Support is >Here<

In most cases, my customer base have decided to install Open Office applications outside of their base images.  The silent installations are fairly simple, because the install files are provided in .MSI format. Applying custom settings after a clean installation need to also be addressed.  I found this was also fairly simple.  All of the settings changed are made to the files stored in the following folder: Windows 7: “C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org”  [ Read More ]

I build all of my Core images in Virtual Machine environments.  There are many benefits of doing this, which I’ll leave for another article.  However, some cons exist; such as the ability to change settings only related to portable computers in the core image prior to capture.  Due to this limitation, I need to set this setting Post-Image.  Unfortunately, Windows XP’s “powercfg.exe” built-in utility does not have this setting available.   [ Read More ]

In some cases when drivers are downloaded from the web, they are tagged as “Downloaded Files” in their File Streams and warnings appear on startup.  This can be cleared by using the SysInternals Streams utility. It is very simple to use, run it against the root directory of where the drivers are stored and let it recurse and delete all of the streams “-s –d”. Download URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897440

One of the best discoveries I’ve made over the 15 years of experience in IT, was finding and learning how to use SysInternals Free Resources.  They have a plethora of tools all available for free, complements of Microsoft purchasing them a couple of years back.  I will highlight the ZoomIt utility in this article. Tool: ZoomIt URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434 Downloaded in .zip format, it comes in a single .EXE file, which  [ Read More ]

I recently ran into an XP custom image which did not cooperate with Sysprep in any shape or form.  The customer simply wanted the image migrated to another model laptop.  To perform this procedure I used the following tools: MS 07B Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082/ 1. Hirens Boot CD (UltimateBootCD also has the needed tools) transferred to USB Stick ( http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk ). 2. All Required Drivers/Applications for Target System. Procedure: 1. Remove all  [ Read More ]