Microsoft Store Will Let You Buy Surface Products - Take a Look!

It’s getting more and more clear that Microsoft will create a real “Microsoft Store” end to end. After change the store name from “Windows Store” to “Microsoft Store”, more than apps or games you’ll be able to buy almost everything from Microsoft, a new “trick” allows you to see what’s coming.

Just follow this quick and easy trick!

1. Open Run dialog box
2. Write down ms-windows-store://navigatetopage/?PageName=ShopSurface
3. And…take a look to all Surface Products you’ll be able to buy directly from Microsoft Store

VMware vSphere Web Client – Shockwave Stopped Working (Solved!)

It was noticed along the web and I’ve experienced this myself.

After updating Adobe Flash Player to 27.0.0.170 I couldn’t connect to vSphere Web Client (Flash version) with Google Chrome or Opera browsers.

You would get an “Shockwave Flash crash” similar to the one below:

Well, recently Adobe launched an update to Adobe Flash Player (27.0.0.183) that solves the issue.

You may also experience the same issue with Microsoft Edge. The new update that solves this issue.
Just run Windows Update or download the KB4049179 directly from Microsoft Update Catalog.

Win10 – What’s new for IT Pros in Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update)

Here’s a nice video from Microsoft about the new features of Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) with focus on things that IT Pros need to know:

What's New in Windows 10, version 1709 for IT Pros

GPOs – Administrative Templates for Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) Release

Well…this week of course is completely full of Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) downloads!

So here are the new group policy administrative templates (.admx) for the new Windows 10 release:
Microsoft - Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (1709)

Win10 Deploy – v1709 (Fall Creators Update) – You’ll Need to Change Your “RemoveApps” Script!

This new paradigm of Windows as a Service (Waas) really makes SysAdmins to change the way they work and also adapt really really quick.

Following the release of Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update), and if like me you use a Powershell script to remove provisioned apps during image deployment or golden image creation, you’ll notice…a lot of broken things on you script.

This happens because of changes on the apps version…so…or you create a more complex script that just looks for the beginning of the application string or you adapt your script to this new release.

So…you try to install you golden image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and you get the following error when finishing:

Now…don’t close this Window right yet. Instead, follow this steps:

1. Open a Powershell prompt
2. Execute the following command: Get-AppxPackage –Online > C:\Apps.txt
3. This will create a file called Apps.txt on you C: drive with all the installed/provisioned apps. It will be something similar to this:
   
4. Now you just need to copy/paste the updated “PackageName” to your script and everything works fine again.

Just a quick note to remember that for example Microsoft 3DBuilder app was removed from Windows 10 v1709 so you may completely remove that line from your script.

Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) Released

And again…following the wave of releases for Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update), Microsoft launched a new Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT).

Just be aware of this additional information in the download website about some issues you may encounter with this version:

Go ahead and download the new RSAT here:
Microsoft - Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10

GPOs Settings Reference Spreadsheet Updates for Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update)

Following Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) release, Microsoft updated their reference documents of Group Policy Settings.

These spreadsheets list the policy settings for computer and user configurations that are included in the Administrative template files delivered with the Windows operating systems specified. You can configure these policy settings when you edit Group Policy Objects.

Go ahead and download it here:
Microsoft Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows and Windows Server

Windows 10 – KB4043961 - Cumulative Update – October 17, 2017

And here’s the first cumulative update for Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update)!

This is Microsoft Windows 10 Cumulative Update October 17, 2017.
The quality update KB4043961 sets Windows 10 build to version 16299.19.

Improvements and Fixes

This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update. Key changes include:

• Addressed issue where, after removing apps, they're reinstalled on every restart, logoff, and login.
• Addressed issue where localization of the error output from a JET database is broken. Only English error strings are reported.
• Security updates to Windows kernel-mode drivers, Microsoft Graphics Component, Internet Explorer, Windows kernel, Microsoft Windows Search Component, Windows TPM, Windows NTLM, Device Guard, Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows Wireless Networking, Microsoft Windows DNS, Windows Server, Microsoft JET Database Engine, and the Windows SMB Server .

Download
You can download this cumulative update from Microsoft Update Catalog

Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) - Features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Like any other major release, or like it’s called nowadays, feature update, of Windows 10 there are some features that get removed or deprecated.

For Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) here’s the list of features that changed:
Microsoft Support - Features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Windows 10 1709 (Fall Creators Update) Changes to Media (ISO) on VLSC – ATTENTION!!

Microsoft Windows 10 1709 (a.k.a. Fall Creators Update a.k.a. FCU) was launched today.

Like on my previous post, you can download the installation media (ISO) from the usual relevant distribution channels: the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC), Windows Update for Business, Windows Server Update Services and Visual Studio Subscriptions (MSDN).

Now…for the ISOs that you download from VLSC or MSDN, you need to be aware on some changes.

Instead of separated media packages for each SKU (WIndows 10 Pro; Windows 10 Enterprise; Windows 10 Education), the Windows 10 v1709 that you download, will include in the ISO a single WIM file with all this version.

So, when using this ISO in tools such as Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) or Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) make sure you select the appropriate image index in you task sequence.

Here’s the index table for your reference and…save you some time:

Image Name	Index
Windows 10 Education	1
Windows 10 Education N	2
Windows 10 Enterprise	3
Windows 10 Enterprise N	4
Windows 10 Pro	5
Windows 10 Pro N	6

Windows 10 Enterprise 1709 (Fall Creators Update) Now Available on MVLSC

It’s now available for download the new Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise v1709 (a.k.a. Fall Creators Update a.k.a. FCU) through Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (MVLSC).

So go ahead to MVLSC website and download it today:
Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center

Tips&Tricks – Google Chrome MSI Offline Installers

It starts to be a common thing for an enterprise to give their users the possibility to have two browsers.
One for their business applications and and alternative for all the other browsing and usually this means Google Chrome, that by the way, it’s getting stronger on giving better IT resources like GPOs to better control their browser on an enterprise environment.

It’s than important that SysAdmins have MSI files or offline installers so the deployment of Google Chrome gets smoother.

Thinking on this, Google has available a website for everything you need to correctly deploy and manage Google Chrome on you enterprise:

Google Chrome for the Enterprise

On the above you’ll find resources like the offline installers for the latest versions of Google Chrome but also bundles with the browser itself, GPOs Administrative Templates, and more.

Enjoy!

Tips&Tricks – Adobe Software – New Releases RSS Feeds

You’re a SysAdmin and need a way to always be up-to-date with new releases of Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player?

Just subscribe to this 2 RSS feeds:

Adobe Reader Releases

Adobe Flash Player Releases

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update – Improved Formatting for Windows Update Log

I must say…finally!

For those that needed to get Windows Update log using powershell with the cmd-let “Get-WindowsUpdateLog” there was a really annoying issue to read this “compiled log”.

Basically what happened was that after you run the cmd-let, and you opened the log file you’ll noticed that the formatting was completely a mess typically because the symbols weren’t there. That was usually a temporary situation, waiting for the symbols to be uploaded to a server and indexed.

Well….but if, for example, you were troubleshooting a machine that need to be out of the network? Than you’ll never get the correct formatting for the log file unless you copied it to a connect machine.

Now, with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (v1710) or if you’re a Windows Insider with at least v1709, this issue was completely “fixed".
This means that running “Get-WindowsUpdateLog” you’ll automatically format the log file, without the need to have any network connection.

Here’s an example on how the log file looks with automatic formatting even without network:

Win10 – Windows as a Service – Wrap-Up and Resources

One of the most “dramatic” changes with Windows 10, specially for an enterprise, is the new (not so new now) Windows as a Service (Waas) model.

This basically means that Windows 10 is now on a continuous development, where users get feature and quality updates in a nice and defined timeline.

Feature Updates are deployed 2 times per year and does a in-place upgrade to the machine installing new features on Windows 10.

Quality Updates are monthly and cumulative updates for Windows 10 with no new features.
Just security updates; bug fixes; driver fixes; etc..

This new and continuous development presents a lot of new challenges for system administrators.
One of this challenges is to keep up with everything that changes on the Feature Updates and what’s fixed on the monthly Quality Updates.
There are a couple of things that should be done to anticipate issues and that’s have some users on the IT department as Windows Insiders so they can get the changes way before the corporate users.

Because there’s also a lot of information and things going on between this updates, it’s also important to have a centralized (well, in this case, various) points of information about the different releases and work in progress.

Here’s a list of important website to keep up-to-date with Windows 10 WaaS:

Windows 10 Roadmap

Windows 10 Update History

Windows 10 release information 

What's new in Windows 10

Windows 10 – KB4041676 - Cumulative Update – October 10, 2017

It’s now available the Microsoft Windows 10 Cumulative Update October 10, 2017.
The quality update KB4041676 sets Windows 10 build to version 15063.674.

Improvements and Fixes

• Addressed issue where some UWP and Centennial apps show a gray icon and display the error message "This app can't open" on launch.
• Addressed reliability issue that causes the AppReadiness service to stop working.
• Addressed issue where applications that use the Silverlight map stack stop working.
• Addressed issue where VSync prevents devices from entering Panel Self Refresh mode, which can lead to reduced battery life.
• Addressed issue where user customizations (like pinned tiles) made to an enforced partial Start layout are lost when upgrading to Windows 10 1703.
• Addressed issue where the Universal CRT caused the linker (link.exe) to stop working for large projects.
• Addressed issue that prevents Windows Error Reporting from saving error reports in a temporary folder that is recreated with incorrect permissions. Instead, the temporary folder is inadvertently deleted.
• Addressed issue where the MSMQ performance counter (MSMQ Queue) may not populate queue instances when the server hosts a clustered MSMQ role.
• Addressed issue with the token broker where it was leaking a token that caused sessions to remain allocated after logoff.
• Addressed issue where Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smart card PINs are not cached on a per-application basis. This caused users to see the PIN prompt multiple times in a short time period; normally, the PIN prompt only displays once.
• Addressed issue where using the Cipher.exe /u tool to update Data Recovery Agent (DRA) encryption keys fails unless user certification encryption already exists on the machine.
• Addressed issue where using AppLocker to block a Modern app fails. This issue occurs only with Modern apps that come pre-installed with Windows.
• Addressed issue with form submissions in Internet Explorer.
• Addressed issue with the rendering of a graphics element in Internet Explorer.
• Addressed issue that prevents an element from receiving focus in Internet Explorer.
• Addressed issue with the docking and undocking of Internet Explorer windows.
• Addressed issue caused by a pop-up window in Internet Explorer.
• Addressed issue where a Vendor API deleted data unexpectedly.
• Addressed issue where using the Robocopy utility to copy a SharePoint document library, which is mounted as a drive letter, fails to copy files. However, in this scenario, Robocopy will copy folders successfully.
• Addressed issue where MDM USB restrictions did not disable the USB port as expected.
• Addressed issue where creating an iSCSI session on a new OS installation may result in the "Initiator instance does not exist" error when attempting to connect to a target.
• Addressed issue where connecting to RDS applications published using Azure App Proxy fails. The error message is, “Your computer can’t connect to the Remote Desktop Gateway server. Contact your network administrator for assistance”. The error can occur when the RDP cookie size limit is exceeded. This update increased the size of the RDP cookie limit.

• Addressed issue where USBHUB.SYS randomly causes memory corruption that results in random system crashes that are extremely difficult to diagnose.

• Addressed issue that affects the download of some games from the Microsoft Store during the pre-order phase. Download fails with the error code 0x80070005, and the device attempts to restart the download from the beginning.

• Addressed issue where the ServerSecurityDescriptor registry value does not migrate when you upgrade to Windows 10 1703. As a result, users might not be able to add a printer using the Citrix Print Manager service. Additionally, they might not be able to print to a client redirected printer, a Citrix universal print driver, or a network printer driver using the Citrix universal print driver.

• Security updates to Microsoft Windows Search Component, Windows kernel-mode drivers, Microsoft Graphics Component, Internet Explorer, Windows kernel, Microsoft Edge, Windows Authentication, Windows TPM, Device Guard, Windows Wireless Networking, Windows Storage and Filesystems, Microsoft Windows DNS, Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows Server, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Microsoft JET Database Engine, and the Windows SMB Server.

Download
You can download this cumulative update from Microsoft Update Catalog