windows

Powering on a VM with shared VMDK fails after extending a EagerZeroedThick VMDK

I hope that you are not reading this blog post while searching for a solution for a failed cluster. If so, feel free to leave a comment if this blog post saved your evening or weekend. :) Last friday, a change at one of my customers went horribly wrong. I was not onsite, but they contacted me during the night from friday to saturday, because their most important Windows Server Failover Cluster was unable to start after extending a shared VMDK.

Windows Network Policy Server (NPS) server won't log failed login attempts

This is just a short, but interesting blog post. When you have to troubleshoot authentication failures in a network that uses Windows Network Policy Server (NPS), the Windows event log is absolutely indispensable. The event log offers everything you need. The success and failure event log entries include all necessary information to get you back on track. If failure events would be logged… Today, I was playing with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise OmniSwitches and Access Guardian in my lab.

The Meltdown/ Spectre shortcut blogpost for Windows, VMware and HPE

Change History 01-13-2018: Added information regarding VMSA-2018-0004 01-13-2018: HPE has pulled Gen8 and Gen9 system ROMs 01-13-2018: VMware has updated KB52345 due to issues with Intel microcode updates 01-18-2018: Updated VMware section 01-24-2018: Updated HPE section 01-28-2018: Updated Windows Client and Server section 02-08-2018: Updated VMware and HPE section 02-20-2018: Updated HPE section 04-17-2018: Updated HPE section Many blog posts have been written about the two biggest security vulnerabilities discovered so far.

Workaround for broken Windows 10 Start Menus with floating desktops

Last month, I wrote about a very annoying issue, that I discovered during a Windows 10 VDI deployment: Roaming of the AppData\Local folder breaks the Start Menu of Windows 10 Enterprise (Roaming of AppData\Local breaks Windows 10 Start Menu). During research, I stumbled over dozens of threads about this issue. Today, after hours and hours of testing, troubleshooting and reading, I might have found a solution. The environment Currently I don’t know if this is a workaround, a weird hack, or no solution at all.

Some thoughts about using Windows Server 2012 R2 instead of Windows 10 for VDI

Disclaimer: The information from this blog post is provided on an “AS IS” basis, without warranties, both express and implied. Last week, I had an interesting discussion with a customer. Some months back, the customer has decided to kick-off a PoC for a VMware Horizon View based virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). He is currently using fat-clients with Windows 8.1, and the new environment should run on Windows 10 Enterprise. Last week, we discussed the idea of using Windows Server 2012 R2 as desktop OS.

Why "Patch Tuesday" is only every four weeks - or never

Today, this tweet caught my attention. Windows Patching As You Know It Is Dead https://t.co/X3y6rkspUY via @xenappblog — Trond E Haavarstein (@xenappblog) June 28, 2017 Patch management is currently a hot topic, primarily because of the latest ransomware attacks. After appearance of WannaCry, one of my older blog posts got unfamiliar attention: WSUS on Windows 2012 (R2) and KB3159706 – WSUS console fails to connect. Why? My guess: Many admins started updating their Windows servers after appearance of WannaCry.

Roaming of AppData-Local breaks Windows 10 Start Menu

One of my customers has started a project to create a Windows 10 Enterprise (LTSB 2016) master for their VMware Horizon View environment. Beside the fact (okay, it is more a personal feeling), that Windows 10 is a real PITA for VDI, I noticed an interesting issue during tests. The issue For convenience, I adopted some settings of the current Persona Management GPO for Windows 7 for the new Windows 10 environment.

How to set a WiFi connection as metered on Windows 10

I switched my mobile carrier and my new carrier doesn’t offer multi SIM (but hey, it’s cheap and sufficient for my needs). Now I have to use my iPhone as WiFi hotspot. No big deal, works perfect. Except one thing: When I was using the built-in 4G modem in my laptop, Windows 10 knew that it was using a mobile (metered) connection, and suspended some services like OneDrive sync, download of Windows Updates etc.

Single Sign On (SSO) with RemoteApps on Windows Server 2012 (R2)

A RemoteApp is an application, that is running on a Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), and only the display output is sent to the client. Because the application is running on a RDSH, you can easily deliver applications to end users. Another benefit is, that data is not leaving the datacenter. Software and data are kept inside the datacenter. RemoteApps can be used and deployed in various ways: Users can start RemoteApps through the Remote Desktop Web Access Users can start RemoteApps using a special RDP file Users can simply start a link on the desktop or from the start menu (RemoteApps and Desktop connections deployed by an MSI or a GPO) or they can click on a file that is associated with a RemoteApp Even in times of VDI (LOL…), RemoteApps can be quite handy.

Important foot note: Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 requires a new KMS host key

Today, I have stumbled upon a fact that is worth being documented. TL;DR: Use the “Windows Srv 2016 DataCtr/Std KMS” host key (CSVLK), if you want to activate Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 using KMS. Or use AD-based activation. For more information read the blog post of the Ask the Core Team: Windows Server 2016 Volume Activation Tips. A customer wants to deploy Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016. A Windows Server 2012 R2 is acting as KMS host, and successfully activates Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus.