note it will still install the update, and the...
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Registry Marriage

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 2 Comments
“The Registry” is something most, if not all Windows users have heard of – but I would guess that only a fraction understand what it is or does, so I shall give a high-level overview here to enlighten those people… The registry is essentially a hierarchical...
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The Browser Choice in Europe

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Last year it was agreed with the European Commission (EC) to promote the existence of alternative web browsers to Internet Explorer for Windows XP, Vista and 7 users in the European Economic Area (EEA) countries. http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press...
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Hyper-V VM State Dump Tool

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
vm2dmp is a newly released tool to create a complete memory dump of a Hyper-V virtual machine: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vm2dmp Along with the Debugging Tools for Windows , it can be used to view the valid memory pages of a virtual machine’s snapshot...
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Hyper-V Data Exchange Service & “Error 87: The parameter is incorrect” on startup

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 1 Comments
Recently we came across a case where Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 servers running under Hyper-V were all failing to start one of the (five) Integration Services offered by the host. The services created by the Integration Services are...
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Remote Desktop Client & credentials saved in UPN format

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
Another potential head-scratcher from a recent case… Consider the situation where you have a client machine running Remote Desktop Client connecting to an RDS server Remote1 in domain Alpha , you authenticate using UPN format credentials (e.g. mytestuser...
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HTTP.SYS / Cryptographic Services / LSASS.EXE deadlock [addendum]

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
NOTE: This issue has been subsequently fixed in KB237901 for Windows Vista/Server 2008 SP2 (x86 and x64). The blog entry is left for reference. This is a quick update to my previous blog entry http://blogs.technet.com/mrsnrub/archive/2009/11/19/http-sys...
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End of an era… in 6 months

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
On July 13th 2010 2 significant things happen: 1. Windows Server 2000 is no longer supported 2. Windows Server 2003 enters “extended support” The first point means that there will not even be security updates produced for W2K any more, and it’s officially...
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Pre-mortem debug analysis

Posted over 2 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
We’ve looked at generating dumps of processes, the kernel or the entire set of used physical memory pages – but there is another method to do debug analysis on the target directly rather than with a “snapshot” of what it looked like at one point in time...
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Kernel-mode dump analysis

Posted over 3 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
I’ve already covered the different types of memory dump in a previous blog entry, so this is a quick dip into how we manually trigger a bugcheck to create a memory dump on demand, and also how we can take a look inside the kernel of a running OS without...
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Analyzing User Mode Dumps

Posted over 3 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
So you’ve managed to get a dump from a process… now what? Dump analysis is a skill that requires a bit of knowledge of how processors work, how to read assembly language, how functions are called, what stacks and heaps are, and so on – it’s way beyond...
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User-mode dump creation (Vista onwards)

Posted over 3 years ago

by Paul Adams MSFT
- 0 Comments
The ADPlus method of creating dumps is still valid after Windows Server 2003, however there is an easier way to have the OS create the same data which was introduced in Windows Vista… Hung Jury For processes that are hung or consuming lots of CPU...

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Disclaimer: All postings are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. This weblog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of Microsoft. Because a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point-in-time snapshot, you should not consider out of date posts to reflect current thoughts and opinions.