Mac OSX: ‘Cannot Send F11 Keystroke’

KB ID 0001441

Problem

I was building some HP blade servers today via iLO, and while trying to install ESX, I reached this stage;

Pressing F11 on a mac just increases the volume, and with the other function keys (F1 to F10) you simply press ‘fn’ and the appropriate F key, and it works properly. But not on a mac, ‘Fn+F11’ just shows you your desktop.

Even changing function keys in the keyboard settings has no effect!

Solution

System Preferences > Mission Control.

Change ‘Show Desktop’ to another key (in this case F13).

Problem solved!

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WDS – Unattended file – Joining a Domain Automatically

KB ID 0000494 

Problem

During a large rollout the more things you can automate the better, before you continue though be aware of one thing…

You can only automatically join a client to a domain if it has an auto generated random machine name!*

*Note: This is not 100% true, if you pre-stage the computer objects into Active Directory with the GUID of the machine (you can see this on the screen at pXe boot time, or get it from the BIOS) Then you can auto join the machines and they will come in with the correct name. However, if you have a large number of machines to build, this is more time consuming than simply renaming them after they have been imaged.

Solution

Before you begin make sure you are clued up on working with WDS unattended files, run through my instructions here.

The following procedure needs to be added to the images unattended file NOT the WDS Unattended file, (again run through KB0000180 if you are unsure.)

1. While editing your unattended answerfile you need to locate, “Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral”, add it to pass 4 (Specialize) and set the ComputerName entry to * (an asterisk).

Note: In this section you can also enter to windows product code, and owner details, as well as your time zone.

2. Then locate, “Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin”, add it to pass 4 (Specialize). Set the JoinDomain entry to the name of your domain. Set UnsecureJoin to “true”.

4. This procedure will add the following to your unattended file.

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Windows Deployment Services (On Server 2008 R2) Deploying Windows 7

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Internet Explorer 10 – Cannot access OWA 2003

KB ID 0000718

Problem

At first I thought this was a problem with clients accessing OWA via VPN. That was until I saw it worked fine with Firefox and Chrome.

The page will not render correctly, and all the folders are listed as ‘Loading…’

Solution

There are two ways to fix this problem.

Option 1

1. Whilst attempting to view OWA, Press ALT+F > compatibility view settings.

2. Add in the IP address or URL of the Exchange servers OWA page.

Option 2

1. Whilst attempting to view OWA, Press F12 > change the browsers’ display mode to an earlier version.

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