23 January 2013

ERROR, application GUID not found in application list

If your MDT build give the above error at the end of a build, the issue is more than likely caused by a residual GUID left over in another application's dependencies, in which the dependency was deleted.



To fix this, you will have to edit the Applications.xml file within the control folder. I highly suggest opening this file up with XML Editor 2007. It makes editing an XML a snap. Once you have the XML editor open, do a ctrl+F and type in the GUID from the error screen. Click Find Next.



Once it finds the GUID, it will expand the element as shown here:



You now click on the Dependency folder associated with this GUID and delete it. Be sure to search again for the same GUID as it might be in multiple locations as shown here:


You do the same thing to delete this GUID out. I also did the same from the second error listed above.

NOTE: Make sure you backup the Applications.xml file before editing it!

Rearranging the Driver Folders in MDT

The drivers folders in MDT do not alphabetize as you add new ones. It just adds the new folder at the bottom of the list. There is a simple way to rearrange the folders. MDT is controlled by XML files. You will need to navigate to the control folder. Once in there, you will open up the DriverGroups.xml file. I would highly suggest opening up this file in XML Notepad 2007, as it will make moving groups drastically easier.

Presorted List



Once you have the XML open in XML Notepad, go to edit-->Find and then type in the computer model you want to move in the list. It will automatically find the group it is under and display it. Next, go to edit-->Find and type the computer model you want to move the item underneath. Now that both are expanded, go back to the model that you want to move and highlight the group folder. Click the up-arrow button on the button bar to start moving the group folder up. Continue clicking this until you are underneath the desired location, which should be the second computer model you searched for. Click save at the top and you are finished. You will need to relaunch MDT to see the changes.

NOTE: I do highly recommend backing up the DriverGroups.xml file first before making any changes to it.

Postsorted List


18 January 2013

SCCM 2012: Accessing Reporting Services Website

Unlike the old SMS where you could access the reporting services via the SMS server name in the browser, it has changed in 2012. To access the reporting services, you will have to enter the fully qualified name of the SCCM SQL server to access the reports within your browser. It goes as follows: http://<Fully Qualified SQL Server Name>/Reports. Once the reporting services page comes up, you can now click on ConfigMgr_SCM to access the page. 

17 January 2013

SCCM 2012: Report Builder 2.0 is not installed

If you are getting the message below, the first step to resolving it is here. One more step you have to do with the solution in that link is to make the changes in both the server and machines with the installed console. Once that process is completed, if the message is still appearing, then it is most likely associated with the user account control. It seems that the reporting section of the console requires elevated UAC privileges to create new reports.


06 January 2013

How to reinstall a trial version of software after it has expired

This is in no means to be used to continuously reuse a trial version of software without paying for it. This is more for using if you are in a sudden pinch and need to software immediately, intending to purchase it later.

There are several ways to do this. One is to use procmon.exe to watch what is going on in the background to see what the program is doing. You would be looking for such instances as writing to the registry or specific files. Sometimes software companies will write a specific registry key or to a file which the trial software will read to see if it's time has expired. Another way is to use an installation program scanner, such as Comodo that watches the interaction the install has with the OS. The easiest way is to load a trial version into an Oracle VM. The reason for using Oracle is because it allows you to take snapshots of different times, instead of just being able to restore 1 step back.

The first thing is of course to install the OS. Next, take a snapshot after it is setup and configured, but before you install the trial version software. Now you can install the software. You can now revert back to the snapshot, which will erase everything that has taken place in the virtual environment since the snapshot was taken. Though this will work for the majority of trial software, it will not work on some that require online registration, at which point, they look for a new OS to register with. I am thinking they associate the SID with the registration. An option here is to load it on varying VMs.