Author: Andrew Armstrong

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Guide / Microsoft

How to create correct partitions to deploy a Windows image to a UEFI based device

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We have recently come across an issue when trying to deploy a test virtual machine using Hyper-V (Generation 2 – UEFI) that once you have selected your task sequence, you get an error and the task sequence bombs out. This is because we had not setup the correct drive partitions to be able to deploy using Generation 2 technology. To …

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Guide / Microsoft

Restart a service on multiple devices using Powershell

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We recently had a requirement to restart a single service on multiple devices across a single network. At first, it was going to be the job of the helpdesk to logon to each device and manually restart this service. However, as usual, there is always a way of using Powershell to speed up such tasks. Powershell Script This simple Powershell …

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Gaming / Microsoft / News

Xbox Live Gold Free Games for February 2018

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So it’s the start of a new month and Xbox Live Gold members can again download some free games! Not too bad a month this time with Assassin’s Creed and Crazy Taxi available, both pretty good games and worth a free download at least. The full set of available games in November are as below: Xbox One: Shadow Warrior – Available …

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System Center

SCCM – Create user collections based on Active Directory department attribute with Powershell

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We recently built a new Configuration Manager system for a client who wanted user collections for all departments and companies within their corporate group. We were going to set these up manually which is a fairly simple, but time consuming, job to do. But this was a time restricted installation so we had a quick Google and found an awesome …

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Guide / System Center

SCCM – Create a device collection based on Exchange Server role

by Andrew Armstrong - 2 Comments.

Following on from our recent posts for Configuration Manager collection queries, we have another one here for all devices that are Microsoft Exchange servers. Go ahead and create a new device collection and then use this query: select * from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_SERVICE on SMS_G_System_SERVICE.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_SERVICE.Name like “Microsoft Exchange%” Save the query and you should now …

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Guide / Microsoft

Enable Windows Remote Desktop Protocol and Set Firewall Rules using PowerShell

by Andrew Armstrong - 12 Comments.

If you are using Windows Server 2012 or newer, or if you are just using Windows Server Core, then this Powershell script will help you out by enabling Remote Desktop and setting the correct firewall inbound rules. Simply open up an elevated Powershell command box, or use Powershell ISE and use the two scripts below, one to enable Remote Desktop …

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Guide / System Center

SCCM – Create a device collection based on Domain Controller role

by Andrew Armstrong - 1 Comment

We have another WQL query here for you today to enable you to create a Configuration Manager collection based on whether a device is used as a domain controller. Go ahead and create a new device collection and then use this query: Save the query and you should now see a collection of all your domain controllers. Just be careful …

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Guide / System Center

SCCM – Hardware and Client Version SQL Query

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If you are looking for a SQL query to pull back hardware inventory information and the SCCM client version, then you can use the below to pull all this information together. SELECT S.Name0 as Name, S.Client_Version0 as [Cient Version], OS.Caption0 as [Operating System], CS.Manufacturer0 as Manufacturer, CS.Model0 as Model, PB.SMBIOSBIOSVersion0 as BIOS, PR.Name0 as CPU, SUM(PM.Capacity0) as Memory, SUM(LD.Size0)as [Disc …

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Guide / System Center

SCCM SQL Query for Software not in Add Remove Programs

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If you are looking for an SCCM SQL query to create a report to search for machines which do not have a particular software installed, you can use the following: Then you can use the variable @displayname to choose from a drop down of software that is in the SCCM database pulled from client machines. The query you can use …

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