Sherry Kissinger at myITforum.com

Book Reviews - Summary

I think my collection is nearly complete for available SMS 2003 books. I may be missing a couple, but so far I've got

Pro SMS 2003, Rod Kruetzfeld
SMS 2003 Administrator's Reference, Ron D. Crumbaker
Start to Finish Guide to Distributing Software with Systems Management Server 2003, Dana Daugherty
SMS 2003 Recipes: A problem-Solution Approach, Greg Ramsey and Warren Byle
Start to Finish Guide to MOF Editing, Jeff Gilbert

If I were to summarize them, to start with, each one had something in it I didn't know about SMS. SMS is such a complex thing, I don't think any 1 person could understand it all (maybe Wally? or Jeff? but not normal humans)

Pro SMS 2003 - I'd recommend this to a company/individual that hasn't implemented SMS at all yet; and need to know how to plan for and best implement it. I'd also recommend it to people who are "having problems" but aren't quite sure why. Hopefully they'd be able to retro-actively see what they should have done and fix it. This would take them through maybe their first few months of planning and configuration.

SMS 2003 Administrator's Reference - I'd recommend this to every SMS Admin. Even if you've been administering SMS for a while, there are some beautiful examples, and the Troubleshooting section is detailed, but not too overwhelming. And you just can't beat Ron's Web Remote Tools console for ROI with your Helpdesk folk.

Start to Finish Guide to Distributing Software... - To management, I suspect one of the primary goals with implementing SMS isn't asset management, nor software metering, nor remote tools (all of which SMS does well)--it's using SMS to deliver software to clients. With that in mind; any admin that has to use SMS to deliver software should have this book in their arsenal.

SMS 2003 Recipes - I must admit, this is my favorite. I think partly because of the friendly, easy-to-read style. Also, I'm a big "why do I need that anyway?" person. I need to know "why do I need or want this?" I just do. The Discussion section for all of the problems/solutions tell me exactly why I would want to do that. I'd recommend this to every admin.

Start to Finish Guide to MOF Editing - For me, understanding the sms_def.mof was for some reason a big mental block for a long time. Oh, I had definitely extended the mof before I got this e-book; and even sort-of understood why and how. But this book linked all of the disparate little bits of knowledge into a cohesive "a-hah" moment for me.

How to Configure Remote Assistance to not prompt for User Permission

Assuming this does not violate any of your internal security policies and procedures, and assuming you have control over the files contained on your XP workstations, you can make changes to 2 files to eliminate the end-user prompts asking for permission when using Remote Assistance to XP workstations.

If you wish, you could modify just 1 of the files.  For example, retain the initial prompt asking for the access, but disable the Take Control prompt.  Or vice versa.

Procedure: On the TARGET computer, modify two files.

File #1:  The change to Helpeeaccept.htm eliminates the initial "Would you like to give <user> access to your computer?"
%windir%\pchealth\HelpCtr\System\Remote Assistance\helpeeaccept.htm

at about lines 156-158
--------original---------
btnAccept.disabled = false;
btnDecline.disabled = false;
btnDecline.focus();
---------------------------

--------new------------
btnAccept.disabled = false;
btnDecline.disabled = false;
btnDecline.focus();
DoAccept();
-----------------------------

File #2: The change to TakeControlMsgs.htm eliminates the prompt after the expert clicks "Take Control", "Do you wish to let <user> share control of your computer?"
%windir%\pchealth\helpctr\System\Remote Assistance\Interaction\Server\TakeControlMsgs.htm

Lines 25-29, change from
---original------
alert( L_ERRACCESSDENIED_Text );
return;
}
return;
----------------

-----new--------
alert( L_ERRACCESSDENIED_Text );
return;
}
onClickHandler(0)
return;
----------------

1 mofcomp method

Link to existing article