Windows Server 2012 and Installation Media

On Windows Server 2012, the installation of the server does not include all of the usual components necessary to support activating some of the server features and roles, such as the Application Server role with the .NET 3.5 framework.  The server will give you a warning about missing components and ask for a location of the installation media.  If you have the ISO or disk for the installation, you will find these components under [drive]:\sources\sxs.

I have to say I am not a fan of this model.  Early versions of both client and server kept the components separate, requiring you to have the original media every time you wanted to add a Windows feature.  Recent versions have solved this by including them, but certainly increased the size on disk.  I’d prefer the components to be copied, to avoid the necessity of installation media, and this can be done by manually copying the above directory to a location on the disk.  Why did Microsoft change this from being automatic?

Windows InTune and User Management

The addresses for Windows InTune and the user management online applications are not similar or on the same domain root, but are important to know if you wish to create users that InTune will then assign to devices.  Unfortunately, these are not obvious or easy to find.  So, in order for me to remember where they are when I am looking for them again in a few months, here they are.

If you wish to log into Windows InTune administration, you need to go to http://manage.microsoft.com.

If you wish to log into Intune User Administration, you need to go to http://account.manage.microsoft.com.

If you wish to manage your profile, you need to go to http://portal.microsoftonline.com/.

If you wish to view the company portal, you need to go to http://portal.manage.microsoft.com.

Not confusing at all…

Installing Windows 8 Enterprise and Activation Error

After installing Windows 8 Enterprise edition, I received the following error:

Windows can’t activate right now. Please try again later.

Trying later results in the same message.  The problem turns out to be that the system need a product key.  To do this, simply run an elevated command prompt and type:

slmgr.vbs –ipk “ENTER PRODUCT KEY”

Once this is done, you will be able to activate Windows (and on mine, it was already activated when I went to the activation center).

Crossing Domains without Password Pain

I work in consulting, and as such, my machine is never on the client domain.  This causes some headache because every time I want to connect to a client resource, I am prompted for my client username and password.  By default, the client’s resources are in the Internet zone, so nothing is trusted, nor are my saved passwords used to authenticate – I am asked to reenter my password each time I connect to any resource.  Fortunately, there is an easy solution – simply add the domain as a Local Intranet site in your Internet settings.  Under Internet Options, Security, Local Intranet, Sites, Advanced, you can enter the paths to the client resource that you commonly access.  Once this is done, after you check the “Save Password” option when you access a resource again, you won’t have to reenter the password again.

If the client has a TFS instance, you can save your username and password used to access it by going to the team web access site in Internet Explorer and saving your credentials when prompted.  When you launch Visual Studio and connect to that TFS instance, it will then use your saved credentials.