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Windows 8 – Troubleshooting Licensing with licensingdiag.exe

Posted by on 14 May 2012, 9:32 pm

Should you encounter problems with activating Windows 8 or Server 2012 then have a look at the new added command-line tool licensingdiag.exe.

To run licensingdiag.exe open a command prompt and enter the following command:

licensingdiag.exe -report c:\data\licensing\licenserep.xml -log c:\data\licensing\license.cab

This will create a log file and a CAB file. The log file is an XML type file that contains various information about the client, the OS and its licensing status. The CAB file contains a copy of the log file, a file called tokenstore.dat (I was unable to find any information about its purpose) and a Diagevents.evtx that contains a dump of License related events and can be opened using Eventviewer.

Filed under Licensing, Windows 8. Tagged , , , , ,
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ToolTip: Port Listener

Posted by on 7 May 2012, 7:14 pm

Today I want to share with you a nice FREE tool I’ve just used recently while troubleshooting some networking issues on one of our customers network. The problem I had was that I couldn’t get my backend infrastructure talk to the client and vise versa. To keep this post generic I won’t use any products name, but both the backend and client that has an agent require that some ports are open in either one or both ways.

I ended up talking to some network guys who had to open ports individually since in this environment by default all ports are closed except those specifically defined. After some time I realized that doing the tests via software product itself was too time consuming as sometimes it needed a while to process the request and get a result. I could of course also use the Windows build in netstat.exe command but well, I just wanted something that just tells me instantly whether the port works or not without having to scroll down a huge list of data.

So I ended up finding a nice FREE small utility called Port Listener. Port Listener allows you to configure a port and then listen to it. On the other end then you can use a utility like the Citrix Port Check Utility to verify that the port is working e.g can cross the network and any firewalls in between both end points.

Port Listener is easy to setup, simply launch the utility and enter the port to listen to, then press Start to start listening.

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Then on the other end start the Citrix Port check utility.

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Port Listener is developed by RJL Software can be downloaded from here

Filed under Port, TCP/IP, Tools. Tagged , , , , , , ,
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Windows 8 the Comeback of 3rd Party DVD Player Software?

Posted by on 3 May 2012, 4:00 pm

Microsoft recently confirmed that Windows Media Center will not be included by default within Windows 8 but will be available as an economical “media pack” add-on to Windows 8 Pro. One of the reasons for not including it anymore as a build-in feature is because according to the data Microsoft has collected via it’s Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) only a small percentage of users are actively using Media Center on Windows 7. Another reason is that nowadays more users are streaming video content over the internet instead of playing a local DVD. And finally, I guess that in just a few years the same will happen with DVD players as happened with the floppy drives, they will disappear.

For those interested Steven Sinofsky shared detailed telemetry data in the blog post Reflecting on our first conversations (part 2) from in September 2011.

In Windows 7 Windows Media Player is the default media player and will in most cases allow playback of DVDs.

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and within Windows Media Player we have options for DVD playback.

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In Windows 8, Windows Media player is not listed anymore for DVD playback

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and the DVD playback tab in Media Player options has disappeared.

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Bottom line, when inserting a movie DVD into a system running Windows 8, you won’t be able to play the movie unless you are using Media Center (that is still included in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview) or a 3rd party DVD playback software.

I don’t expect this is going to have a big impact for consumer users, as most OEM hardware vendors like HP, Dell & Co ship their hardware with pre-installed OEM software for DVD playback like WinDVD, Roxio, Cyberlink PowerDVD. For Enterprise customers however this will have an impact. I have seen many customers who moved to Windows Vista/7 stop using third party DVD playback software because the build-in support provided by Windows Media player covered most users needs.

With Windows 8 not providing native DVD playback capabilities anymore Enterprises will need to make up their mind whether they need to provide DVD playback support to their end users and what products they will use. The most obvious solution appears to install the software that comes bundled with the hardware. But there are some challenges here.

The license of OEM software usually allows customers to use that program for as long as they want, but such software may only be used on the hardware that it was distributed with (e.g. you may use OEM-product X on computer model A, but you may not use it on computer model B, because that computer comes bundled with OEM-product B). This means that an enterprise with a standard desktop and a standard laptop will likely have to use two different OEM-products to achieve the same task. Every subsequent year, when the standard desktops and laptops are replaced by their successors, another set of OEM-products are introduced. With an estimated computer lifetime of 4 years, the enterprise has 8 different products in the environment to manage. In the best case, these OEM-products differ only slightly (different version numbers), but in the worst case, they may be entirely different products, even from different vendors.

Another challenge is the right for distribution, in many cases the OEM software license does not allow re-packaging and/or distributing these OEM products via software distribution like System Center Configuration Manager. And finally size does matter as well, in many cases the OEM bundled DVD Playback software contains a huge installation source ranging from 300 up to 900 MB in size. Pre-installing several bundles within an image or installing them via software distribution will have an impact on image size and/or software distribution workload.

Enterprises that consider providing their end users with a 3rd party DVD Playback software on Windows 8 should consider the following two options:

Volume Licensed Product

A volume licensed product is clearly the best (as in enterprise-ready) choice here. The advantages are numerous:

  • One product running on all the different hardware models (reduces user-frustration and support call-handling complexity)
  • No advertisements for a “professional edition” of the product
  • Direct support from the product vendor
  • Product can often be packaged to the customer’s liking

Obviously, there is one argument against this choice: License costs. However this can be mitigated by providing the software optionally rather installing it on each system by default.

Open-Source/Free Product

An open-source or free product that serves the purpose may also be a choice, depending on the importance of the availability of support channels. These products often perform the basic tasks that a typical user needs, but lack the advanced features that the professional products offer. Also, these products are delivered as-is and without any sort of warranty or declaration of fitness for a particular purpose. This may be a risk that customers may or may not want to deal with, however, certain advantages are still applicable:

  • One product running on all the different hardware models (reduces user-frustration and support call-handling complexity)
  • No advertisements for a “professional edition” of the product

A well known open source product is the VLC Media Player.

Filed under DVD Playback, Media Player, Windows 8. Tagged , , , , , ,
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Script for finding Executables that are command-line programs

Posted by on 3 May 2012, 12:11 am

I recently came across a FREE utility called IsCommandLineApp from Helge Klein,  a little command-line tool that can be used to determine whether a specific executable is a command-line program. To run this against multiple executables manually is a kind of a pain, so I decided to write a PowerShell script that runs IsCommandLineapp against a defined Folder and all it’s subfolders.

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To run the script, first download the IsCommandLineApp from here and then edit the variable $IsCommandLineApp so that it points to the location where you have stored the tool. If you want to search through another folder than C:\Windows change the variable $StartPath

 


# =====================================================================
  # Script Name : listcommandlineapps.ps1

# Author: Alex Verboon

# Date: May 2012

# Purpose: List all executables that are a commandline application

# =====================================================================


  $ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue"

$IsCommandLineApp = "c:\Tools\IsCommandLineApp.exe"

$StartPath = "c:\windows\"


  if (Test-Path $IsCommandLineApp)

 {

# IscommandlineApp.exe found

 }

else

 {

 echo($IsCommandLineApp + " not found. Download from http://helgeklein.com/free-tools/iscommandlineapp/")

 exit

 }

 

$stringA = "is not a"

$files = get-childitem $StartPath -filter *.exe -recurse
   foreach ($file in $files)

 {

    $a = & $IsCommandLineApp $file.FullName

     if ( ($a.Contains($stringA)))

         {

         }

    Else

          {

        Write-output $a 

         }

 }

To get all the results into a text file run listcommandlineapps.ps1 >allcmdapps.txt

Filed under CommandLine, PowerShell, Tools. Tagged , , ,
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Windows 8 – File History Feature replaces “Previous Versions” and Backup and Restore

Posted by on 29 April 2012, 5:36 pm

While reading the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows Server “8” Beta Compatibility Cookbook I came across the topic Volume Shadow Copy Service UI Removed. Due to the fact that this feature was obviously rarely used by end users and it’s negative impact on Windows performance, Microsoft decided to removed this feature from Windows 8. In addition Microsoft also decided to deprecate the Windows 7 Backup and Restore feature, again because this functionality appears to be rarely used.

On Windows 7 client the “Previous Versions” feature is configured through the System Protection Settings as shown in the screenshot below.

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Users can access the previous versions through the Folder or File properties tab.

Picture of the Previous Versions tab

As shown in the screen shot below the option for configuring System Protection – Previous files has been removed and so has the “Previous Versions” tab within the Folder & Files properties.

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Windows7 Backup and Restore is still available in Windows 8 but is well hidden within the system, in order to access the feature you must search for “file recovery” or “recovery”.

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In Windows 8 Microsoft is trying to simplify the creation of user data backups and restore through a new feature called “File History”. File History allows users to backup their data to removable storage such as a USB drive or a network share.

For a general overview of what File History is about I recommend reading Paul Thurrott’s article Windows 8 Feature Focus: File History and Dr. Z’s blog posts Windows 8 How To: 27. Backup your Files Using File History and Windows 8 How To: 28. Restore Files Using File History

As an IT Pro I am of course interested in how things work, so I’ve started looking at how this all runs and is configured.

The File History Service – By default the File History Service is configured to start manually, but once a first user enables File History, the Service startup changes to Automatic (Delayed). Windows 8 is intelligent enough to identify multiple users that have File History enabled, so even if a user disables the feature at a later time, the Service remains configured to Start until no user has file history enabled and then sets the service back to start manually.

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File History Configuration – File History Service configuration is stored within the Windows Registry under:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControllSet\Services\fhsvc

For each user that enables File History a key (pointer) to the user specific File History configuration settings is created under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\fhsvc\Parameters\Configs

For this example the key is:

C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Config

Then there are 2 files called config1.xml and config2.xml, both files appear to be identical and I haven’t figured out yet why there’s two. The config file holds the configuration settings for the File History Service.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DataProtectionUserConfig SchemaVersion="1">
  <UserName>Admin</UserName>
  <FriendlyName>Admin</FriendlyName>
  <PCName>AV-WIN8-004</PCName>
  <UserId>6f5671be-a258-45cc-9a08-377ef1c943fb</UserId>
  <Library>
    <LibraryName>*7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c</LibraryName>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Admin\Documents</Folder>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Public\Documents</Folder>
  </Library>
  <Library>
    <LibraryName>*2112ab0a-c86a-4ffe-a368-0de96e47012e</LibraryName>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Admin\Music</Folder>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Public\Music</Folder>
  </Library>
  <Library>
    <LibraryName>*a990ae9f-a03b-4e80-94bc-9912d7504104</LibraryName>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Admin\Pictures</Folder>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Public\Pictures</Folder>
  </Library>
  <Library>
    <LibraryName>*491e922f-5643-4af4-a7eb-4e7a138d8174</LibraryName>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Admin\Videos</Folder>
    <Folder>C:\Users\Public\Videos</Folder>
  </Library>
  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Admin\Contacts</UserFolder>
  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Admin\Desktop</UserFolder>
  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Admin\Favorites</UserFolder>
  <LocalCatalogPath1>C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Catalog1.edb</LocalCatalogPath1>
  <LocalCatalogPath2>C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Catalog2.edb</LocalCatalogPath2>
  <StagingArea>
    <StagingAreaPath>C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Data</StagingAreaPath>
    <StagingAreaMaximumCapacity>24986936729</StagingAreaMaximumCapacity>
    <StagingAreaWarningThreshold>18740202546</StagingAreaWarningThreshold>
  </StagingArea>
  <AvailabilityPolicies>
    <TargetAbsenceTime>5</TargetAbsenceTime>
    <TimeInUnprotectedState>3</TimeInUnprotectedState>
  </AvailabilityPolicies>
  <RetentionPolicies>
    <RetentionPolicyType>DISABLED</RetentionPolicyType>
    <MinimumRetentionAge>365</MinimumRetentionAge>
  </RetentionPolicies>
  <DPFrequency>3600</DPFrequency>
  <DPStatus>ENABLED</DPStatus>
  <Target>
    <TargetName>\\labhome099\data\FileHistoryBackup</TargetName>
    <TargetUrl>\\labhome099\data\FileHistoryBackup\</TargetUrl>
    <TargetDriveType>REMOTE</TargetDriveType>
    <TargetConfigPath1>Admin\AV-WIN8-004\Configuration\Config1.xml</TargetConfigPath1>
    <TargetConfigPath2>Admin\AV-WIN8-004\Configuration\Config2.xml</TargetConfigPath2>
    <TargetCatalogPath1>Admin\AV-WIN8-004\Configuration\Catalog1.edb</TargetCatalogPath1>
    <TargetCatalogPath2>Admin\AV-WIN8-004\Configuration\Catalog2.edb</TargetCatalogPath2>
    <TargetBackupStorePath>Admin\AV-WIN8-004\Data</TargetBackupStorePath>
    <TargetWarningThreshold>98</TargetWarningThreshold>
  </Target>
</DataProtectionUserConfig>

File History Data – The data that is being backed up is stored within the specified location e.g the Removable drive or network location. If a user has setup File History on multiple clients, then a subfolder is created per computer.

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Each time the File History Service starts a copy of each file version is stored within the defined backup location.

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File History – Scheduled Task – In addition to the File History Service that executes a backup based on the defined backup interval, there’s also a Scheduled Task for File History.

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When looking at the scheduled Task, you might notice that no “Next Run Time” is defined, this is because the File History Task is part of the Windows maintenance task e.g. the Task is executed when the Windows maintenance Task starts.

File History Event logs – For File History there are also a number of event logs. When enabling “Show Analytic and Debug logs” within the Event Viewer the following File History related event logs are displayed.

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File History Group Policy Configuration – Configuration of the File History through group policy is limited At present enterprise administrators can only prevent users from enabling File History. The setting can be found under: Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ File History.

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Filed under File History, Windows 8. Tagged , , , , ,
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