Category Archives: Server 2008 R2

Windows 7 Networking Issues – cannot access shares after Update KB4480970 January Cumulative Update

I ran into an issue with some Windows 7 PCs at a client’s site. The PCs could not access network shares. Further investigation showed that PCs were online, and connected to the network. They all had internet access and could ping each other and the gateway.

However, when trying to access a share on these PCs, we received a “Handle is Invalid”, or “the network resource is not available”. Access the share via “\\computername” or “\\IPaddress” would not work.

The issue appears to be caused by KB4480970 – Monthly Cumulative Security Quality Update 2019-01. Various threads on Reddit indicated that there were issues.

Apart from a rollback and uninstalling the patch, a workaround for this issue appears to work. This involves adding the following registry entry.

  • Browse to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  • Add DWORD LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy = 1
  • Reboot the PC

Come on Microsoft! Test your patches more thoroughly!

Windows previous versions documentation

This is the archive for older Windows 7, 8, Server 2012, 2008, 2003, R2 information that was previously on TechNet.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/

Meltdown and Spectre

 

Happy New Year … Not!

With the New Year comes a new class of malicious attack that can impact IT systems. This time, the attack is hardware based, affecting mostly Intel based systems, and to some extent, AMD systems as well.

Here is a list of resources that highlight what it is all about and how to mitigate against this new threat. In the words of Microsoft, “Don’t panic.”

Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and WIndows Server 2012R2 Update Rollup all in a single package

Today, MIcrosoft announced the availability of a single update rollup package for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Some details for the rollup are as follows:

  • All security and non-security fixes since the release up to April 2016.
  • One installation package.
  • Optional install – not offered via Windows Update.
  • Monthly rollups after April 2016.
  • Security bulletins will continue to link to a direct update.
  • For Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and WIndows Server 2012 R2, there will be monthly rollup updates.

Thanks, Microsoft, for listening!

To get the rollups, you need Internet Explorer 6 or higher (not Edge – since this is not an update package for Windows 10). Get the updates here – http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=3125574

At this stage, other browsers are not supported, although Microsoft have hinted that the site will be updated in the next few months.

 

Using Powershell to Start-Stop the SMTP Virtual Server

One of the most popular posts on this blog has been the blog on setting up an Internal SMTP Service for SMBs that need to send server reports and support emailing from Internal devices that have move to cloud based email services.

One of the issues with this service is that is occasionally stops. There does not appear to be any reason why it stops, but it does. Restarting the SMTPSVS service does not restart the service, because it is based on IIS6.

Good news! You can use powershell to script the restart of this service.

Open an Administrative PowerShell window.

To Start the SMTP Virtual Server, type the following:

$SMTP=[adsi]"IIS://localhost/SMTPSVC/1"
$SMTP.ServerState = 2
$SMTP.SetInfo()

To Stop the SMTP Virtual Server, type the following:

$SMTP=[adsi]"IIS://localhost/SMTPSVC/1"
$SMTP.ServerState = 4
$SMTP.SetInfo()

Microsoft® Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) 3.0 released

Microsoft has just released version 3 of their Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC). This is a standalone tool that will covert virtual machines, hosts and physical machines to Hyper-V.

The new features of MVMC 3.0 include:

  • Converts virtual disks that are attached to a VMware virtual machine to virtual hard disks (VHDs) that can be uploaded to Microsoft Azure.
  • Provides native Windows PowerShell capability that enables scripting and integration into IT automation workflows.
  • Note The command-line interface (CLI) in MVMC 1.0 has been replaced by Windows PowerShell in MVMC 2.0.
  • Supports conversion and provisioning of Linux-based guest operating systems from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts.
  • Supports conversion of offline virtual machines.
  • Supports the new virtual hard disk format (VHDX) when converting and provisioning in Hyper-V in Windows Server® 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.1, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts Hyper-V virtual machines.
  • Supports Windows Server® 2012 R2, Windows Server® 2012, and Windows® 8 as guest operating systems that you can select for conversion.
  • Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts on any of the following operating systems:
    -Windows Server® 2012 R2
    -Windows Server® 2012
    -Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Converts VMware virtual machines, virtual disks, and configurations for memory, virtual processor, and other virtual computing resources from the source to Hyper-V.
  • Adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
  • Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 5.5, VMware vSphere 5.0, and VMware vSphere 4.1 hosts to Hyper-V.
  • Has a wizard-driven GUI, which simplifies performing virtual machine conversions.
  • Uninstalls VMware Tools before online conversion (online only) to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
  • Important MVMC takes a snapshot of the virtual machine that you are converting before you uninstall VMware Tools, and then shuts down the source machine to preserve state during conversion. The virtual machine is restored to its previous state after the source disks that are attached to the virtual machine are successfully copied to the machine where the conversion process is run. At that point, the source machine in VMware can be turned on, if required.
  • Important MVMC does not uninstall VMware Tools in an offline conversion. Instead, it disables VMware services, drivers, and programs only for Windows Server guest operating systems. For file conversions with Linux guest operating systems, VMware Tools are not disabled or uninstalled. We highly recommend that you manually uninstall VMware Tools when you convert an offline virtual machine.
  • Supports Windows Server and Linux guest operating system conversion. For more details, see the section “Supported Configurations for Virtual Machine Conversion” in this guide.
  • Includes Windows PowerShell capability for offline conversions of VMware-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V–based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).

You can download the tool here – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497

How to rapidly create a Virtual Machine from WIM or ISO (WIM2VHD)

If you have DVD media or and ISO of your Operating System, you can quickly and easily create a sysprepped VHD or VHDX image. With this Virtual Hard Disk file, you can set up a Virtual Machine and boot it directly to the Out of Box Experience, thus saving about half an hour to an hour of installation time.

The process for doing this and PowerShell script called Convert-WindowsImage.ps1 is documented in the Technet Script Repository here – http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Convert-WindowsImageps1-0fe23a8f

Note: This latest release (v6.3) now supports the creation on Generation 2 VMs.

How to Turn off Printer Redirection for Remote Desktop Sessions on a Hyper-V Server Host

If you use Remote Desktop Services to connect to your Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Host, one of the best practices tasks that you can do is to turn off printer redirection. Printer Redirection is the feature that allows a local printer to be mapped on a remote machine, and allows printing across the network or Internet. Sometimes, badly written drivers can cause issues on the remote host when redirection is permitted, causing major issues on the server, and potentially causing downtime.

Therefore, it is best to turn off this redirection as a precaution. This process can be performed on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012.

  1. Open an Administrative Command Prompt, and Start the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

     

  2. In the Console, navigate to Add/Remove Snap-in

     

  3. Select and add the Group Policy Object snap-in.

     

  4. Click Finish to apply the Snap-in to the Local Computer.

     

  5. Click OK, to close the Snap-In window.

     

  6. Expand the Snap-in to Console Root/Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Remote Desktop Services/Remote Desktop Session Host/Printer Redirection

     

  7. Double Click on “Do not allow client printer redirection” and Enable the setting. Click Apply, then OK.

     

  8. Log off the session to apply the setting.

Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise Hotfix Rollup (KB 2775511) is released

It appears that Microsoft are now moving towards a new way of deploying service packs. KB 2775511 is a hotfix rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. This hotfix rollup contains 90 hotfixes that were released since service pack 1 and are noted to greatly improve performance and system reliability.

The main areas of improvement are in the Remote File System and Networking components, namely Offline Files, Folder Redirection, SMB and TCP Protocol services.

The hotfix rollup is described here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2775511/en-us and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog here – http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=2775511

The documentation also lists two Registry fixes that must be manually applied after the hotfix is installed.

  • To enable update 2581608, configure a REG_DWORD Value named RunLogonScriptsNormally under the following path, and set the value to a decimal value of 1:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
  • To enable update 2752259, configure a REG_DWORD Value named BrmDisableOpc under the following path, and set the value to a decimal value of 0:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print

 

 

Using DISKPART to create a Bootable USB of Windows 8

Windows 8 was released today on MSDN and Technet. It will soon be released publically. With that comes the many GBs of downloads for the ISOs. Many may have newer Ultrabooks, which do not feature DVD drives anymore. Rather than burning the ISO to a DVD disc, why not put it on a bootable USB stick? There are many ways to do this, and I have found that the best way to do this is to use a command tool called DISKPART. The commands are fairly easy.

  1. Open an elevated Command Prompt and type DISKPART. You will open up the Diskpart tool, as evidenced by the DISKPART> prompt.
  2. DISKPART>LIST DISK <- This will give you a listing of the disks on your system. It is very important to identify the USB disk, as you really do not want to format your system drive.
  3. DISKPART>SELECT DISK n <- this will make select the USB disk n, as identified in step 2
  4. DISKPART>CLEAN <- This effectively does a quick format/wipe of the USB disk
  5. DISKPART>CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY <- This will create a primary partition on the disk
  6. DISKPART>SELECT PARTITION 1 <- Since there is only one partition, this will select it.
  7. DISKPART>ACTIVE <- This makes the partition active
  8. DISKPART>FORMAT FS=FAT32 <- This formats the disk and sets it up as a FAT32 formatted drive. This will take a while to complete
  9. DISKPART>ASSIGN <- This assigns the next drive letter to the drive
  10. DISKPART>EXIT <- To exit the utility

Once the USB drive has been prepared, you can now use a utility like 7-Zip to extract the ISO directly to the drive.

BTW. This process will also work when creating bootable USB disks of other Windows ISOs – Windows Server 2012, Windows Small Business Server 2011, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, and even Vista.