Eugene Valley's Blog

Powershell Transcription in Task Sequences

Eugene Valley — Thu, 23 May 2013 06:35:00 GMT

Recently, we were trying to take a look at transcription logs for a Powershell script that was configured to run in a Task Sequence. Interestingly, when you run a Powershell script in a task sequence with transcription enabled, instead of creating the log where you specify, the logging is actually intercepted and published to the smsts.log. This is fine, except, we were trying to generate logs that would be used by another team that isn't especially interested in the rest of the data in the smsts.log. So, here is what we did to get the transcription logging to actually dump into a specified file.

- Create a new package that contains my Powershell script

- Create a program with a command line that looks something like this:

cmd /c Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -NoProfile -File transcribe.ps1

The syntax we used in the Powershell script looks something like this:

# Start logging

Start-Transcript –path c:\transcribe.log

# Stuff

Write-Host “We are logging to c:\”

# Stop logging

Stop-Transcript

And, here is what the output looks like:

Client Restart Notifications with Configuration Manager 2012

Eugene Valley — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:11:16 GMT

A while back, my colleague Terry McKinney created a blog post that talks about System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and client machine restart notifications after applying Software Updates. The steps Terry outlines hide the balloon notifications, however, the system restart icon will still appear in the system tray. After speaking with Terry, he provided me with more details into the workaround. He will probably be updating his blog post, as well. Keep in mind that these steps will disable all Configuration Manager client notifications.

So, to disable all notifications, follow these steps:

1. In the Configuration Manager Admin Console, set the User Experience\User Notifications configuration setting for the deployment to "Hide in Software Center and all notifications"

2. Set the User Experience\Device Restart behavior configuration setting to “Suppress the system restart for both Servers and Workstations.”

Next, we'll need to set some policies...

NOTE Best practice discourages unnecessary editing of the Default Domain Policy.

Domain Policy
User Configuration
Policies
Admin templates
Start Menu and Taskbar
Set "Turn off all Balloon Notifications" to "Enabled"

Local policy on Win 7 (New setting for Windows 7):

Domain Policy
User Configuration
Policies
Admin templates
Start Menu and Taskbar
Set "Turn off automatic promotion of notifications to the taskbar" to "Enabled"

Here's the extra bit that will prevent the notification icon from appearing in the system tray:
This involves setting a software restriction on SCNotification.exe:

Domain Policy
Computer Configuration
Policies
Windows Settings
Security Settings
Software Restriction Policies
Additional Rules

Add a path rule - path to SCnotification.exe

Add a hash rule - browse to and select SCnotification.exe; the hash values will be detected and added

Since SCNotification.exe runs at startup, you'll probably want to restart the client so that the policies update and SCNotification.exe stops running and these changes take effect.

Thanks to Terry for providing these steps!!!

Don't forget to enable your classes for AI reports.

Eugene Valley — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:11:45 GMT

Just a reminder that you need to remember to enable Hardware Inventory Classes to run those snazzy Asset Intelligence reports in Configuration Manager 2012...

I really want to know what my users have installed!

Ensure that Hardware Inventory is enabled.

Enable the classes.

Go big or go...umm, not so big.

Wait for Hardware Inventory to run and then...Success!

Task Sequence Time Zone Fun

Eugene Valley — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:24:00 GMT

I recently had a situation where we were looking for a way to set time zones on Windows 7 clients during Operating System Deployment. While there are certainly many different ways to accomplish this, our case was a little different. We were deploying to unknown machines that could be in any number of time zones, so, using a Task Sequence variable wouldn't have been as dynamic as we wanted. The Domain Controllers, OU's, collections, etc... weren't always in the same time zone, either, so, we couldn't base our solution on any of these. We decided that, in this scenario, the best way to determine the time zone would be to base it on whatever DHCP server the client was using, as that was the only unique service we definitely knew each location had. So, here is an example of how we can use a VB script that will pull the time zone data from the client's DHCP server and set it locally. We can place this script in a Task Sequence and run it using an account that has rights to read the SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation key on the DHCP servers. Of course, this is just an example, you should always work out logic and test before implementing any solution. :)

' ***set local machine variable
strComputer = "."

' ***Find DHCP Server
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\Cimv2") 
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Where Not DHCPServer Like '255%'")
For Each objItem in colItems
If objItem.DHCPEnabled = True Then

' ***Get Registry Key Value From DHCP Server
const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Set StdOut = WScript.StdOut
Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" &_ 
objItem.DHCPServer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
strKeyPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation"
strValueName = "TimeZoneKeyName"
oReg.GetExpandedStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath,_
strValueName,strValue

' ***Set Time Zone on Local Machine
 Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")  
 WshShell.Run  "c:\windows\system32\tzutil.exe /s " & """" & strValue & """"

' ***It's a Trap!
Else 
MsgBox "DHCP Is Not Enabled - A Static IP Configured"
End If
Next

TimeZone.txt