Sam's IT Knowledgebase

I recently just upgraded our SCCM to 1710 and was eager to try out the new feature of setting up child task sequences. However for a while I was confused when I was going to test this out the option I had read about "Run Task Sequence" was missing. I stumbled upon this blog post on WindowsNoob and this explained the issue - https://www.windows-noob.com/forums/topic/15965-how-can-i-enable-the-run-task-sequence-step-in-sccm-current-branch-version-1710/ So in summary you need to go to Administration - Hierachy Settings and enable "Consent to use pre release functions" You then need to enable the Run Task Sequence Restart your console and the changes will apply

When recently undergoing a project in our organisation to update Windows 10 from 1607 to 1703 I came across an annoying issue where after the upgrade process Windows would add the Windows Mail UWP icon to the taskbar. Obviously in a corporate environment this is not a setup which is wanted. I read a bunch of stuff online but things would work fine when running manually, but then when trying to deploy through SCCM it would not work. In the end the only way I got it to work was with information thanks to the following link -  https://www.windows-noob.com/forums/topic/15538-problems-running-a-powershell-script-on-a-task-sequence/ So in summary the steps to fix it were: 1.) Create a powershell script on a network share with the following:            'Uninstall Microsoft Mail and Calendar'             Get-AppxPackage *communi* | Remove-AppxPackage 2.) Setup an SCCM package and choose to create a program with source ...

I was recently required to do an audit of Office software for Microsoft licensing and noticed the SCCM WQL queries did not pick up 64 bit installs of Microsoft Office. After a bit of investigation I read that the normal queries which work (as below) only detect 32 bit software installs. Credit to skissinger from my IT forum for this info: http://www.myitforum.com/forums/Queries-for-32bit-amp-64bit-in-addremove-programs-m232862.aspx 32 bit software query: select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS on SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.ResourceID = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.DisplayName = "Microsoft Office professional plus 2013" 64 bit software query: It's probably the inner joins; because a x86 box won't have any 64 stuff; so nothing to join ...

SCCM - Required Application Not Installing to a collection based on an Active Directory Security Group I recently had an issue where I was trying to install Office 2013 as a required application to a collection based on an AD Security group. This would work fine if I was advertising the install as  'available', however when I set as 'required' it would not install and not even show up in Software Centre. After looking through the Monitoring section in SCCM and had a look at the deployment status I noticed it said success however the Message ID was 10040 and the description was "program will not rerun" I managed to fix this by going to the deployment settings for this collection and then going to scheduling and altering the "Rerun behaviour" to always rerun program.

Office 2013 Silent Install Setup To setup a silent install of Office 2013 follow the below steps. If you have an ISO mount the file and then copy all the files out to a folder.  Run the command \\locationoffolder\setup.exe /admin. This will bring up the Office 2013 customisation tool.  You can apply which settings you require. The main ones you probably need to apply are  Licensing and user interface - choose here if you want to use a KMS key or a MAK key. In the options for the licencing agreements it is best to Tick "I accept the terms of the license agreement" Display level - none Suppress modal - ticked Set feature installation states. Tick the appropriate install options and features which you want. Configure shortcuts. I came across an issue in here which appears to be a known bug. If you try to create desktop shortcuts for any of the applications it would try to force you to enter something in the "start in" field saying this is required. ...

There is an easy way to deploy Google Chrome Extensions using a registry key. This example is for a 64 bit Operating System. First of all find the Extension you want to deploy and you need to find the extension ID. In this example I am wanting to install the 'Local Links' extension so the extension ID is jllpkdkcdjndhggodimiphkghogcpida. Create a registry key which points to the following location: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions\jllpkdkcdjndhggodimiphkghogcpida] "update_url"="https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx" Run this or push it out via script / SCCM or group policy.

Recently I was required to reinstall the current version of Symantec Endpoint our organisation is running (12.1.6) but with extra features from when the initial install was configured. We were wanting to add 'Proactive Threat Protection' and also 'Network Threat Protection'. The issue with this is that 1.) Symantec did not like an update pushing from a remote source (SCCM server) and 2.) SCCM thought the software was already installed as it had the same product ID. To get around this I had to create a task sequence with a couple of steps. Step 1:  - Setup a command line in the task sequence to run the following commands and make sure you tick "continue on error" on these steps.       * CMD /C "C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\smc.exe" -stop       * CMD /C "C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\smc.exe" -stop Step 2:  - Create an application in SCCM with the same sep64.msi install bu...