Category: Microsoft Windows 10

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit – Unable to Open the Specified WIM File

January 15, 2020
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013Microsoft Windows 10

When updating the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) you may receive the following error:

=== Making sure the deployment share has the latest x86 tools ===

=== Processing LiteTouchPE (x86) boot image ===

Building requested boot image profile.

System.Management.Automation.CmdletInvocationException: Unable to open the specified WIM file. —> System.Exception: Unable to open the specified WIM file. —> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the path specified
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at Microsoft.BDD.Core.BDDWimFile..ctor(String wimPath, Boolean forUpdate)
at Microsoft.BDD.PSSnapIn.UpdateDeploymentPoint.UpdateBootImage(String template, String platform, String dpPath, Boolean createISO, String isoName)
at Microsoft.BDD.PSSnapIn.UpdateDeploymentPoint.ProcessRecord()
at System.Management.Automation.CommandProcessor.ProcessRecord()
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.PipelineBase.Invoke(IEnumerable input)
at Microsoft.BDD.Wizards.UpdateProgress.WizardProcessing()
at Microsoft.BDD.Wizards.WizardProgress.InitiateWizardProcessing()

Since you already have the Windows ADK installed you will need to download and install the Windows PE add-on for the ADK (link here). Once the Windows PE add-on for the ADK has been installed you will be able to successfully update the MDT deployment share.

Microsoft Active Directory – Trust Relationship Failure with Primary Domain

November 4, 2019
AutomationMicrosoft Active DirectoryMicrosoft Windows 10Microsoft Windows PowerShellMicrosoft Windows Server 2016Scripting

If you’ve worked with Microsoft Active Directory, then it’s very likely you’ve seen the following error message while trying to login to a server or workstation using domain credentials: “The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed.”

Typically, this is resolved by removing the server or workstation from the domain then rejoining it to the domain. However, the Reset-ComputerMachinePassword cmdlet may be used to change the computer account password that the computer uses to authenticate to domain controllers in the domain. For example, you may use the following syntax: Reset-ComputerMachinePassword -Server DC01 -Credential DOMAIN\– USER. As this is an example, you’ll need to substitute the DC01 field with a domain controller in your Microsoft Active Directory domain. Additionally, you’ll need to substitute the DOMAIN\– USER field with the domain and username of a user in your Microsoft Active Directory domain.

I believe this solution is preferable due to the fact that the Microsoft Active Directory computer object continues to use the same SID, remains in the appropriate OU, and remains in any necessary groups.

More information on this cmdlet may be found here.

Notepad++ – Make Themes Visible to Non Admin Users

November 4, 2019
Microsoft Windows 10Notepad++

After install Notepad++ you may notice that the themes in the Style Configurator dialog box are only accessible to the administrator account that installed the application. If would like to make the themes available for a separate users then copy the following folder to the profile of the additional user (assuming the Administrator account was used to install Notepad++).

C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\themes

Amazon Web Services – Verify AWS CLI Installation

October 21, 2019
Amazon Web ServicesAutomationAWS Command Line InterfaceMicrosoft Windows 10Microsoft Windows PowerShellMicrosoft Windows Server 2016Scripting

You may use the following link to receive instructions on installing the AWS CLI. Additionally, to verify the installation, navigate to C:\Program Files\Amazon\AWSCLI for x64 operating systems and C:\Program Files (x86)\Amazon\AWSCLI for x86 operating systems.

Lastly, you may verify the version of the AWS CLI using the aws –version command from a Windows Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell session.

Microsoft Windows PowerShell – View Reboot and Uptime

May 11, 2019
AutomationMicrosoft Windows 10Microsoft Windows PowerShellMicrosoft Windows Server 2016Scripting

The Microsoft Windows PowerShell script below will query a Windows hosts for the time it was rebooted and the time it completed it’s reboot.

<#
.SYNOPSIS
This script will request the hostname of a server then provide the time it was shutdown and completed it’s reboot.
.DESCRIPTION
This script will request the hostname of a server then provide the time it was shutdown and completed it’s reboot.
.EXAMPLE
N/A.
.AUTHOR
Written by Noel Enrique Alvarez on Friday, May 10, 2019.
#>

#Request the hostname of the server
$HOSTNAME = Read-Host “What is the hostname of the server?”

#Message
Write-Host The date and time below indicate the time the server was shutdown -ForegroundColor Green

#Provide the uptime of the server
Get-EventLog -Logname System -ComputerName $HOSTNAME | Where-Object {$_.EventID -EQ 6006} | Select-Object -First 1

#Message
Write-Host The date and time below indicate the uptime of the server -ForegroundColor Green

#Provide the uptime of the server
Get-EventLog -Logname System -ComputerName $HOSTNAME | Where-Object {$_.EventID -EQ 6005} | Select-Object -First 1

#End of script

Microsoft Windows PowerShell – Get Host Architecture

May 11, 2019
ArchitectureMicrosoft Windows 10Microsoft Windows PowerShellMicrosoft Windows Server 2016ScriptingVMware ESXi 5.5VMware ESXi 6.0VMware ESXi 6.5VMware vCenter Server 5.0VMware vCenter Server 6.5VMware vSphere 5.0VMware vSphere 6.0VMware vSphere 6.5

You may use the following Microsoft Windows PowerShell script below to get the architecture, physical or virtual, of a Windows host on a network.

<#
.SYNOPSIS
This script will provide the architure (physical of virtual) of a host.
.DESCRIPTION
This script will provide the architure (physical of virtual) of a host.
.EXAMPLE
systeminfo /s $HOSTNAME | findstr /c:”Model:” /c:”Host Name”
.AUTHOR
Written by Noel Enrique Alvarez on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.
#>

#Requst the hostname of the host
$HOSTNAME = Read-Host “What is the hostname of the server?”

#Provide the architure of the host
systeminfo /s $HOSTNAME | findstr /c:”Model:” /c:”Host Name”

Microsoft Windows 10 – False Duplicate IP Address Detected

May 11, 2019
CiscoMicrosoft Windows 10NetworkVMware ESXi 6.5VMware vCenter Server 6.5VMware vSphere 6.5

At my existing employer, it was brought to my attention that a number of VMware virtual machines running the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system were randomly dropping off the network, upon reboot. Viewing the properties of the network adapter confirmed that they were assigned static IP addresses. However, running ipconfig from the command prompt showed that they were assigned 169.254.x.x IP addresses.

Upon reviewing the logs I found the following error message: “The system detected an address conflict for IP address 0.0.0.0 with the system having network hardware address XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX. Network operations on this system may be disrupted as a result.” The XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX is the MAC address of a Cisco switch.

In summary, the root cause of this is Windows 10 performing an ARP probe at the time as the Cisco switch performing an ARP probe in order to maintain the IP device-tracking cache during IP device tracking. The Windows 10 host believes another node on the network is probing the address it’s assigned and must treat it as an IP address conflict.

The solution is to disable gratuitous ARPs on the switch or in the Windows 10 operating system. We chose to disable the gratuitous ARP in the Windows 10 operating system.

Additionally, more information may be found using the links below.