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Windows 10 Major and Minor build version, how to add those in the KACE System Management Appliance

For reporting purposes I wanted to export the Windows 10 Build versions. Not only the Major build version (1709/1803 etc) but also the minor (which patch level). This is how I did that :

Create a new Software title (Inventory/Software) and fill the custom Inventory Rule with the following code :

RegistryValueReturn(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion,CurrentBuildNumber,text)

1	RegistryValueReturn(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion,CurrentBuildNumber,text)

Make sure that you select all your Windows 10 devices. Be sure to save the software package. Now create another Software with the following custom Inventory code :

RegistryValueReturn(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion,UBR,text)

1	RegistryValueReturn(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion,UBR,text)

After a force inventory you notice the 2 custom Inventory rules when viewing the device info :

KACE Custom Inventory Rules Build

Windows 10 Build versions info here.

Altaro webinar with Ben Armstrong

My sponsor Altaro is organizing a webinar with Ben Armstrong this Tuesday, 24th April whereby people can register and get the rare opportunity to ask Ben their questions (link).
Ben is quite the star in the industry, so I think this could be interesting for you! You’re welcome to upload any questions to Ben through social media in the coming days until Tuesday, just include #AskBenArmstrong. It’s important to use the hashtag so Altaro is able to capture all the questions.

After the webinar, there will be a webpage with the typed out Q&A’s from Ben! So be sure to check out this link.

How to fix PFSense libssl.so.8 not found error(s)

Recently I ran into a problem with PFSense. After rebooting I noticed several errors during the boot proces.

I was able to boot into the single user environment and after some investigating I found a solution that worked for me.

pkg-static update -f
pkg-static upgrade -f

1 2	pkg-static update -f pkg-static upgrade -f

After rebooting I noticed that there were some (file) lockes and I had to update the kernel (otherwise PFSense keeps on booting in a loop) using the 13 option in the menu (type exit to go to the menu)

After this I had to reboot the PFSense and after spinning up I was able to open the Web interface and found out that everything was working again.

How to set the right timezone in Ubuntu

Did you notice that your timezone was not correct? This is how to configure the right timezone :

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Amsterdam

1	timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Amsterdam

You can check your date/time settings :

timedatectl

1	timedatectl

The timedatectl is installed by default, but when you did a minimal install you can fix this with the following command :

sudo apt-get install systemd-services

1	sudo apt-get install systemd-services

Tip : You can check out this website to verify your timezone : https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/netherlands/amsterdam

Howto fix “dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run sudo dpkg –configure -a to correct the problem” error

When you install a package using dpkg and somehow you kill the proces, you may encouter the above error. There is an easy solution for that :

Remove the lock files using the following command :

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
cd /var/lib/dpkg/updates
sudo rm *
sudo apt-get update

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock

sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

cd /var/lib/dpkg/updates

sudo rm *

sudo apt-get update

Howto install (multicore) PAR2 on Ubuntu

Use the following command to install PAR2 support on your Linux host :

sudo apt-get install par

1	sudo apt-get install par

If your device has more than 1 core available, you can significantly speed up verification and repair by using all cores in your system. Installing these multicore versions of Par2 is easy for many platforms :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jcfp/sab-addons
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install par2-tbb

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jcfp/sab-addons

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install par2-tbb

Howto Activate KMS Manually

In this post I describe how to manually activate Windows & Office using KMS.

Windows Activation

Open a command prompt with elevated rights.

Run the following command to point to the specific KMS Server :

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms <KMS DNS Name or IP address>

1	cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms <KMS DNS Name or IP address>

Run the following command to activate Windows :

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

1	cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

Office Activation

For activation of Office use the following command :

Run the following command to point to the specific KMS Server :

cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:KMSSERVER

1	cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:KMSSERVER

Run the following command to activate:

cscript ospp.vbs /act

1	cscript ospp.vbs /act

FileZilla for SharePoint 2

I found this free tool on the internet. It’s the “SharePoint version” of FileZilla.

SPFileZilla

With this tool you can easily upload & download files to and from SharePoint (also the online version). You can also easily create subdirs, remove files etc. More information can be found here.

Overview of available patches for Spectre & Meltdown

Overzicht_patches_Meltdown_en_spectre

Check out this document showing available updates (VMware/Microsoft/Linux) for Spectre and Meltdown. Spectre Meltdown Patches Available

How to fix Remote Desktop DPI scaling with high resolution laptops

More and more laptops are equipped with high-resolution screens, like the Microsoft Surfaces and (in my case) the Dell XPS devices. Do you also have a very high-resolution display on your laptop like I do? And is everything too small to see within your Remote Desktop Connection, I found the following solution very useful.

This issue is caused by lack of not being DPI scaling aware of the Remote Desktop Client. If you open a Remote Desktop connection to a server or other computer the native resolution of the computer is used instead of the scaling to 1920×1080, so you’ll get very small icons etc. There are (Remote Desktop/Management) tools available who seems to fix this issue also. But I was looking for a solution that works with my current mstsc.exe. The solution is to create a manifest file. A manifest file is a (XML) configuration file to configure special settings, in this case for mstsc.exe. Follow the steps below :

First, tell Windows to look for a manifest file for an application by default. This can be done by setting a registry entry.

Open regedit and navigate to the registry key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide
Right-click, select NEW -> DWORD (32 bit) Value
Type PreferExternalManifest and then press ENTER.
Right-click PreferExternalManifest, and then click Modify.
Enter Value Data 1 and select Decimal.
Click OK. Exit Registry Editor.

Next step is to make the manifest file, mstsc.exe.manifest. Copy the contents below and put it in Notepad or similar tool and save it to a file as %SystemRoot%\System32\mstsc.exe.manifest. Download of the file is also available, here. Important is that you save the file in the same directory as the Remote Desktop Client executable (mstsc.exe).

You can also copy/paste the following code into the manifest file :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
      version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"
      publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
      language="*">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <dependentAssembly>
    <assemblyIdentity
      type="win32"
      name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"
      version="9.0.21022.8"
      processorArchitecture="amd64"
      publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">
    </assemblyIdentity>
  </dependentAssembly>
</dependency>

<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
  <security>
    <requestedPrivileges>
      <requestedExecutionLevel
        level="asInvoker"
        uiAccess="false"/>
    </requestedPrivileges>
  </security>
</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>
  <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
    <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
  </asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>

</assembly>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assemblyIdentity

type="win32"

name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"

version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"

publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"

language="*">

</assemblyIdentity>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

<assemblyIdentity

type="win32"

name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"

version="9.0.21022.8"

processorArchitecture="amd64"

publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">

</assemblyIdentity>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

<requestedExecutionLevel

level="asInvoker"

uiAccess="false"/>

</requestedPrivileges>

</security>

</trustInfo>

<asmv3:application>

<asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">

<ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>

</asmv3:windowsSettings>

</asmv3:application>

</assembly>

There are a couple of things you have to keep in mind. The mouse pointer still stays small. I found this not so big an issue and still haven’t found a workaround for this. I’ve heard that updates like Microsoft 1709 overwrites the manifest file. So you have to re-apply the manifest file. I’ve also noticed that the warning do you trust this certificate warning doesn’t appear any longer 🙂

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