AlexSemi's Blog

Another custom query and a function for me. Basically, IP address is a mutivalue property, and sometimes discovery finds supernets if it can't figure out the subnet mask. That means, if you break your 10.0.0.0 subnet, it still assumes class A network...

One of most useful reports is Administrative Security > Administrative users security assignments. It shows you Configuration Manager administrative users with rights, assigned to them. The only problem with that report, is that it shows you only...

After looking at a couple of reports / SQL queries for Lenovo models, I realized that they have some drawbacks. Lenovo stores its model in a different class, called Win32_ComputerSystemProduct and the name for the field is "Version". So, for SCCM,...

Here is the script, that will find all groups computer belongs to and if they start with some special prefix (defined in the code as AD_GROUP_PREFIX constant), it will take a description, that's using the same format as a base variable for Install Software...

You may run in a situation, when LoadState captures the same profile two or more times. This happens if there are two or more SIDs under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList have a value for ProfileImagePath pointing...

I converted reports I created for CM 2007 to 2012 format: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alex_semi/archive/2012/03/19/one-old-and-2-new-compliance-reports.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

Remember " Compliance Report, break down by months "? I created two child reports - one shows break down of patches released specifies month with compliance and if you click on patch it will show you the list of incompliant patches. Plus I changed...

Update. As Avi pointed out in comments to this post, my script does not handle root directories that invalid in Windows FileSystem space, because FSO does not see them when enumerating. I changed it to call of "DIR" command. And now I just delete them...

Hi! How many times you have been looking for SMSTS.LOG checking all possible locations, finally finding the wrong version, because time in Win PE is off? Finally, the pain is over! Attached script, ZTITrace32.wsf will open them for you automatically...

Next version to http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alex_semi/archive/2011/12/15/increase-cm-cache-and-clean-it.aspx Now the script goes to WMI, and checks, if each cached package required by any of mandatory assignment, and if it’s in a future, or recurring...

Sometimes it's hard to accommodate all needed packages in SCCM cache, so admins usually increase the size of the cache to a few gigabytes. Since SCCM does not clean cache unless it needs to fit some new packages, you will end up with old versions of packages...

Update - I've found a bug and fixed it. Now you can call this script from PE in OS Refresh scenario as well. The well known name in Deployment world, Johan Arwidmark wrote an excelent article on adding remote control to MDT/SCCM Boot...

Recently, I asked Michael Niehaus would it be a good idea to send Events, that normally go to EventShare, to SCCM as a status message. Michael's response was that the challenge was Windows PE. But still, if you're using MDT Scripting framework for...

Instead of maintaining endless Update Lists with patches from each month, I created this custom report, breaking down by Months. Creterias: 1. Category: Security patches 2. Prodcuts: All 3. Severity: Critical and Important 4. One missing...

Creating faster OEM Images with OSD and MDT. Introduction OEM scenario is where you prepare the reference computer and duplicate the hard drive using any tool or hardware duplicator. Microsoft offers two products to accomplish OEM image creation...

Sometimes it may be usefull to see when the last time computer account contacted domain, so you could see which records are old and long time gone. First you need to add an attribute to AD discovery. Go to site management, open your site, Site Settings...

It's always a good idea to have Trace32.exe copied to every computer to be able to take a look on the logs, and I usually do it by adding it to the image copying it to \$OEM$\$$ under deployment share, so it's always in %WINDIR% on any computer. Plus...

ZTIWindowsUpdate.wsf is the script that goes to Microsoft Update or internal WSUS server and install all approved updates from there. It is a part of automated image build process I've been creating for all of my customers. In MDT 2010 this script...

Script to add some packages to all distribution points As your SCCM hierarchy grows, you might found that you spend more and more time adding packages to new distribution points. In SCCM, for BDP, there is a way to add a package automatically. ...

It's always been challenging to choose either to check "Hide all deployments from end users" in "Software Updates Client Agent Properties". If you decide to suppress it - you won't be able to patch the computers manually. It may be challenging for servers...

Here is an SCCM report, that takes computer name and shows all collections that computer belongs to Query used in this report: select C . Name0 , B . CollectionID , B . Name from v_ClientCollectionMembers A , v_Collection B , v_R_System C...

After you have fixed the problem with scanstate.exe can't access down level manifests, ( http://blogs.msdn.com/alex_semi/archive/2009/12/10/when-upgrading-or-reinstalling-windows-xp-to-windows-7-using-usmt-4-0-to-migrate-system-and-user-state-settings...

Update: MDT 2010 Update 1 addresses this issue. Frank Rojas came up with much simpler idea of just adding an extra step to the task sequence, here is how: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/archive/2010/02/10/solution-when-using-usmt-4...

BUG: when after implementing this solution the customsettings.ini is not getting processed. Download updated version. Uninstall old one before installing this one. Recently, I was moving my customer from MDT to OSD with MDT extensions, and I was puzzled...

As you could notice at this post by Michael Niehaus, on a back there is a big "dos" window with a script being running. This happens because OSD always runs windows scripts in pre-exec hook with CSCRIPT.EXE, even if you specify WSCRIPT.EXE in the...