Tag Archives: updates

Hard Drive Full?

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KB ID 0000012

Problem

The fact that I’m going back to re-write article 0000012, should tell you this is an omnipresent problem! Either very suddenly, or slowly over time you have a drive or a volume that’s full to bursting point. These days with laptops which have smaller SSD drives it’s a common problem.

I’ve seen literally hundreds of post in forums, most of them are answered with ‘Use WinDirStat’, or ‘Use TreeSize’. Techies seem to be a fan of one or the other, and stick with the tool that’s served them best.

What If There’s No Room To Install Either Of these?

Good point, then you can use PowerShell, I’ll cover that below also. Well I said everyone has a favourite solution, here’s mine,

WinDirStat

My weapon of choice, install it and give it the drive you want to analyse;

When it’s finished, you will see something like this;

So you get a graphical representation of the drive, and you can see TWO things straight away, firstly you can spot large files, click on them and it will tell you what they are. Secondly it groups ‘Types’ of files together, if you just look at folder sizes it can be misleading e.g. The ‘red’ files above are my MP3 Collection, I know that folder is massive and I expect it to have a lot of stuff in it. But in some cases this is great! e.g. If your IIS server is churning out logs and theres a folder with millions of them in it, you will spot it straight away.

Why Do I Prefer This? I prefer the graphical front end, I can send a screen shot to client, and they understand what’s happening, and it’s always been free. (There is a free version of TreeSize in fairness). I just like this one.

TreeSize

Once you’ve installed simply select the drive in question,

You can then drill down folders which are sized based on usage. One thing I do like about TreeSize is, it knows the difference between file size and actual size, and you can swap views accordingly. But I’ve included it here so every-time I post this article link in a forum, you can see both and make your own mind up.

PowerShell

This is really a PowerShell version of using the same approach TreeSize uses. You need a PowerShell plugin called PSFolderSize, then simply navigate to the the drive in question and run Get-FolderSize.

[box]

Install-Module PSFoldersize
cd {Drive-Letter}:
Get-FolderSize

[/box]

You can then drill down {cd folder-name} one at a time repeating the same command.

 

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Windows – System Hung applying updates ‘Stage 3 of 3 Preparing to configure Windows…’

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KB ID 0000640

Problem

I installed a classroom full of PC’s today, after setting them all updating, and rebooting, I went to lunch, and came back to find them all displaying this,

Stage 3 of 3
Preparing to configure Windows.
Don't turn off your computer.

I went and did another room, came back, and there was no change.

Solution

It turns out this is a known problem if you are installing KB2533552, to get round the problem simply press CTRL+ALT+DELETE, and you will be presented with the login page.

Microsoft recommend you install the above update separately.

Note: It will affect both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.

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Server 2012 – Install Role or Feature Fails with Error 0x800f082f

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KB ID 0000873 

Problem

Seen here on Windows server 2012, but can also happen on Windows 8. When attempting to add a server role, or feature. The process may fail and produce the above error.

Note: Here I’m attempting to add .Net 3.5, but it can happen for any role, role service, or feature.

The request to add or remove features on the specified server failed.
Installation
of one or more roles, role services, or features failed. Error: 0x800f082f

Solution

Although it looks pretty serious, this happens because the machine either needs to reboot to finish applying updates, or finish an earlier role, role service, or feature installation. Reboot the machine and try again.

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Managing Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) with Microsoft Group Policy (GPO)

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KB ID 0000604

Problem

FEP is Microsoft’s offering for antivirus, try to think of it as the corporate version of Security Essentials. Just about everything on the net for managing it seems to be geared to managing it with SCCM. Which is fine if you have SCCM, but what if you don’t? Thankfully you can manage it with group policy, even if information on how to do it is rarer than hens teeth!

With a Microsoft CoreCAL you can use the FEP client, so if you already have CoreCALs, then it’s a solution that can save you some cash on your corporate AV strategy.

Solution

Installing Forefront Endpoint Protection

The client software is available in x64 and x86 bit flavours, it is installed from a single executable (FEPInstall.exe). There is no MSI installer (yeah thanks Microsoft!) So if you want to roll it out on mass, you need to either install it using a startup script, include the software in your ‘Master/Golden Image’ and re-image you machines, or tear your hair out trying to work out SCCM.

Managing Forefront Endpoint Protection with Group Policy

1. First you need to download the policy definitions, copy the FEP2010.admx file to %Systemroot%PolicyDefinitions.

2. Then copy the FEP2010.adml file to %Systemroot%PolicyDefinitionsEN-US

Creating a Group Policy Central Store

3. If you have all your ADMX policy definitions in a central location, all your clients can use them. The correct place for them is in the sysvol directory, in a folder called policies (this is where your clients read their group policies from). To create the directory issue the following command;

[box]MD “%logonserver%sysvol%userdnsdomain%policiesPolicyDefinitions”[/box]

4. Now copy all your policy files into it, (from the folder we used earlier) with the following command;

[box]xcopy %systemroot%policydefinitions*.* “%logonserver%sysvol%userdnsdomain%policiesPolicyDefinitions” /S /Y[/box]

5. Then either create a new policy, or edit an existing one that’s linked to the COMPUTER objects you want to manage.

6. Navigate to;

[box]Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010[/box]

Here you will find the policy settings you require.

7. When you are controlling settings via GPO this is what you will see on the client machines.

Importing and Exporting Forefront Policy Settings

8. From the files you extracted earlier locate and run the FEP2010GPTool.exe. From here you can import and export all the policy settings from a particular group policy. Microsoft have published a set of policy settings which you can download for various server roles.

Note: By default each policy you import will merge with the existing settings in the GPO, unless you tick the “clear the existing Forefront Endpoint Protection settings before import” option.

Updates for Forefront Endpoint Protection

9. Windows uses it’s existing ‘Windows updates’ path for getting updates. If you have a WSUS server you will need to enable the updates in the ‘Products and Classifications’ section.

10. If you DONT have WSUS but you are behind a proxy, you can manage FEP proxy settings from the following policy.

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