Month: March 2010

Windows

Windows update: Install at night

In order to keep my users from getting windows update messages, I try to install any client updates at night. I have a few tricks to make this possible:

1: Boot up at night

Most computers can boot up automatically at night, using Wake-On-LAN. If your computer or its NIC does not support WOL, you can use the bios' power management to boot at night.

Don't start all computers at the exact same time, as this will result in a power peak - better spread it, like 5 computers per minute.

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© GeekLabInfo Windows update: Install at night is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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IT

Windows update: Force update right now

I use the following script batch file to force Windows Updates or the WSUS client to start the update process:

@echo off
rem Stop the Windows update service:
net stop wuauserv
rem Delete registry keys that store information about the last update.
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v LastWaitTimeout /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v DetectionStartTime /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v NextDetectionTime /f
rem Start the Windows update service:
net start wuauserv
rem Force detection of updates
wuauclt /detectnow
rem Sleep 4 seconds so you can read messages:
ping localhost >nul

© GeekLabInfo Windows update: Force update right now is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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Windows

Schedule Windows server to reboot or shutdown

Yesterday, I installed an update on a Windows server that could not be rebooted during the day. To apply the update, I scheduled a reboot of the server in the evening.

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© GeekLabInfo Schedule Windows server to reboot or shutdown is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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IT

KB953297 installation fails – working solution!

I just described that KB974417 fails to install on a few of my clients. Well, so does KB953297.

Unforunately, I don't have error messages for this update. But I can tell how I fixed it:

The fix

Trying to install NDP1.1sp1-KB953297-X86.exe, I got the message that the software we're updating is not installed. It most definitely was. I just downloaded NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-X86.exe and installed it right over the existing installation. After that, KB953297 was successfully deployed.

© GeekLabInfo KB953297 installation fails - working solution! is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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Windows

KB974417 install fails – working solution!

Please read this updated article instead.
This page remains available for archiving purposes.

I recently installed a new Microsoft WSUS server. Most of it went just fine. Except for a few updates that weren't needed according to windowsupdate.com, but were required according to WSUS.

Especially KB974417 was pretty annoying. I tried installing it a dozen times, but after each reboot, WAU came back telling the update was ready to install. I checked out the eventvwr, and got the following useless message:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: HotFixInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5000
Date: 3/16/2010
Time: 3:06:25 PM
User: N/A
Computer: PC1
Description:
EventType visualstudio8setup, P1 microsoft .net framework 2.0-kb974417, P2 1033, P3 1642, P4 msi, P5 f, P6 9.0.40302.0, P7 install, P8 x86, P9 w2k3r2, P10 0.

Installing it manually

I downloaded the file from the Microsoft website, to find that the update itself thought itwasn't needed as well: None of the products that are addressed by this software update are installed on this computer. Click Cancel to exit setup.

So what I did:

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© GeekLabInfo KB974417 install fails - working solution! is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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IT

Right-click in Firefox

A lot of websites use the right mouse button for some menu function. For instance, in Google maps, the right click is used to set destination points. Google apps uses the right click to add/remove rows/columns from the spreadsheet.

When I right-clicked, my Firefox displayed it's own menu right over the Google menu. Why?

Well, back in ±2002, when I started to use Firefox, then still named "Phoenix", a lot of sites tried to block "view source" by blocking the right mouse button. I must have configured Firefox to forbid blocking, and this config hasn't changed ever since.

Simple method

On my current version of Firefox, re-enabling sites to block right-click is configured in:
Edit » Preferences » Content tab » Advanced (right to "Enable JavaScript") » Check: Disable or replace context menus

Advanced method

Another method to switch blocking of context menu's is through about:config. This is mostly for experts and extension programmers.
dom.event.contextmenu.enabled=true = allow blocking the firefox context menu (default)
dom.event.contextmenu.enabled=false = disallow blocking the firefox context menu

© GeekLabInfo Right-click in Firefox is a post from GeekLab.info. You are free to copy materials from GeekLab.info, but you are required to link back to http://www.geeklab.info

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