Richard Balsley

SoftwareUpdateAutomation.exe Scheduled Task Fails with an 0x1 Error Message When Updating FEP 2010 Definition Package

October 28, 2011

Issue When using the SoftwareUpdateAutomation.exe file as a scheduled task to update the Forefront Endpoint Protection definition files, the scheduled task may fail with an error code of 0x1. In the %programdata%\SoftwareUpdateAutomation.log file may see the following error: SQLMessage = "[22018][245][Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Conversion failed when converting the varchar value 'APSB10-22' to data type…
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How to Turn Off Compression in Configuration Manager 2007 Software Distribution

September 1, 2011

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

August 30, 2011

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

August 29, 2011

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

August 28, 2011

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!

August 15, 2011

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

August 12, 2011

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?

August 9, 2011

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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A Simple Tip to Test Software Installation Using the Local System Account

July 15, 2011

As most configuration manager administrators know the local system account is used in many cases to install software. One of the biggest challenges though is testing software with the local system account. Creating a package, program, collection, advertisement, refreshing machine policy, etc all take quite a bit of time to test if the package works…
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