Manage Oracle DB users
To manage an Oracle DB user account use the commands listed below. Change user account password:ALTER USER username IDENTIFIED BY new_password; Lock and unlock a user account:ALTER USER username ACCOUNT UNLOCK;ALTER USER username ACCOUNT UNLOCK; Force user to change password at next logon:ALTER USER username PASSWORD EXPIRE; Drop a user…
Keep drivers after SYSPREP
Before running SYSPREP set the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Settings\sppnp Create new DWORD with name “PersistAllDeviceInstalls” and set value to 1.
Completely Disable UAC
To completely disable User Account Control on a Windows machine set the following registry key. Key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System Value: “EnableLUA” Type: REG_DWORD Value: 0x00000000 The following powershell command does the trick nicely: Set-ItemProperty -Path registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -Name EnableLUA -Value 0 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc232765.aspx?tduid=(8b33f2bee35cf8af0da845c7fe4d2393)(256380)(2459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-rp6Qh8nm5xnZwnOhPE.33Q)()
Add drivers to Windows Installation Media
When installing Windows 7 onto newer, or special, hardware, you may need to add drivers to the Windows installation ISO. You may also need to add USB3 drivers to an installation ISO if you’re planning to install the OS from a bootable USB stick. In the example below, I’m working…
WatchGuard SSLVPN Certificate Issue
I have just recently replaced an old WatchGuard XTM300 with a new WatchGuard M200 firewall at one of our facilities. Immediately after the switch we noticed that the SSLVPN connections were failing. In the client log files we found the error “Failed to get domain name.” After a bit of…
Driver Backup
A quick tip to manually backup installed drivers on a Windows computer. Copy the following directories to a secondary drive (USB, etc.): – %systemroot%\System32\DriverStore\ – %systemroot%\System32\Drivers\ – %systemroot%\System32\DrvStore\ *not all installations will have this directory* – %systemroot%\inf\
WSUS Certificate Server
During an install of the WSUS role on a Server 2012 R2 machine, the WSUS Certficate Server service was somehow set to start automatically. The WSUS Certificate Server is called by the API when a certificate-based operation is required. So, when the Operating System tried to start this service automatically,…
Config Manager Software Update Point Issues
For the last few weeks we’ve been suffering from numerous error messages on our SCCM 2012 R2 Software Update Point. I knew they were all somehow related but it took quite a while to figure out how they were all linked together. I first noticed that the SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER component was…
Get Embeded Windows Key From UEFI BIOS
Run the following command from the Windows command prompt. wmic path softwarelicensingservice get oa3xoriginalproductkey
VMware Auto update of VM Tools
/S /v”/qn REBOOT=R”