Quick Tip: Updating your ESXi Server

2021-05-02

[Last Reviewed: 2021-05-02] Are you attempting to update your ESXi server and you’re getting the infamous [Errno 28] No space left on device error? Did you already enable the swap and you’re still getting that error? You might need to download a VMware Tools VIB before starting your upgrade: Step 1: Make a note of the file that is displayed in the error. In this case, the file is VMware_locker_tools-light_11.2.5.17337674-17700514…

Configuration Manager Security and You

2019-06-05

[Last Reviewed: 2019-06-04] At MMSMOA 2019, I enjoyed a great presentation by Tom Degreef and Kim Oppalfens about Configuration Manager security. It was an amazing session, and I want to share some of the learnings I took away from it. But first, a heart-to-heart Extend the peace branch to your network and security teams. I’ve noticed at conferences and elsewhere–you’ll hear things like “who needs network admins or sysops, we just need sysadmins.…

Code Signing PowerShell in the Enterprise

2019-04-25

[Last Reviewed: 2019-04-25] Here’s a scenario: you just finished writing the world’s most amazing PowerShell script, and you want to deploy it to a collection of workstations in your enterprise. You run it, just to see the wall of red text telling you that unsigned scripts are not allowed. What if we signed that script? Not only would that let your code run on machines without changing the execution policy, it would also serve as another layer of authentication–proof that the script that’s about to run is created by you, unaltered, and not corrupt.…

Code Signing: Proving Your Enterprise Code Is Yours

2019-04-25

[Last Reviewed: 2019-04-25] PowerShell scripts, ClickOnce VSTO applications, .NET applications, even Java Deployment Rulesets. What do they all have in common? You can sign them with a code signing certificate! What’s Code Signing? When you digitally sign an executable or script, you’re guaranteeing that the code hasn’t been altered or corrupted since it was signed. The same signing certificate can also be used to prove your identity as a trusted publisher, meaning your end users can run your code confidently knowing it’s genuine.…

Quick Tip: Adding drivers using PnPutil

2019-04-25

[Last Reviewed: 2019-04-24] If you’re like me, one the first things you do when you get a new device is wipe and reload it. OEMs have gotten better about the amount of value added software they preload on machines these days, but I still prefer starting fresh and building on top of that. If you happen to purchase a device that also has a driver package available, we can use this to our advantage!…

Quick Tip: Retrieve an embedded OEM Windows product key

2019-04-19

If you’re working on a device that has an embedded OEM Windows product key, you can run the following to retrieve it: wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey “That’s nice,” you say, “but can we do that in PowerShell?” But of course! (Get-CimInstance -ClassName "SoftwareLicensingService").OA3xOriginalProductKey Jacob

Workaround: PXE Boot your VMware Fusion VM

2019-02-20

[Last Reviewed: 2019-02-20] If you attempt to PXE boot a virtual machine using VMware Fusion, you might see this error:Error Code: 0cx0000001 Some quick research showed that I’d have better luck using the ‘vmxnet3’ network adapter rather than the default ‘e1000e’ adapter. I had no problem adding the vmxnet3 to our WinPE image, but… it was Friday. Read-only Friday. How could I image this machine before the weekend? Here’s a workaround you can try.…

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Multi-Lingual IPU

2018-11-27

Here’s a scenario: you work for a global (intergalactic?) organization. Across your fleet of devices, you’ve got many different languages. You’re looking for a clever way to keep all these machines updated when new builds of Windows come out. Let’s say you’ve got a device that is localized for de-DE. If you were to attempt to run an IPU using an en-US setup media, the IPU would fail quite early on–that’s because the device’s UI language must match the language of the IPU setup media.…

Download Language Packs from Windows Update

2018-11-27

[Last Reviewed: 2018-11-26] Do you need en-US language packs added to ConfigMgr for your multi-lingual IPUs? Do you need it done quickly? Check out New-WULanguagePackPackage.ps1, available on GitHub! This script: Reads an XML file containing the path to language packs on Windows Update (and some metadata, like the Windows version and build) Downloads the language packs using BITS (in separate ConfigMgr-ready folders, following the format of .\{FriendlyBuild}\{Architecture}\{Locale}) Creates new packages in ConfigMgr!…

Improving TeamViewer Aliases with ConfigMgr

2018-11-19

[Last Reviewed: 2018-11-19] Recently one of our technicians mentioned in passing how nice it would be if TeamViewer’s console showed usernames in addition to computer names, so searching would be easier. That’s a fantastic idea–let’s use the TeamViewer API and ConfigMgr’s User Affinity to do this! Prerequisites: Tokens, Please Before we begin, we’ll need a script token from TeamViewer. Once you’ve generated this token, don’t share it with anyone! It’s essentially your password to make changes to your TeamViewer account, so keep it close.…