How to Turn Off Compression in Configuration Manager 2007 Software Distribution

This is a question I've been asked a few times. By default, SMS and ConfigMgr both compress package content into a PCK file to distribute the content to child sites. The problem you might run into with Operating System Deployment WIM files, which are already compressed, is that they take forever to move from one…
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Verizon Wireless Samsung SCH-LC11 EF07 Update Now Available

Samsung has released a software upgrade EF07 for the SCH-LC11, which is recommended to be installed. I used to have CONSTANT disconnecting issues with my SCH-LC11, but those issues appear to have been resolved. Will know for sure after some more time with the update, but it's working well so far. PPTP and L2TP VPN…
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Building Windows 8 – Improving Windows Explorer

If you haven't been to the Building Windows 8 Blog yet, I highly recommend bookmarking it as the Windows 8 team has been updating it frequently. Today's post comes from Alex Simons and takes a brief look at the history of Windows Explorer (going back to MS-DOS Executive in Windows 1.0) and a very interesting…
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Using Your Distribution Points for FEP Definitions with the Software Update Automation Tool – Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 Update Rollup 1

In my previous post on using your distribution points for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP) 2010 definition files, we had to leverage a vbscript in order to automate the download of the definition files from Microsoft via a scheduled task and then create a package that updated automatically on schedule and have a recurring advertisement. We…
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Have ConfigMgr Client Health Problems? Check out the ConfigMgr Client Health and Remediation Services Offering!

Normally I don't try and sell things on my blog here, however there's a new service offering that I think many that come across this blog will be highly interested in. I know when I worked as a customer before coming to Microsoft I had to deal with Client Health issues (Client health was actually…
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Fix for Accessing Windows Vista and Windows 7 Administrative Shares (C$, Admin$, etc) – Client Push

This post isn't exactly just a Configuration Manager fix for Client Push, however it will help anyone who is trying to connect to an administrative share on a Windows Vista or Windows 7 machine that is having problems with "Access Denied" messages even though you know 100% for a fact that the account you're using…
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Primary Site Installation Greyed Out in SCCM 2007 SP2 installation?

Had an annoying issue today where the customer and I tried to install a primary server but kept getting stuck with the option to install a primary server greyed out. Turns out we were using the SP2 upgrade media that was used when they were upgrading the SCCM sites in their environment awhile back. So…
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Does your Windows 7 Hang at the Welcome Screen for a long time after logon? Potential Fix Here

I've had a major issue on my personal machine for sometime now where on logon my machine would hang for minutes (15-30 minutes in some cases) before getting to the desktop. When resuming from sleep, this wasn't an issue, however on cold boots or restarts this was a big issue. The fix was http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2526870 which fixes…
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Location of SMSTS.log when using Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment

For those using OSD to image, the smsts.log is a valuable log file to help in troubleshooting installation issues of your Windows images. The smsts.log file, however, moves around depending on what phase of the installation you are in. Below is a list of the location depending on where you are in the installation process:…
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