I’ve spend about 2 hours tonight getting SQL Server 2008 Express installed on a Windows Server 2008 system…….. Launched the installation package, it started extracting it’s content, it made an attempt to launch the embedded setup.exe and then…..Nothing.
The temporary folder that holds the extracted installation files got deleted and all that was left was the below error log.
03/09/2010 23:22:48.079 ====================================================================== 03/09/2010 23:22:48.235 Setup launched 03/09/2010 23:22:48.282 Attempting to determine media source 03/09/2010 23:22:48.329 Media source value not specified on command line argument. 03/09/2010 23:22:48.360 Setup is launched from media directly so default the value to the current folder. 03/09/2010 23:22:48.407 Media source: c:\3c583b87cb85226328b6ae0c9d\ 03/09/2010 23:22:48.454 Attempt to determine media layout based on file ‘c:\3c583b87cb85226328b6ae0c9d\mediainfo.xml’. 03/09/2010 23:22:49.454 The folder ‘c:\3c583b87cb85226328b6ae0c9d\’ does not contain a valid media info file ‘mediainfo.xml’. 03/09/2010 23:22:49.517 Setup closed with exit code: 0×84C4001E 03/09/2010 23:22:49.579 ======================================================================
Solution !
I had to find out that for whatever reason the “Format” within the Regional Settings was not set to English. After setting this to English the installation executed and completed successfully.
Assume you are at a client site and plan to deploy a Windows Server (2008 / 2008-R2) or Windows Clients (Windows Vista / Windows 7) and want to check if they do already have KMS Services running on their network.
It’s very simple. Just open a command prompt and type the following command:
nslookup -type=srv _vlmcs._tcp
If KMS Services are present on the network the results will be listed as shown in the picture below.
One of the things to consider when deploying Windows 7 clients is to update the Central Store on your domain controllers. If you haven’t created a Central Store yet, I recommend you watch the video or read the documentation I have listed at the end of this post.
If you do have a Central Store already, updating it with the Windows 7 Group Policy Administrative templates is very straight forward. You simply copy the templates that are stored under C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions on your Windows 7 client to the Central Store which is located at \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\policies\PolicyDefinitions (FQDN = fully qualified domain name)
A good alternative for copying the files manually is the Vista Central Store Creator Utility from Darren Mar-Elia which automates the whole process of creating and updating the Central Store.
While I was preparing my home lab for some Group Policy tests i wanted to perform I got an error when generating a report in the Group Policy Management Console which is running on a Windows Server 2008 with Internet Explorer 8.
The error was: “An error occurred in the script in this page”
A search on the web indicated that this had to do with the Internet Explorer Security Settings, but when I opened the Internet Explorer Security settings I noticed that I could not change them since all buttons were grayed out.
But wait a minute, I’m the Administrator on this box, so why should I not be able to change these settings?. Another search on the web pointed me to the Internet Explorer 8 Enhanced Security Configuration which places the server and Internet Explorer in a configuration that decreases the exposure of servers to potential attacks.
To configure the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration you must open the Server Manager and start “Configure IE ESC” as shown in the screen shot below.
Then turn of IE ESC for Administrators.
Start Internet Explorer again, and you notice that you can now configure the Security Settings.
I then clicked on “Reset all zones to default level”. The next time I opened the Group Policy Manager, I could run the settings report without any error.
When I recently browsed through the Windows Download Center I noticed that there is a download for “Windows Server 2008 R2 Multilingual User Interface Language Packs”. Having worked with Multilanguage Packs for the Windows Client operating system since these were introduced with Windows 2000, I was astonished to see these in the public download center, because for Windows Clients you must have a Software Assurance or other Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft to use Multilanguage Packs. So why are these made available for free for the Server operating system?
In the case of most server products (e.g., Windows Server), the MUI is included with the base product. Customers licensing those products may use the MUI subject to the use rights for those products.
Licenses for all editions of Windows Server 2008 include the rights to the Multi-language User Interface (MUI). Customers who downgrade to earlier editions also have the right to use MUI.
Although the above mentioned document contains information for Software that is licensed through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs, I “assume” that this also applies to Server 2008(R2) systems that have an OEM license, otherwise I wouldn’t understand why Microsoft would make available this download for the public.
Here is another video from TechnetEdge talking about the changes in volume activation for Windows7. What I found interesting to hear is that there will be a patch available for your current KMS server running on Windows Server 2003 or 2008 that will allow your current KMS system recognizing Windows7 clients.
The AppLocker Technical Documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 provides technical guidance about understanding how AppLocker works and how to effectively plan and deploy AppLocker policies.
The download contains two documents:
BETA – AppLocker Frequently Asked Questions.pdf
BETA – Planning and Deploying Windows AppLocker Policies.pdf
If you are running a Hyper-V server, this is something you want to look at. The VHDShellExt.VBS extends the explorer context menu for VHD files with the following functions.
Download the script from MSDN Code Gallery and run cscript.exe VHDShellExt.vbs /action:setup for installation. More documentation can be found on Ravikanth’s site.
In preparation of doing some Group Policy related things, I decided to extend my Home Lab AD infrastructure running on Windows Server 2003, with Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008R2 domain controllers.
Because at some stage I want to get rid of the Windows 2003 Server I also moved the FSMO roles from the Windows 2003 domain controller to the Windows 2008 domain controller.
By searching documentation on how to move FSMO roles, I found the FSMO Roles utility from dovestones software,, that simply shows you who owns the FSMO roles within your current AD infrastructure.
During the past 2 days I have been looking at the Windows 7 BranchCache feature. After hearing, reading and talking about this for months, it was about time to do some hands-on stuff.
I used the BranchCache Early Adopter’s Guide from Microsoft. If you would have a perfect test environment, the implementation would probably be done in 2-3 hours. For me it took a little bit longer……. but once again, I’ve learned a lot more.
I tested the “Distributed” mode, this is where the BranchCache gets replicated on the clients local disk.
My test environment looked like this:
PC1 – Running VMWare Workstation with a domain controller and 2 Windows7 guests. While the domain controller runs in bridged network mode, i had the two Windows7 clients running in NAT mode, this to make sure they don’t appear in the same subnet as the File Server that has BranchCache enabled. (otherwise nothing will happen)
PC2 – Running VMWare Workstation with a Windows 2008R2 server configured with BranchCache. This server was running with bridged network mode.
The configuration is quite straight forward and can all be done via Group Policies or using the netsh command.
There is no GUI for BranchCache, but using the netsh branchcache commands and perfmon helps you to see if things work.
As I wrote the previous blog entry I started thinking about all the other products I come across in my daily professional life and started creating the table shown below.
For those that are still running Windows 2000 Server systems, it’s about time to start migrating these because next year the extended support will end.
