Unnecessary display languages can use a huge chunk of disk space. According to Microsoft, “Having too many affects disk space, and can affect performance, especially while updating and servicing Windows.” In my own experience, language packs can take as much as 20-25GB of disk space. There are a lot of resources about installing and removing […]
Category: Administration
N-central MSP Connect Option Grayed Out
On occasion, the MSP Connect function will cease to exist. No going away note. No mint on the pillow. It’s just gone. The Remote Control button is a lifeless gray: The MSP Connect option is gone from the drop-down menu: All the other functions appear to be working. The CPU and memory usage monitors appear […]
Getting the Model Number from a Command-line
This is a handy way to get the model of your computer from the command line. Should work on most systems: wmic csproduct get name This can be useful in a number of situations: Finding the model number on a remote computer where you can’t physically look for the model You don’t want to open […]
“Windows could not complete the installation” Error – HOME Edition
This article is specifically aimed at users of Windows Home Edition. This is intended to help you fix the error that reads, “Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation.” At the error message, do the following: Press SHIFT+F10 to open the command prompt Type net user administrator <password> […]
Remotely Modifying the Registry Using Regedit
This is one of my favorite tricks. I use this trick when someone’s Adobe suddenly decides to update so aggressively that the computer slows to a crawl. Or when Java keeps prompting to update even though auto updates are disabled. You can easily connect to the machine, make the change and the user never needs […]
Enable Remote Registry Access
By default, Windows does not allow remote access to the registry. To access the registry remotely you’ll first need start the Remote Registry service. There are multiple ways to achieve this; we’ll cover three ways here: Manually start the service (good option when building an image, not so good if the device is already remote) […]
UPDATED: “Windows could not complete the installation” Error After Joining a Domain During SysPrep
If you’re here, I’m sorry. You must be wearing quite a frown. The good news is that this error can be resolved, and without much trouble. While preparing an image you may get an error when you restart Windows that reads, “Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the […]
Querying Windows for the IMEI Number on a Local or Remote Computer
This trick should work to get the IMEI number of your WWAN device. This is useful in the event that you don’t want to remove the battery to find the IMEI sticker. Or you already removed the battery and the sticker isn’t there 🙁 Or maybe you just need to get the number from a machine in […]
Disable Lenovo System Update Automatic Updating
If you need to disable System Update scheduled updates on a single machine, you can easily do this manually. Open System Update and then click Schedule updates under the “Advanced” section. Uncheck the box “Enable monthly check for updates”. Congratulations! Your box-unchecking skills are impeccable. If you need to modify a machine remotely or disable updates […]
Status Errors in Nagios
I seem to have a habit of using overly complicated tools to do simple things. I’m using HylaFAX to deliver the fax for a single number to a single email address (a topic for another time) and now I’m using Nagios to basically ping a single Windows server. Well, it’s not about the destination but […]