SYPAK #32: Windows 11 – OOBE Allow Local Account

So fun! Testing Win11 Don’t care about any of the cloud, online, blah blah blah. Don’t have network access. Don’t want network access. So here I am again. Hence, my reminder to myself that this is the current (As of Sept 2023) to get to a local account on Win11 22H2 fresh install.

TLDR; oobe\ is a path. bypassnro.cmd is a batch file. Use shift+f10 to open a command prompt at the network configuration step and run oobe\bypassnro (no space).

Thank you, NavyLCDR for this post.

When installing Windows 11, if you want to get around having to connect to the internet and login with a MS account, you can enter the command prompt and run:
oobe\bypassnro

I always thought oobe was the command and \bypassnro was an option switch, and I found it completely odd there was no space in there. I was wrong. The command prompt opens in C:\Windows\System32. In \Windows\System32, is a folder called oobe. And inside the oobe folder is bypassnro.cmd. So, that is what you are running with the command oobe\bypassnro.

The bypassnro.cmd is a script which contains:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0

So, it is really a registry key that causes oobe to not require a network, and then subsequently allow you to create a local account on a clean install.

SYPAK #31: Windows – Command Line Access to Mapped RDP Disks

I have sniffed around this solution for quite some time, but just last week came up against an immovable need and finally got serious about making it work. Specifically, I was looking to copy some files from an old server to my local disk for “safe keeping” (until I figure out what to do with the junk utilities I’d amassed), and simple file copy was failing (annoyingly, as it does, For Shame! Windows, that in 202x we STILL just get a failure instead of “continue & log for remediation” report!). For the first time in my career, I didn’t have another server to move “it” to, so…

This is where I found this information: https://itworldjd.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/how-to-access-the-disks-mapped-through-rdp/

Thank you, Jacques Dalbera!

Not quite a reproduction of Jacques’ post, but here ’tis.

Since Windows XP, support for drive mapping to the client during a Microsoft Terminal Services Connection (aka Remote Desktop) session, allowing file copy from the server to the client and vice versa via the file system.

To my knowledge, this is supported only in the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (aka MSTSC, RDP) application, and is not supported in the Microsoft Universal Remote Desktop App. I hope to find I’m wrong one day and correct this post, but meantime…

In the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (MSTSC) interface, “Local Resources” tab, “Local devices and resources” section, hit “more” to see options for “Drives”. Each volume (removable, fixed, or network) available on the client workstation is enumerated, and can be selected to be connected to the server during the RDP session. Each will show in the server’s Windows Explorer as “volume on computer name”, (e.g. “C on Computer1” for C: drive, or “F on Computer1” for F: drive). This makes for reasonably useful GUI browsing and file manipulation, but what about command prompt access?

I’m so glad you asked.
Drives can also be addressed much like network shares via Universal Naming Convention (UNC), and/or mapped in a similar fashion if that suites the purpose. Volumes on the client are accessible to the server as \\TSCLIENT (note the client workstation’s machine name is not used, but is always referenced with the generic name “TSCLIENT”) followed by the volume’s drive letter, so using the same example as before “C on Computer1” could be connected through \\TSCLIENT\C or “F on Computer1” could be connected through \\TSCLIENT\F. We can display the content of C: drive on Computer 1 via UNC:
DIR \\TSCLIENT\C
and/or map a drive letter to it:
NET USE Y: \\TSCLIENT\C
We can also perform other command prompt actions, like copying files:
COPY \\TSCLIENT\C\USERS\ME\DESKTOP\*.XLS D:\DATA\EXCEL
or what I needed, Robocopying files:
ROBOCOPY \\TSCLIENT\C\ME\DESKTOP D:\DATA\EXCEL *.XLS /Z /ETA
ROBOCOPY Y:\ME\DESKTOP D:\DATA\EXCEL *.XLS /Z /ETA

Note from Jacques’ post, as I have not investigated this: the remote Terminal Services session inherits the user’s permission. So if you are logged on to the workstation as user A and you log in to the Terminal Services server as user B, the session will have access to the drives according to A’s permissions.

I hope this helps future me, and, with a little bit of luck, others out there seeking.

PS here’s another article I found while researching this, complete with some pictures. Thank you, Brandon Lee, even if your commenters feel that you did not write about what the title states. The pictures & process still helped me.

SYPAK #29: Query Windows 7, 10 Install Set for Supported Versions

This starts out pretty simple. Find your .iso or .wim. Mount it (double-clicking will suffice for .iso; dism must be used for .wim files). From there, most of the tutorials online only mention querying a specific .esd or .wim index, using a command like dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.esd /index:1 . The problem with this is it uses the index switch to tell dism which installer to check, and only (in my experience) returns THAT ONE in the case of multi-version images (which all of those downloaded for Windows Media Creator are, to my knowledge). Instead, one needs to ask dism what indices are available using a command more like dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.esd

I know they look very similar, because they are. But the big key difference is that the latter will show ALL indices, instead of just the ONE you’ve told it to look at. The difference can be astounding.

These are some of the sites I looked to when attempting to re-learn this little tidbit:

winaero

winhelponline

I was unable to find the ONE site I dug up once upon a time that laid this all out crystal clear, but thank you, anonymous blogger. Thanks to you, I know everyone else only gets it partially right.

SYPAK #27: Capture a Scrolling Web Page In a Browser Without Weird Extensions

Especially if you have a need to use an older browser for some specific reason, when the “snapshot” tools hadn’t been built-in, the dev tools go back a bit further, and have proven quite useful from time to time.

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Thank you to Kari Söderhlom from whom I am plagiarizing this, from the comments on this web site.

I think it’s worth noting that you can also take full page screenshots in Chrome using the new Command Menu (you first need to have Dev Tools open to be able to open the Command Menu) by starting to type screenshot into the Command Menu and then select the option Capture full size screenshot from the auto completed list.

In Firefox there’s also been a similar command for a longer time by using the Firefox (this link is dead) Developer Toolbar (GCLI) (but this one works today). Just open the Developer Toolbar by pressing Shift+F2 and type in screenshot --fullpage filename.png (for my test on FF 43, which even in 2020 I still need for “some reason”, the syntax was screenshot filename.png --fullpage ). It has nice tool tips for all the parameters while you’re typing, but you can also get more info about the command by typing help screenshot. There are also command flags for saving the screenshot to the clipboard instead or posting it to Imgur.

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To bring a more up-to-date vibe, FireFox has added the screeshot tool, which when invoked proffers “full page” or “visible region”, to accomplish roughly this task.

How To Geek has a nice writeup on to doing this in Chrome.

The short version:

• Open Chrome
• Browse to the web page you want to capture
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows or Command+Shift+I on Mac to open the Developer Tools pane.
    -OR-
  • Click the three dots “more tools” link on the browser window
  • Point to “More Tools”
  • Click on “Developer Tools”
• press Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows and Command+Shift+P on Mac
  -OR-
  • In the top right corner of the pane, click the three dots icon
  • Click “Run Command.”
• Type “Screenshot”
• Click “Capture full-size screenshot” from the list of commands available

The image should save automatically, but if you’re prompted to save the screenshot, select a destination on your computer, then click “Save.”

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Update 9/6/2020: I finally found the original site where I found this answer! https://www.quora.com/Is-there-a-way-to-get-a-full-screenshot-of-a-web-page-including-parts-not-visible-in-the-current-browser-window

Thank you, to Sarthak Srivastava for being the one that caught my eye the first time; weirdly, his directions worked peachy my very first effort, and then never did again. The exact same Firefox 43 that I used the first time, following his directions, failed me the very next time (even though I found some OTHER site when I was trying to get back to that place I didn’t bookmark because “i’ll totally remember; it’s on Quora…”pffft. Hence, this site…).

All the same, THANK YOU!

SYPAK #23: Magic Variables (%~dp0) in Windows Command Shell

I’ve used them for…well, since Windows XP, I think. There is a whole slew of “magic variables” made possible by the command shells expansion of “for” shorthand using the tilde (~) and some other metacharacters, that you can use in your Windows “scripts”, i.e. batch files, and the more modern substitutions for those.
This document from Microsoft does a bad job of explaining them (like most of what Microsoft releases), but it’s nevertheless a reference for them. Check the “for” section.
This website actually does a nice job of listing them, and is where I’m lifting the list, the reason for which I’m creating the post. I once had a very lovely chart of all these sitting on my desk (yep, in hardcopy) which I can no longer find. I can also no longer find the electronic version, and searching for this online has yielded little result. Thus, this post.

%~I – expands %I removing any surrounding quotes (“)
%~fI – expands %I to a fully qualified path name
%~dI – expands %I to a drive letter only
%~pI – expands %I to a path only
%~nI – expands %I to a file name only
%~xI – expands %I to a file extension only
%~sI – expanded path contains short names only
%~aI – expands %I to file attributes of file
%~tI – expands %I to date/time of file
%~zI – expands %I to size of file
%~$PATH:1 – searches the directories listed in the PATH
environment variable and expands %1 to the
fully qualified name of the first one found.
If the environment variable name is not
defined or the file is not found by the
search, then this modifier expands to the
empty string.

The modifiers can be combined to get compound results:

%~dpI – expands %I to a drive letter and path only
%~nxI – expands %I to a file name and extension only
%~fsI – expands %I to a full path name with short names only
%~dp$PATH:1 – searches the directories listed in the PATH
environment variable for %1 and expands to the
drive letter and path of the first one found
(but this would work only in called functions and
only for numbered variables)
%~ftzaI – expands %I to a DIR like output line

The way this typically manifests in batch writing is thus:
cd %~dp0
runfile.exe >> %~d\log.txt

Enjoy, future me!

SYPAK #22: Hack NFS for EZ VMWare Datastore on LenovoEMC (formerly Iomega) ix12-300r

If you’ve been following along, you already know the beast. Awesome piece of hardware, frankly, with decent firmware/software to boot. Buuuuut… One of the “updates” (I’ve forgotten which, and do not feel like looking it up) upgraded NFS from version 3 to 4. By default, NFS v. 4 adds “security”.

Which is fine and wonderful, except that I’m on an isolated network anyway, and NFS3 worked fine, and VMWare wasn’t ready for NFS 4 at the time. Thus, it had no provision for the directive NEED_SVCGSSD=yes  found in the /etc/default/nfs-kernel-server configuration file.

So, to work around this, fast and dirty, enable “diagnostic mode”, then change this entry using vi (you do know how to use vi, right?) to “no”, and then restart the service with /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

Baddaboom baddabing.

I’m not saying this is the RIGHT way to fix the problem; only that it works.

Oh, bad news. You have to re-do this each time the server is restarted (unless you can figure out how to get this change into the  squashfs, which I’m not going into here).

SYPAK #19: Log Files for SCCM 2012

I seem to keep losing these, so here is a note for future reference.

View using:

cmtrace.exe  — located in the Tools folder of the SCCM CD, supposedly, at \smssetup\tools

Reference

I *THINK* this replaces the smstrace.exe and tracer.exe from older version of SCCM.

Reference

This list is taken from here

Client logs are located at:

32-bit OS: %WINDIR%\System32\CCM\Logs

-or-

64-bit OS: %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\CCM\Logs

Server log files are located at:

<INSTALL_PATH>\Logs

-or-

SMS_CCM\Logs

 

IIS logs can be found in %WINDIR%\System32\logfiles\W3SVC1 folder.

 

Client Log Files

• CAS – Content Access Service. Maintains the local package cache.
• Ccmexec.log – Records activities of the client and the SMS Agent Host service.
• CertificateMaintenance.log – Maintains certificates for Active Directory directory service and management points.
• ClientIDManagerStartup.log – Creates and maintains the client GUID.
• ClientLocation.log – Site assignment tasks.
• ContentTransferManager.log – Schedules the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) or the Server Message Block (SMB) to download or to access SMS packages.
• DataTransferService.log – Records all BITS communication for policy or package access.
• Execmgr.log – Records advertisements that run.
• FileBITS.log – Records all SMB package access tasks.
• Fsinvprovider.log (renamed to FileSystemFile.log in all SMS 2003 Service Packs) – Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provider for software inventory and file collection.
• InventoryAgent.log – Creates discovery data records (DDRs) and hardware and software inventory records.
• LocationServices.log – Finds management points and distribution points.
• Mifprovider.log – The WMI provider for .MIF files.
• Mtrmgr.log – Monitors all software metering processes.
• PolicyAgent.log – Requests policies by using the Data Transfer service.
• PolicyAgentProvider.log – Records policy changes.
• PolicyEvaluator.log – Records new policy settings.
• Remctrl.log – Logs when the remote control component (WUSER32) starts.
• Scheduler.log – Records schedule tasks for all client operations.
• Smscliui.log – Records usage of the Systems Management tool in Control Panel.
• StatusAgent.log – Logs status messages that are created by the client components.
• SWMTRReportGen.log – Generates a usage data report that is collected by the metering agent. (This data is logged in Mtrmgr.log.)

Server Log Files

• Ccm.log – Client Configuration Manager tasks.
• Cidm.log – Records changes to the client settings by the Client Install Data Manager (CIDM).
• Colleval.log – Logs when collections are created, changed, and deleted by the Collection Evaluator.
• Compsumm.log – Records Component Status Summarizer tasks.
• Cscnfsvc.log – Records Courier Sender confirmation service tasks.
• Dataldr.log – Processes Management Information Format (MIF) files and hardware inventory in the Configuration Manager 2007 database.
• Ddm.log – Saves DDR information to the Configuration Manager 2007 database by the Discovery Data Manager.
• Despool.log – Records incoming site-to-site communication transfers.
• Distmgr.log – Records package creation, compression, delta replication, and information updates.
• Hman.log – Records site configuration changes, and publishes site information in Active Directory Domain Services.
• Inboxast.log – Records files that are moved from the management point to the corresponding SMS\INBOXES folder.
• Inboxmgr.log – Records file maintenance.
• Invproc.log – Records the processing of delta MIF files for the Dataloader component from client inventory files.
• Mpcontrol.log – Records the registration of the management point with WINS. Records the availability of the management point every 10 minutes.
• Mpfdm.log – Management point component that moves client files to the corresponding SMS\INBOXES folder.
• MPMSI.log – Management point .msi installation log.
• MPSetup.log – Records the management point installation wrapper process.
• Ntsvrdis.log – Configuration Manager 2007 server discovery.
• Offermgr.log – Records advertisement updates.
• Offersum.log – Records summarization of advertisement status messages.
• Policypv.log – Records updates to the client policies to reflect changes to client settings or advertisements.
• Replmgr.log – Records the replication of files between the site server components and the Scheduler component.
• Rsetup.log – Reporting point setup log.
• Sched.log – Records site-to-site job and package replication.
• Sender.log – Records files that are sent to other child and parent sites.
• Sinvproc.log – Records client software inventory data processing to the site database in Microsoft SQL Server.
• Sitecomp.log – Records maintenance of the installed site components.
• Sitectrl.log – Records site setting changes to the Sitectrl.ct0 file.
• Sitestat.log – Records the monitoring process of all site systems.
• Smsdbmon.log – Records database changes.
• Smsexec.log – Records processing of all site server component threads.
• Smsprov.log – Records WMI provider access to the site database.
• SMSReportingInstall.log – Records the Reporting Point installation. This component starts the installation tasks and processes configuration changes.
• SMSSHVSetup.log – Records the success or failure (with failure reason) of installing the System Health Validator point.
• Srvacct.log – Records the maintenance of accounts when the site uses standard security.
• Statmgr.log – Writes all status messages to the database.
• Swmproc.log – Processes metering files and maintains settings.

Admin Console Log Files

• RepairWizard.log – Records errors, warnings, and information about the process of running the Repair Wizard.
• ResourceExplorer.log – Records errors, warnings, and information about running the Resource Explorer.
• SMSAdminUI.log – Records the local Configuration Manager 2007 console tasks when you connect to Configuration Manager 2007 sites.

Management Point Log Files

• MP_Ddr.log – Records the conversion of XML.ddr records from clients, and copies them to the site server.
• MP_GetAuth.log – Records the status of the site management points.
• MP_GetPolicy.log – Records policy information.
• MP_Hinv.log – Converts XML hardware inventory records from clients and copies the files to the site server.
• MP_Location.log – Records location manager tasks.
• MP_Policy.log – Records policy communication.
• MP_Relay.log – Copies files that are collected from the client.
• MP_Retry.log – Records the hardware inventory retry processes.
• MP_Sinv.log – Converts XML hardware inventory records from clients and copies them to the site server.
• MP_Status.log – Converts XML.svf status message files from clients and copies them to the site server.

Mobile Device Management Log Files

• DmClientHealth.log – Records the GUIDs of all the mobile device clients that are communicating with the Device Management Point.
• DmClientRegistration.log – Records registration requests from and responses to the mobile device client in Native mode.
• DmpDatastore.log – Records all the site database connections and queries made by the Device Management Point.
• DmpDiscovery.log – Records all the discovery data from the mobile device clients on the Device Management Point.
• DmpFileCollection.log – Records mobile device file collection data from mobile device clients on the Device Management Point.
• DmpHardware.log – Records hardware inventory data from mobile device clients on the Device Management Point.
• DmpIsapi.log – Records mobile device communication data from device clients on the Device Management Point.
• dmpMSI.log – Records the MSI data for Device Management Point setup.
• DMPSetup.log – Records the mobile device management setup process.
• DmpSoftware.log – Records mobile device software distribution data from mobile device clients on the Device Management Point.
• DmpStatus.log – Records mobile device status messages data from mobile device clients on the Device Management Point.
• FspIsapi.log – Records Fallback Status Point communication data from mobile device clients and client computers on the Fallback Status Point.

Mobile Device Client Log Files

• DmCertEnroll.log – Records certificate enrollment data on mobile device clients.
• DMCertResp.htm (in \temp) – Records HTML response from the certificate server when the mobile device Enroller program requests a client authentication certificate on mobile device clients.
• DmClientSetup.log – Records client setup data on mobile device clients.
• DmClientXfer.log – Records client transfer data for Windows Mobile Device Center and ActiveSync deployments.
• DmCommonInstaller.log – Records client transfer file installation for setting up mobile device client transfer files on client computers.
• DmInstaller.log – Records whether DMInstaller correctly calls DmClientSetup and whether DmClientSetup exits with success or failure on mobile device clients.
• DmInvExtension.log – Records Inventory Extension file installation for setting up Inventory Extension files on client computers.
• DmSvc.log – Records mobile device management service data on mobile device clients.

Operating System Deployment Log Files

• CCMSetup.log – Provides information about client-based operating system actions.
• CreateTSMedia.log – Provides information about task sequence media when it is created. This log is generated on the computer running the Configuration Manager 2007 administrator console.
• DriverCatalog.log – Provides information about device drivers that have been imported into the driver catalog.
• MP_ClientIDManager.log – Provides information about the Configuration Manager 2007 management point when it responds to Configuration Manager 2007 client ID requests from boot media or PXE. This log is generated on the Configuration Manager 2007 management point.
• MP_DriverManager.log – Provides information about the Configuration Manager 2007 management point when it responds to a request from the Auto Apply Driver task sequence action. This log is generated on the Configuration Manager 2007 management point.
• MP_Location.log – Provides information about the Configuration Manager 2007 management point when it responds to request state store or release state store requests from the state migration point. This log is generated on the Configuration Manager 2007 management point.
• Pxecontrol.log – Provides information about the PXE Control Manager.
• PXEMsi.log – Provides information about the PXE service point and is generated when the PXE service point site server has been created.
• PXESetup.log – Provides information about the PXE service point and is generated when the PXE service point site server has been created.
• Setupact.log Setupapi.log Setuperr.log Provide information about Windows Sysprep and setup logs.
• SmpIsapi.log – Provides information about the state migration point Configuration Manager 2007 client request responses.
• Smpmgr.log – Provides information about the results of state migration point health checks and configuration changes.
• SmpMSI.log – Provides information about the state migration point and is generated when the state migration point site server has been created.
• Smsprov.log – Provides information about the SMS provider.
• Smspxe.log – Provides information about the Configuration Manager 2007 PXE service point.
• SMSSMPSetup.log – Provides information about the state migration point and is generated when the state migration point site server has been created.
• Smsts.log – General location for all operating system deployment and task sequence log events.
• TaskSequenceProvider.log – Provides information about task sequences when they are imported, exported, or edited.
• USMT Log loadstate.log – Provides information about the User State Migration Tool (USMT) regarding the restore of user state data.
• USMT Log scanstate.log – Provides information about the USMT regarding the capture of user state data.

Network Access Protection Log Files

• Ccmcca.log – Logs the processing of compliance evaluation based on Configuration Manager NAP policy processing and contains the processing of remediation for each software update required for compliance.
• CIAgent.log – Tracks the process of remediation and compliance. However, the software updates log file, *Updateshandler.log – provides more informative details on installing the software updates required for compliance.
• locationservices.log – Used by other Configuration Manager features (for example, information about the client’s assigned site) but also contains information specific to Network Access Protection when the client is in remediation. It records the names of the required remediation servers (management point, software update point, and distribution points that host content required for compliance), which are also sent in the client statement of health.
• SDMAgent.log – Shared with the Configuration Manager feature desired configuration management and contains the tracking process of remediation and compliance. However, the software updates log file, Updateshandler.log, provides more informative details about installing the software updates required for compliance.
• SMSSha.log – The main log file for the Configuration Manager Network Access Protection client and contains a merged statement of health information from the two Configuration Manager components: location services (LS) and the configuration compliance agent (CCA). This log file also contains information about the interactions between the Configuration Manager System Health Agent and the operating system NAP agent, and also between the Configuration Manager System Health Agent and both the configuration compliance agent and the location services. It provides information about whether the NAP agent successfully initialized, the statement of health data, and the statement of health response.

System Health Validator Point Log Files

• Ccmperf.log -Contains information about the initialization of the System Health Validator point performance counters.
• SmsSHV.log – The main log file for the System Health Validator point; logs the basic operations of the System Health Validator service, such as the initialization progress.
• SmsSHVADCacheClient.log – Contains information about retrieving Configuration Manager health state references from Active Directory Domain Services.
• SmsSHVCacheStore.log – Contains information about the cache store used to hold the Configuration Manager NAP health state references retrieved from Active Directory Domain Services, such as reading from the store and purging entries from the local cache store file. The cache store is not configurable.
• SmsSHVRegistrySettings.log – Records any dynamic changes to the System Health Validator component configuration while the service is running.
• SmsSHVQuarValidator.log – Records client statement of health information and processing operations. To obtain full information, change the registry key LogLevel from 1 to 0 in the following location:HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SMSSHV\Logging\@GLOBAL

Desired Configuration Management Log Files

• ciagent.log – Provides information about downloading, storing, and accessing assigned configuration baselines.
• dcmagent.log – Provides high-level information about the evaluation of assigned configuration baselines and desired configuration management processes.
• discovery.log – Provides detailed information about the Service Modeling Language (SML) processes.
• sdmagent.log – Provides information about downloading, storing, and accessing configuration item content.
• sdmdiscagent.log – Provides high-level information about the evaluation process for the objects and settings configured in the referenced configuration items.

Wake On LAN Log Files

• Wolmgr.log – Contains information about wake-up procedures such as when to wake up advertisements or deployments that are configured for Wake On LAN.
• WolCmgr.log – Contains information about which clients need to be sent wake-up packets, the number of wake-up packets sent, and the number of wake-up packets retried.

Software Updates Site Server Log Files

• ciamgr.log – Provides information about the addition, deletion, and modification of software update configuration items.
• distmgr.log – Provides information about the replication of software update deployment packages.
• objreplmgr.log – Provides information about the replication of software updates notification files from a parent to child sites.
• PatchDownloader.log – Provides information about the process for downloading software updates from the update source specified in the software updates metadata to the download destination on the site server.
• replmgr.log – Provides information about the process for replicating files between sites.
• smsdbmon.log – Provides information about when software update configuration items are inserted, updated, or deleted from the site server database and creates notification files for software updates components.
• SUPSetup – Provides information about the software update point installation. When the software update point installation completes, Installation was successful is written to this log file.
• WCM.log – Provides information about the software update point configuration and connecting to the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server for subscribed update categories, classifications, and languages.
• WSUSCtrl.log – Provides information about the configuration, database connectivity, and health of the WSUS server for the site.
• wsyncmgr.log -Provides information about the software updates synchronization process.

WSUS Server Log Files

• Change.log – Provides information about the WSUS server database information that has changed.
• SoftwareDistribution.log – Provides information about the software updates that are synchronized from the configured update source to the WSUS server database.

Software Updates Client Computer Log Files

• CAS.log – Provides information about the process of downloading software updates to the local cache and cache management.
• CIAgent.log – Provides information about processing configuration items, including software updates.
• LocationServices.log – Provides information about the location of the WSUS server when a scan is initiated on the client.
• PatchDownloader.log – Provides information about the process for downloading software updates from the update source to the download destination on the site server. This log is only on the client computer configured as the synchronization host for the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates.
• PolicyAgent.log – Provides information about the process for downloading, compiling, and deleting policies on client computers.
• PolicyEvaluator – Provides information about the process for evaluating policies on client computers, including policies from software updates.
• RebootCoordinator.log – Provides information about the process for coordinating system restarts on client computers after software update installations.
• ScanAgent.log – Provides information about the scan requests for software updates, what tool is requested for the scan, the WSUS location, and so on.
• ScanWrapper – Provides information about the prerequisite checks and the scan process initialization for the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates on Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 clients.
• SdmAgent.log – Provides information about the process for verifying and decompressing packages that contain configuration item information for software updates.
• ServiceWindowManager.log – Provides information about the process for evaluating configured maintenance windows.
• smscliUI.log – Provides information about the Configuration Manager Control Panel user interactions, such as initiating a Software Updates Scan Cycle from the Configuration Manager Properties dialog box, opening the Program Download Monitor, and so on.
• SmsWusHandler – Provides information about the scan process for the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates on SMS 2003 client computers.
• StateMessage.log – Provides information about when software updates state messages are created and sent to the management point.
• UpdatesDeployment.log – Provides information about the deployment on the client, including software update activation, evaluation, and enforcement. Verbose logging shows additional information about the interaction with the client user interface.
• UpdatesHandler.log – Provides information about software update compliance scanning and about the download and installation of software updates on the client.
• UpdatesStore.log – Provides information about the compliance status for the software updates that were assessed during the compliance scan cycle.
• WUAHandler.log – Provides information about when the Windows Update Agent on the client searches for software updates.
• WUSSyncXML.log – Provides information about the Inventory Tool for the Microsoft Updates synchronization process. This log is only on the client computer configured as the synchronization host for the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates.

Windows Update Agent Log File

• WindowsUpdate.log – Provides information about when the Windows Update Agent connects to the WSUS server and retrieves the software updates for compliance assessment and whether there are updates to the agent components.

 

SYPAK #18: Providing Alternate Credentials for Windows Programs

So I find myself once more looking up something I’ve done repeatedly before.

This time I’m trying to connect MS Access 2016 to MS SQL 2008R2. Of course, the SQL server is in another domain than my workstation with Access 2016. This means i need to try to figure out how to provide alternate credentials. As you probably know or guessed, there is no opportunity presented in Microsoft’s interfaces in this context.

 

The other where I typically run into this is connect Microsoft SQL Server Manager to a SQL server in another domain.

It’s simple.

Open command prompt, launch necessary program with “runas /netonly /user:domain\username “driveletter:\path\to\executable” . This will open a  command prompt, ask you for the password for the account you furnish, and then launch the program as that user.

If you’re going to use this often, create a shortcut to do it, using that command string as the target.

if you don’t like the prompt for creds, save yours into your “Credential Manager”.

Credit where due, this is the guide I used (this time).

SYPAK #17: Breaking Out of Windows Installer for a Command Prompt

shift+f10 during the “installing windows” phase.

 

from here: http://windowsitpro.com/windows/open-command-prompt-window-while-installing-windows

 

SYPAK #16: Copying an Entire Directory in Linux

This seems self-explanatory, but always requires being looked back up every time I fail to remember it, so here it is.

To copy a file in *nix is easy, right? cp

Confused about using  it? try
man cp
or
info cp
or
help cp

So anyway, if you just cp -R /your/directory/here/ /copy/ you will end up with all the files and directories UNDER /your/directory/here/ copied to /copy/ This is wonderful if that’s what you want, but what if you actually want the “here” directory under “copy”, like so: /copy/here/ ?
Well, it’s really pretty simple, but I always forget.
cp -R /your/directory/here /copy/
Boom.
If you include the trailing “/”, it will be treated as the source path, and everything UNDER it will be copied. Leave off the trailing “/” on the source, and it will treat the last element as the source, rather than as part of the path.  Easily discoverable using man, but frequently a source of frustration. Hopefully, now that I’ve made up this embarrassing post to publish to the world, it will stick with me. 😀