ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 CU1 Half-Baked Install

It appears an installation of ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 (KB2817245), if the pre-1/25/13 SP1 media is used and the KB2801987 hotfix applied, doesn’t necessarily play nice. Working on some scripts in the lab, I attempted to use PowerShell to import some computer information, literally copying and pasting the sample code from the Import-CMComputerInformation TechNet article and substituting a custom...

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Deploying the UE-V Agent in ConfigMgr 2012 Using Settings Storage Path

Using ConfigMgr to deploy the UE-V agent can present a nasty surprise if you try to specify the SettingsStoragePath using the %USERNAME% environment variable. Microsoft released the User Experience Virtualization (or UE-V) agent with MDOP 2012 as a means of ensuring a consistent user experience across multiple devices, providing yet another tool to put to rest the pain that is “roaming...

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Downloading MMS2013 Content with PowerShell

Raise your hand of you want to right-click > Save As… upwards of 200 MMS 2013 session and interview video files and then do the same for all the slide decks. Yeah…me neither. Last year the content was posted on the MMS2012 CommNet site, so you had to register and log in to download the content.  It took a while...

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MMS2013 Day Three (Wherefore Art Thou, Internet?)

Internet, internet…wherefore art thou internet? Yep…that pretty much says it all.  I’m actually not sure at this point what the source of the problem is, but having this level of issue for a second straight day at a technical conference where internet connectivity is a critical component of the featured technologies is frustrating to say the least.  It would be...

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MMS2013 Day Two (The Search for the Missing Internet)

It was a very full day today. Unfortunately, the big story to start off the day was the complete disappearance of hotel internet access. MMS Bible Study I personally always look forward to the MMS Bible Study led by Jarvis Davis. There were over 20 geeks in attendance this morning, and a great discussion was had about 1 John 1:1-4...

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MMS2013 Day One

It used to be that Sunday was the day that those with the flexibility of scheduling (and funding) to do so would arrive in Las Vegas ahead of the Microsoft Management Summit.  Visits to the casino would be made, a few drinks had as friends caught up, and perhaps an enjoyable social event sponsored by one of the cool vendors. ...

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ConfigMgr 2012 XML Reporting Error

The first time I encountered this particular ConfigMgr reporting error, I figured it was an anomaly.  It took a little digging, but I did find others who had encountered it and worked through it on the TechNet forums here and here. Having now seen (and fixed) this error multiple times at the same customer in short order though, hopefully I...

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ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 PowerShell Module – Remote Sessions

One of the great things about PowerShell is the ease with which you can perform actions on remote machines, not only by acting upon the machine as a remote target but also by openning a remote PowerShell session on the machine.  This is done using the built-in Enter-PSSession cmdlet. This is an excellent and powerful capability for ConfigMgr admins who want...

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Deploying IE10 Prereqs for Win7SP1 with ConfigMgr 2012

Internet Explorer 10 has finally been released for Windows 7 SP1, but it brings a few headaches with it.  Downloading the standalone installer works pretty well for individual installs, but as part of the install it will look for particular prerequisites and attempt to download them if they are not present. That’s all well and good, but in an enterprise...

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Prepping for MMS 2013

I’m ready to get my geek on.  The Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) conference is always a marathon. Between the time difference (three hours), the information overload from the sessions and labs, the late nights out with vendors/clients/friends, and just the sheer walking mileage, you can find yourself completely exhausted in very short order. View from the Expo floor at MMS2010...

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Important ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 Hotfix Released (KB2801987)

There always seems to be a price to pay for jumping on the latest release quickly.  Many who rushed to download and install System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 got a nasty little surprise in the form of failed client installation and OS deployments. The problem typically manifests itself in the client deployment logs (%windir%\ccmsetup\ccmsetup.log) with the following error: Couldn’t...

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