I really don’t know why they did it but in Server 2012 and Windows 8 Microsoft have decided to make it really difficult to shut down and restart. And if you are in a remote desktop session it’s even harder than when you’re on the console. Fortunately there’s a handy key-press they haven’t gotten rid of yet, [...]
Just discovered a handy Microsoft KB article that can help you keep tabs on the latest VC++ redist packages. Here it is: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2019667
Now that Windows 8 has hit RTM there is a slightly newer version of Orca the MSI editing tool available. This one is version 5.0.9200.0, but when it’s installed, in the Programs and Features dialog it’ll show up as 8.59.25584. To grab yourself a copy get the Windows SDK for Windows 8, install using the [...]
Following up on my post of a few years ago on PowerShell 2 being available, Microsoft have now released the bits needed to give you PowerShell 3 on Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, Vista and Server 2008. Sadly no PowerShell 3 lovelyness for XP, but then who really cares. I can barely remember how to [...]
After battling with a non-Microsoft DHCP server to get it to configure multiple vendors of handset I figured out some very useful undocumented ‘habits’ of Lync handsets which might help someone else… 1. Lync handsets (e.g. the Polycom CX600) use TWO vendor IDs during their DHCP requests The first vendor ID that is used during [...]
I’m writing with reference to a colleague’s blog post where he has found a very useful fix for a very annoying start up and log-on delay issue in Windows 7 SP1. Here’s his post, worth a read: http://blog.solarfusion.co.uk/2011/12/windows-7-please-wait-or-welcome-screen.html We were finding that computers in shared areas which had been logged on by many users (i.e. [...]
As of 1st December 2011 there is now a new version of the Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit Tools available to download. You should uninstall the old version before you install the new one. This update brings us to version 4.0.7577.172 (now .197) and it is downloadable from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21165 It is recommended that you [...]
I read last night that the latest (and last) service pack for Office 2007 was out. After googling this morning I found it way too hard to find the ‘actual’ download for the damned thing, so I’m presenting the results of my efforts here for easy finding… List of all 2007 Office system SP3, 2007 [...]
Say you have a need to add a registry key into the 64-bit registry hive but you’re stuck with doing it from a vbscript running in a 32-bit process. For example SCCM always runs vbscript in a 32-bit process, even on a 64-bit Windows machine! If you try this normally Windows 7 64-bit will redirect the key [...]
I finally realised where to get hold of version 5 of Orca – the one most suitable for Windows 7 able to validate .msi files for Windows Installer 5. It was of course in the Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4. Unfortunately there’s no mini-download for the msi sdk like with version [...]