Tom Watson at myITforum.com

Management Point as IE Search

This is probably more useful if you have a large multi site environment.  As you probably know, if you manage SMS 2003 or ConfigMgr, you can quickly find the status of a Management Point by connecting to:-

http://<Management_Point>/sms_mp/.sms_aut?mpcert

When you open this, it will display a huge hexadecimal number, which usually indicates your Management Point is functioning.  See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb932118.aspx

Now I usually can’t remember that address.  But you can easily add a Search Provider in Internet Explorer 7 or 8.

Clicking on “Find More Providers” takes you to a Microsoft page that lets you pick from a list of search providers, or “Create Your Own”.  Alternatively, go to http://www.ieaddons.com/createsearch.aspx .

To create your own, enter the address:-

http://TEST/sms_mp/.sms_aut?mpcert

“TEST” is effectively the variable for the search provider you are creating.  Then give it a name of your choice – e.g. “Management Point Status”.  Finally, click “Install”.

Now all you have to do is enter your server name in the Search box, and select “Management Point Status”.

You can use this technique for other items that you regularly use in reports etc., e.g.

Computer Details
http://<your server>/SMSReporting_XXX/MachDetails.asp?Machine=TEST
McAfee ePO Agent Status
http://TEST:8081 (assuming you use 8081 as your client port)

I am sure you can think of other ideas for this.

Alternative Registry Inventory with ConfigMgr

This is based on an idea I had to help improve the registry inventory capabilities of Hardware Inventory.  The idea was inspired by Mark Cochrane’s RegkeyToMof tool, as well as from some advice from Sherry Kissinger.  There was also a thread on the mssms list where people suggested improvements for ConfigMgr, and I suggested Registry Inventory.

The concept is to put multiple ad hoc registry values into the Hardware Inventory.  The common way of doing this was to add multiple values into a single instance. In Resource Explorer this displays as a single row with multiple columns.  I found this a bit too unwieldy after a while.

My idea was to try to effectively pivot this data round so that you had multiple rows, with minimal columns.

I simply felt scrolling vertically was nicer than scrolling horizontally. I also like the idea of having the full registry path in the Resource Explorer view.

Here is how I achieved this.

Addition to SMS_DEF.MOF (Note. This part never needs to change)

//`'`*._.*`'`*-
// Registry_Values Reporting Class
//`'`*._.*`'`*-

#pragma namespace("\\\\.\\ROOT\\CIMV2\\SMS")
#pragma deleteclass("Registry_Values",NOFAIL)

[ SMS_Report (TRUE),
  SMS_Group_Name ("Registry_Values"),
  SMS_Class_ID ("CUSTOM|Registry_Values|1.0")
]

Class Registry_Values : SMS_Class_Template
{
  [SMS_Report(TRUE),key] string KeyName; // The registry value name
  [SMS_Report(TRUE)] string String;      // For REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ values
  [SMS_Report(TRUE)] string Multi[];     // For REG_MULTI_SZ values
  [SMS_Report(TRUE)] Uint64 Integer;     // For REG_DWORD values
};

Addition to CONFIGURATION.MOF

//`'`*._.*`'`*-
// Registry_Values Data Class
//`'`*._.*`'`*-

#pragma namespace("\\\\.\\ROOT\\CIMV2")
#pragma deleteclass("Registry_Values",NOFAIL)
[DYNPROPS]
Class Registry_Values
{
  [key] string KeyName=""; // The registry value name
  String String;           // For REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ values
  String Multi[];          // For REG_MULTI_SZ values
  Uint64 Integer;          // For REG_DWORD values
};

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Winlogon|AltDefaultUserName";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Winlogon|AltDefaultUserName")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] String;
};

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Winlogon|DefaultUserName";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Winlogon|DefaultUserName")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] String;
};

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Installer|Logging";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Installer|Logging")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] String;
};

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\SMS\\Client\\Client Components\\Remote Control|Permission Required";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\SMS\\Client\\Client Components\\Remote Control|Permission Required")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] Integer;
};

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\SMS\\Client\\Client Components\\Remote Control|PermittedViewers";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\SMS\\Client\\Client Components\\Remote Control|PermittedViewers")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] Multi;
};

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Classes\\VBSFile\\Shell\\Open\\Command|";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Classes\\VBSFile\\Shell\\Open\\Command|")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] String;
};

-----------------------

If you look at the addition to SMS_DEF.MOF, this never needs to change.

However, to report multiple values is simply a matter of adding an extra “[DYNPROPS] instance of Registry_Values...” section into CONFIGURATION.MOF. Let’s take a look at one section to get an idea of the syntax.

-----------------------

[DYNPROPS]
instance of Registry_Values
{
                 KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Installer|Logging";
  [PropertyContext("Local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Installer|Logging")
  ,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] String;
};

-----------------------

I’ve indented the “KeyName=...” line, so you can compare it with the “[PropertyContext...” line. You should be able to see that they are the same from HKEY_LOC... through to Logging".

The backslash is a special character, hence to reference a backslash, you need to use “\\”. The text after “|” is the value’s name.  For (Default) values, there is no text after the “|”, as the last example shows ( i.e. KeyName="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Classes\\VBSFile\\Shell\\Open\\Command|"; )

On the last line before the “};”, there are three possibilities, depending on the type of value being inventoried.:-

-----------------------

,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] String;   // For REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ values

    or

,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] Multi;    // For REG_MULTI_SZ values

    or

,Dynamic,Provider("RegPropProv")] Integer;  // For REG_DWORD values

-----------------------

I hope this is fairly self explanatory, and is useful for creating your own ad hoc registry inventorying.