Windows – Bits & Other Bytes

HOWTO: Cleaning up orphaned Appx packages that prevent #Sysprep from running on #Windows Server 2019

January 16, 2022@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Recently, I had a customer who needed to expand the number of Windows Server 2019 instances in their Citrix Virtual Apps pool to be able to support more work from home staff. As the base image was rather complex with many traditional apps (and absolutely no Appx packages in use), rather than manually build a new 2019 server image, I decided to clone one of the existing servers and then just sysprep it. However, when I ran sysprep on the cloned server – it not surprisingly failed. The reason I say not surprisingly is because the base instances were all originally Windows Server 2016 which had over time been inplace upgraded to 2019. And we all know that Microsoft doesn’t support sysprep on inplace upgraded OSes anyways. Plus – with roaming user profiles, Appx packages end up “installed” for users that don’t actually exist in the OS instance anymore, but the Appx management mechanism fails to cleanup after itself. So what’s a fellow to do?

Well – first off, give the middle finger to Microsoft, and then find a way to work around it… And if you are here reading this, I’m guessing you’ve already given that middle finger to Microsoft and are now looking for a way to work around it…

I’m about to share how I worked around it and successfully sysprepped that clone of the production 2019 instance. I will also apologize to you in advance as WordPress has made some rather undesirable changes to it’s editor and posting system and I’m currently struggling to format this post correctly, so I’m not sure how this post is actually going to turn out…

And as always before I begin:

Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

On the machine you want to sysprep, download the current DB Browser for SQLite from https://github.com/sqlitebrowser/sqlitebrowser/releases and extract to it C:\TEMP.

Make a backup of “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.srd” to C:\TEMP:

robocopy “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository” “C:\TEMP” “StateRepository-Machine.srd” /zb

Verify the only user account defined on the machine is for Administrator, and that C:\Users only contains Administrator, Default, and Public folders. Also verify that “Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList” only contains the SID for the local Administrator along with S-1-5-18, S-1-5-19, and S-1-5-20.

Before continuing, I would strongly recommend shutting down the machine at this point and taking a snapshot of it…

Launch the DB Browser using psexec (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite):

psexec -i -d -s “C:\TEMP\DB Browser for SQLite\DB Browser for SQLite.exe” “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.srd”

In the DB Browser, drop all triggers with the following SQL statements (you should be able to cut and paste the entire list below all at once into the “Execute SQL” tab and then click the “Execute all” button) :

DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERDELETE_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup_DynamicAppUriHandler”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERDELETE_PackageUser_AppExecutionAliasUser_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERDELETE_PackageUser_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERDELETE_Package_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERDELETE_PrimaryTileUser_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERDELETE_SecondaryTileUser_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_Application”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_Package”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageFamily_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageUser_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageUser_PackageFamilyUser”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageUser_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_Package_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_PrimaryTileUser_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_SecondaryTileUser_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERINSERT_User_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERUPDATE_PackageUser__Created_LongRunningTransactionUpdateDuringCommit”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTERUPDATE_Package__Created_LongRunningTransactionUpdateDuringCommit”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_Application_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_PackageFamily_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_PackageUser_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_Package_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_User_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_Application_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_PackageFamily_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_PackageUser_PackageFamilyUser”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_PackageUser_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_Package_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_SRJournal_SRJournalArchive”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_BEFOREDELETE_User_SRJournal”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_ActivityContext_ProductId”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_AppUriHandler_ProgID_Extension”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_AppxExtension_User_Package_Category_KeyString_RegistrationInformation”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_BackgroundServiceAgent_ProductId_TaskId_BackgroundSpecifier_BackgroundName_BackgroundSource_BackgroundType__WorkId”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_BundlePackage_Bundle_Version_Architecture_ResourceId__WorkId”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_DynamicAppUriHandler_ProgID_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_OptionalBundlePackage_OptionalBundle_Version_Architecture_ResourceId__WorkId”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_Package_PackageFamily_ResourceId_Architecture_Version__WorkId”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_PublisherCacheFolder_PackageExtension_FolderName”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_WorkInProgress_Key”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_XapExtension_Consumer_Supplier_ExtensionCategory_ExtensionId_SupplierTaskId__WorkId”;
DROP TRIGGER “TRG_IDX_Xap_ProductId__WorkId”;

Now, drop all the user records with the following SQL commands (clear the Execute SQL window of the trigger drop statements and paste these instead, then and execute them):

DELETE FROM PackageFamilyUser;
DELETE FROM PackageUser;
DELETE FROM PackageUserChangeLog;
DELETE FROM PrimaryTileUser;
DELETE FROM PrimaryTileUserChangeLog;
DELETE FROM DeploymentHistory;

If the machines was inplace upgraded from Windows Server 2016, drop the 2016 specific packages as well:

DELETE FROM Package where PackageFullName like “%14393%”;
DELETE FROM PackageIdentity where PackageFullName like “%14393%”;
DELETE FROM MrtApplication where DisplayNameReference like “%14393%”;
DELETE FROM MrtPackage where DisplayNameReference like “%14393%”;

Next, check Package, PackageIdentity, MrtApplication, and MrtPackage tables for left over packages from Windows Server 2016 and delete any found. Examples of these left over packages after an inplace upgrade are:

Microsoft.Windows.SecondaryTileExperience_10.0.0.0_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
windows.immersivecontrolpanel_6.2.0.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Windows.MiracastView_6.3.0.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Windows.PrintDialog_6.2.0.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy

As a side note, in my testing – these are the only packages present on a brand new 2019 installation (for comparision purposes to your installation):

1527c705-839a-4832-9118-54d4Bd6a0c89_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
c5e2524a-ea46-4f67-841f-6a9465d9d515_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
E2A4F912-2574-4A75-9BB0-0D023378592B_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
F46D4000-FD22-4DB4-AC8E-4E1DDDE828FE_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
InputApp_1000.17763.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_1000.17763.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.AccountsControl_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.AsyncTextService_10.0.17763.1_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.BioEnrollment_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.CredDialogHost_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.ECApp_10.0.17763.1_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.LockApp_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Win32WebViewHost_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.Apprep.ChxApp_1000.17763.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.CapturePicker_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.11.6.17763_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.NarratorQuickStart_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkCaptivePortal_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.OOBENetworkConnectionFlow_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.PeopleExperienceHost_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.PinningConfirmationDialog_1000.17763.1.0_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.SecHealthUI_10.0.17763.1_neutral__cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Microsoft.Windows.XGpuEjectDialog_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Windows.CBSPreview_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
windows.immersivecontrolpanel_10.0.2.1000_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Windows.PrintDialog_6.2.1.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy

In my experience, 1527c705-839a-4832-9118-54d4Bd6a0c89_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy was always the first native 2019 package when sorting by “package_ID”. Also note that there could be duplicate packages here (i.e. PrintDialog 6.2.0.0 and 6.2.1.0), so start by only deleting the older one (it will generally have a package_ID that is lower than 1527c705-839a-4832-9118-54d4Bd6a0c89_10.0.17763.1_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy).

Now recreate the trigger statements (clear the Execute SQL window of the delete statements and paste these instead and execute them):

CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERDELETE_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup_DynamicAppUriHandler AFTER DELETE ON DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled()BEGIN DELETE FROM DynamicAppUriHandler WHERE DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup=OLD._DynamicAppUriHandlerGroupID;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERDELETE_PackageUser_AppExecutionAliasUser_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup AFTER DELETE ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled()BEGIN DELETE FROM AppExecutionAliasUser WHERE User=OLD.User AND ApplicationIdentity NOT IN (SELECT ai._ApplicationIdentityID FROM ApplicationIdentity AS ai INNER JOIN Application AS a ON a.ApplicationUserModelId=ai.ApplicationUserModelId INNER JOIN PackageUser AS pu ON pu.Package=a.Package WHERE pu.User=OLD.User);DELETE FROM DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup WHERE User=OLD.User AND PackageFamily NOT IN (SELECT p.PackageFamily FROM Package AS p INNER JOIN PackageUser AS pu ON pu.Package=p._PackageID WHERE pu.User=OLD.User);END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERDELETE_PackageUser_Key AFTER DELETE ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND OLD._WorkId=0 BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=1;INSERT OR REPLACE INTO PackageUserChangelog(_Revision, _WorkId, _Created, _Deleted, User, Package, _PackageUserID, WhenOccurred, _Dictionary)SELECT 1, workid(), OLD._Created, s.LastValue, OLD.User, OLD.Package, OLD._PackageUserID, now(), NULL FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=1;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERDELETE_Package_Key AFTER DELETE ON Package FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND OLD._WorkId=0 BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=1;INSERT OR REPLACE INTO PackageChangelog(_Revision, _WorkId, _Created, _Deleted, PackageFullName, _PackageID, WhenOccurred, _Dictionary)SELECT 1, workid(), OLD._Created, s.LastValue, OLD.PackageFullName, OLD._PackageID, now(), NULL FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=1;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERDELETE_PrimaryTileUser_Key AFTER DELETE ON PrimaryTileUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND OLD._WorkId=0 BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=1;INSERT OR REPLACE INTO PrimaryTileUserChangelog(_Revision, _WorkId, _Created, _Deleted, User, TileUniqueId, WhenOccurred, _Dictionary)SELECT 1, workid(), OLD._Created, s.LastValue, OLD.User, OLD.TileUniqueId, now(), NULL FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=1;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERDELETE_SecondaryTileUser_Key AFTER DELETE ON SecondaryTileUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND OLD._WorkId=0 BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=1;INSERT OR REPLACE INTO SecondaryTileUserChangelog(_Revision, _WorkId, _Created, _Deleted, User, TileUniqueId, WhenOccurred, _Dictionary)SELECT 1, workid(), OLD._Created, s.LastValue, OLD.User, OLD.TileUniqueId, now(), NULL FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=1;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_Application AFTER INSERT ON Application FOR EACH ROW BEGIN INSERT OR IGNORE INTO ApplicationIdentity (ApplicationUserModelId) VALUES(NEW.ApplicationUserModelId);UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageIdentity, ApplicationIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 3, 1, NEW._ApplicationID, pi._PackageIdentityID, ai._ApplicationIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi CROSS JOIN Package AS p CROSS JOIN ApplicationIdentity AS ai WHERE s.Id=2 AND pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName AND p._PackageID=NEW.Package AND ai.ApplicationUserModelId=NEW.ApplicationUserModelId;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_Package AFTER INSERT ON Package FOR EACH ROW BEGIN INSERT OR IGNORE INTO PackageIdentity (PackageFamily, PackageFullName) VALUES(NEW.PackageFamily, NEW.PackageFullName);UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 1, 1, NEW._PackageID, pi._PackageIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi WHERE s.Id=2 AND pi.PackageFullName=NEW.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageFamily_SRJournal AFTER INSERT ON PackageFamily FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageFamily, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 5, 1, NEW._PackageFamilyID, NEW._PackageFamilyID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=2 ;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageUser_Key AFTER INSERT ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND NEW._WorkId=0 AND NEW._Created=0 BEGIN DELETE FROM PackageUserChangelog WHERE NEW._Created=0 AND User=NEW.User AND User=NEW.User AND Package=NEW.Package;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageUser_PackageFamilyUser AFTER INSERT ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled()BEGIN INSERT OR IGNORE INTO PackageFamilyUser (PackageFamily, User, WhenInstalled, _Revision)SELECT p.PackageFamily, NEW.User, now(), 1 FROM Package AS p INNER JOIN PackageUser AS pu ON pu.Package=p._PackageID WHERE (SELECT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM User WHERE _UserID=NEW.User AND UserSid<>X’010100000000000512000000′))AND NEW.Package=p._PackageID;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_PackageUser_SRJournal AFTER INSERT ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, User, PackageIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 2, 1, NEW._PackageUserID, NEW.User, pi._PackageIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN Package AS p CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi ON pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName WHERE s.Id=2 AND p._PackageID=NEW.Package AND pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_Package_Key AFTER INSERT ON Package FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND NEW._WorkId=0 AND NEW._Created=0 BEGIN DELETE FROM PackageChangelog WHERE NEW._Created=0 AND PackageFullName=NEW.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_PrimaryTileUser_Key AFTER INSERT ON PrimaryTileUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND NEW._WorkId=0 AND NEW._Created=0 BEGIN DELETE FROM PrimaryTileUserChangelog WHERE NEW._Created=0 AND User=NEW.User AND TileUniqueId=NEW.TileUniqueId;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_SecondaryTileUser_Key AFTER INSERT ON SecondaryTileUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled() AND NEW._WorkId=0 AND NEW._Created=0 BEGIN DELETE FROM SecondaryTileUserChangelog WHERE NEW._Created=0 AND User=NEW.User AND TileUniqueId=NEW.TileUniqueId;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERINSERT_User_SRJournal AFTER INSERT ON User FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, User, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 4, 1, NEW._UserID, NEW._UserID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=2 ;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERUPDATE_PackageUser__Created_LongRunningTransactionUpdateDuringCommit AFTER UPDATE OF _Created ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN OLD._Created=-2 AND NEW._Created>0 BEGIN DELETE FROM PackageUserChangelog WHERE User=NEW.User AND Package=NEW.Package;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTERUPDATE_Package__Created_LongRunningTransactionUpdateDuringCommit AFTER UPDATE OF _Created ON Package FOR EACH ROW WHEN OLD._Created=-2 AND NEW._Created>0 BEGIN DELETE FROM PackageChangelog WHERE PackageFullName=NEW.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_Application_SRJournal AFTER UPDATE ON Application FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageIdentity, ApplicationIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 3, 2, NEW._ApplicationID, pi._PackageIdentityID, ai._ApplicationIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi CROSS JOIN Package AS p CROSS JOIN ApplicationIdentity AS ai WHERE s.Id=2 AND pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName AND p._PackageID=NEW.Package AND ai.ApplicationUserModelId=NEW.ApplicationUserModelId;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_PackageFamily_SRJournal AFTER UPDATE ON PackageFamily FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageFamily, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 5, 2, NEW._PackageFamilyID, NEW._PackageFamilyID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=2 ;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_PackageUser_SRJournal AFTER UPDATE ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, User, PackageIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 2, 2, NEW._PackageUserID, NEW.User, pi._PackageIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN Package AS p CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi ON pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName WHERE s.Id=2 AND p._PackageID=NEW.Package AND pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_Package_SRJournal AFTER UPDATE ON Package FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 1, 2, NEW._PackageID, pi._PackageIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi WHERE s.Id=2 AND pi.PackageFullName=NEW.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_AFTER_UPDATE_User_SRJournal AFTER UPDATE ON User FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, User, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 4, 2, NEW._UserID, NEW._UserID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=2 ;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_Application_SRJournal BEFORE DELETE ON Application FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageIdentity, ApplicationIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 3, 3, OLD._ApplicationID, pi._PackageIdentityID, ai._ApplicationIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi CROSS JOIN Package AS p CROSS JOIN ApplicationIdentity AS ai WHERE s.Id=2 AND pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName AND p._PackageID=OLD.Package AND ai.ApplicationUserModelId=OLD.ApplicationUserModelId;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_PackageFamily_SRJournal BEFORE DELETE ON PackageFamily FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageFamily, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 5, 3, OLD._PackageFamilyID, OLD._PackageFamilyID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=2 ;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_PackageUser_PackageFamilyUser BEFORE DELETE ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW WHEN is_triggers_enabled()BEGIN DELETE FROM PackageFamilyUser WHERE (SELECT EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM User WHERE _UserID=OLD.User AND UserSid<> X’010100000000000512000000′))AND User=OLD.User AND PackageFamily IN (SELECT p.PackageFamily FROM Package AS p INNER JOIN PackageUser AS pu ON pu.Package=p._PackageID WHERE OLD.Package=pu.Package AND OLD.User=pu.User LIMIT 1) AND (SELECT EXISTS(SELECT 1 WHERE (SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM PackageUser AS pu INNER JOIN Package AS p ON p.rowid=pu.Package WHERE p.PackageFamily IN (SELECT p.PackageFamily FROM Package AS p INNER JOIN PackageUser AS pu ON pu.Package=p._PackageID WHERE OLD.Package=pu.Package AND OLD.User=pu.User)) <= 1));END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_PackageUser_SRJournal BEFORE DELETE ON PackageUser FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, User, PackageIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 2, 3, OLD._PackageUserID, OLD.User, pi._PackageIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN Package AS p CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi ON pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName WHERE s.Id=2 AND p._PackageID=OLD.Package AND pi.PackageFullName=p.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_Package_SRJournal BEFORE DELETE ON Package FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, PackageIdentity, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 1, 3, OLD._PackageID, pi._PackageIdentityID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s CROSS JOIN PackageIdentity AS pi WHERE s.Id=2 AND pi.PackageFullName=OLD.PackageFullName;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_SRJournal_SRJournalArchive BEFORE DELETE ON SRJournal FOR EACH ROW WHEN sroptions() & 0x00100000 != 0 BEGIN INSERT INTO SRJournalArchive(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, “Action”, ObjectId, Flags,User, PackageFamily, PackageIdentity, ApplicationIdentity,WhenOccurred, SequenceId, _Dictionary)SELECT OLD._Revision, OLD._WorkId, OLD.ObjectType, OLD.”Action”, OLD.ObjectId, OLD.Flags,OLD.User, OLD.PackageFamily, OLD.PackageIdentity, OLD.ApplicationIdentity,OLD.WhenOccurred, OLD.SequenceId, OLD._Dictionary;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_BEFOREDELETE_User_SRJournal BEFORE DELETE ON User FOR EACH ROW BEGIN UPDATE Sequence SET LastValue=LastValue+1 WHERE Id=2 ;INSERT INTO SRJournal(_Revision, _WorkId, ObjectType, Action, ObjectId, User, WhenOccurred, SequenceId)SELECT 1, workid(), 4, 3, OLD._UserID, OLD._UserID, now(), s.LastValue FROM Sequence AS s WHERE s.Id=2 ;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_ActivityContext_ProductId BEFORE INSERT ON ActivityContext FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _ActivityContextID FROM ActivityContext WHERE ProductId IS NEW.ProductId) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “ActivityContext” violates the unique index “IDX_ActivityContext_ProductId”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_AppUriHandler_ProgID_Extension BEFORE INSERT ON AppUriHandler FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _AppUriHandlerID FROM AppUriHandler WHERE ProgID IS NEW.ProgID AND Extension=NEW.Extension) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “AppUriHandler” violates the unique index “IDX_AppUriHandler_ProgID_Extension”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_AppxExtension_User_Package_Category_KeyString_RegistrationInformation BEFORE INSERT ON AppxExtension FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _AppxExtensionID FROM AppxExtension WHERE User=NEW.User AND Package=NEW.Package AND Category=NEW.Category AND KeyString IS NEW.KeyString AND RegistrationInformation=NEW.RegistrationInformation) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “AppxExtension” violates the unique index “IDX_AppxExtension_User_Package_Category_KeyString_RegistrationInformation”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_BackgroundServiceAgent_ProductId_TaskId_BackgroundSpecifier_BackgroundName_BackgroundSource_BackgroundType__WorkId BEFORE INSERT ON BackgroundServiceAgent FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _BackgroundServiceAgentID FROM BackgroundServiceAgent WHERE ProductId=NEW.ProductId AND TaskId=NEW.TaskId AND BackgroundSpecifier IS NEW.BackgroundSpecifier AND BackgroundName IS NEW.BackgroundName AND BackgroundSource IS NEW.BackgroundSource AND BackgroundType IS NEW.BackgroundType AND _WorkId=NEW._WorkId) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “BackgroundServiceAgent” violates the unique index “IDX_BackgroundServiceAgent_ProductId_TaskId_BackgroundSpecifier_BackgroundName_BackgroundSource_BackgroundType__WorkId”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_BundlePackage_Bundle_Version_Architecture_ResourceId__WorkId BEFORE INSERT ON BundlePackage FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _BundlePackageID FROM BundlePackage WHERE Bundle=NEW.Bundle AND Version=NEW.Version AND Architecture=NEW.Architecture AND ResourceId IS NEW.ResourceId AND _WorkId=NEW._WorkId AND Bundle<>0) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “BundlePackage” violates the unique index “IDX_BundlePackage_Bundle_Version_Architecture_ResourceId__WorkId”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_DynamicAppUriHandler_ProgID_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup BEFORE INSERT ON DynamicAppUriHandler FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _DynamicAppUriHandlerID FROM DynamicAppUriHandler WHERE ProgID IS NEW.ProgID AND DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup=NEW.DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “DynamicAppUriHandler” violates the unique index “IDX_DynamicAppUriHandler_ProgID_DynamicAppUriHandlerGroup”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_OptionalBundlePackage_OptionalBundle_Version_Architecture_ResourceId__WorkId BEFORE INSERT ON OptionalBundlePackage FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _OptionalBundlePackageID FROM OptionalBundlePackage WHERE OptionalBundle=NEW.OptionalBundle AND Version=NEW.Version AND Architecture=NEW.Architecture AND ResourceId IS NEW.ResourceId AND _WorkId=NEW._WorkId AND OptionalBundle<>0) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “OptionalBundlePackage” violates the unique index “IDX_OptionalBundlePackage_OptionalBundle_Version_Architecture_ResourceId__WorkId”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_Package_PackageFamily_ResourceId_Architecture_Version__WorkId BEFORE INSERT ON Package FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _PackageID FROM Package WHERE PackageFamily=NEW.PackageFamily AND ResourceId IS NEW.ResourceId AND Architecture=NEW.Architecture AND Version=NEW.Version AND _WorkId=NEW._WorkId) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “Package” violates the unique index “IDX_Package_PackageFamily_ResourceId_Architecture_Version__WorkId”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_PublisherCacheFolder_PackageExtension_FolderName BEFORE INSERT ON PublisherCacheFolder FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _PublisherCacheFolderID FROM PublisherCacheFolder WHERE PackageExtension=NEW.PackageExtension AND FolderName IS NEW.FolderName) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “PublisherCacheFolder” violates the unique index “IDX_PublisherCacheFolder_PackageExtension_FolderName”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_WorkInProgress_Key BEFORE INSERT ON WorkInProgress FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _WorkInProgressID FROM WorkInProgress WHERE “Key” IS NEW.”Key”) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “WorkInProgress” violates the unique index “IDX_WorkInProgress_Key”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_XapExtension_Consumer_Supplier_ExtensionCategory_ExtensionId_SupplierTaskId__WorkId BEFORE INSERT ON XapExtension FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _XapExtensionID FROM XapExtension WHERE Consumer IS NEW.Consumer AND Supplier=NEW.Supplier AND ExtensionCategory=NEW.ExtensionCategory AND ExtensionId=NEW.ExtensionId AND SupplierTaskId=NEW.SupplierTaskId AND _WorkId=NEW._WorkId) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “XapExtension” violates the unique index “IDX_XapExtension_Consumer_Supplier_ExtensionCategory_ExtensionId_SupplierTaskId__WorkId”‘)END;END;
CREATE TRIGGER TRG_IDX_Xap_ProductId__WorkId BEFORE INSERT ON Xap FOR EACH ROW BEGIN SELECT CASE WHEN ((SELECT _XapID FROM Xap WHERE ProductId IS NEW.ProductId AND _WorkId=NEW._WorkId) IS NOT NULL)THEN RAISE(ABORT, ‘INSERT INTO “Xap” violates the unique index “IDX_Xap_ProductId__WorkId”‘)END;END;

Close the DB Browser, and open PowerShell. Check for remaining provisioned packages against users (the output of this should be blank)

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | foreach {
$row = $_
$row.PackageUserInformation | foreach {
$info = $_
[pscustomobject]@{Package=$row.packagefullname
user=$info.UserSecurityId.sid
username=$info.UserSecurityId.Username
installstate=$info.installstate}}}

Ideally at this point, shutdown the VM and take another snapshot before attempting to run sysprep.

I would also highly recommending connecting via the VMware console as opposed to RDP to run sysprep so you can see what is actually happening (otherwise you’ll lose connection via RDP before sysprep completes running and you’ll never know if it failed or not).

If sysprep does fails, check C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setuperr.log to see what package you missed. Revert your snapshot, launch the DB Browser for SQLite again, delete the triggers, then clean up the missed package, recreate the triggers, reboot, and try your sysprep again. It may take you a few attempts to fully clean up all the necessary packages before sysprep successfully completes, but eventually you’ll get there!

Keep in mind – this is totally unsupported by Microsoft, and who knows what this may break in the future… Use the above instructions completley at your own risk!!!

Windows 10 Updates failing with error code 0x80244018

July 31, 2019@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Recently at a client site, I setup a new Windows 10 1809 VM to use as a Citrix XenDesktop template. Based on the OU the VM was in, it had a GPO configured to make it use WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) for updates. And I could see according to the WSUS console that the VM was 100% patched. But in Windows 10, when I would go to Windows Update, Windows 10 was insisting there are still updates to install, but the updates would always fail within a minute or so with an error code of 0x80244018. I even manually downloaded the updates from the MS Catalog Website and installed them using WUSA, and yet the updates still appeared as required in Windows Update, and it would still fail with an error code of 0x80244018. I won’t mention the several swear words that followed each time it occurred during my troubleshooting!

As most IT admins know by now, Microsoft got rid of logging Windows Updates to C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log and switched to using trace files. This method of logging is virtually impossible to read in it’s native format. However, Microsoft has create a PowerShell command that will allow you to export those trace files to a good old fashion text file. You just need to run Get-WindowsUpdateLog and it will spit out all those trace files to a new plain text file on your desktop called WindowsUpdate.log.

So once I had exported the trace files and opened WindowsUpdate.log with Notepad++, I found this (note – I replaced http with hxxp because WordPress loves to auto-convert to URLs without notice):

2019/07/31 08:44:35.0072804 9140 2220 DownloadManager DO job {CD46C84C-73C5-4002-8EC7-B4ACCE3140E2}, updateId = 9B908E38-BA5D-4462-81E6-C52E06A94B1A.1 failed on HTTP 403 error after retries

2019/07/31 08:44:35.0073096 9140 2220 DownloadManager DO job {CD46C84C-73C5-4002-8EC7-B4ACCE3140E2} failed, updateId = 9B908E38-BA5D-4462-81E6-C52E06A94B1A.1, hr = 0x80190193. File URL = hxxp://tlu.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/63b17f3e-3249-4b95-a9a1-3f1ca42120ae?P1=1564574112&P2=402&P3=2&P4=hqIxtfL%2f07gwB6yrYcABiDi81z9v%2bBdWhjLyxABoWb6%2fexPpEJOzWczl1UJG03oAbamU3tsIvh50mHrSB1ltlg%3d%3d, local path = C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\42dbab2cf910a424dffa836a33879dc0\DesktopDeployment.cab, The response headers = HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden: body content-type denied Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″ “

So Windows Update was ignoring WSUS and connecting directly to MS, even though the GPO was set to use my WSUS server – which is troubling to me, but not the the focal point of this writing today.

I took the File URL and pasted it into IE on the Windows 10 VM and got the following error:

2019.07.31 - 09.11.32 - SNAGIT - 0295

Ok… Now I’ve got the real reason for the 403 error. So we are using a WatchGuard M370 cluster for this customer, and have an HTTP Proxy configured – which incidentally is blocking Windows CAB files (which it does by default). So it was simply matter of adding *.microsoft.com to the HTTP Proxy Exceptions.

2019.07.31 - 09.29.10 - SNAGIT - 0296

After saving the updated configuration to the cluster, and rebooting the VM, Windows Update successfully downloaded the two outstanding updates and installed them.

So while this doesn’t address why Windows 10 felt the need to pull these updates down directly from the Microsoft servers instead of WSUS, at least now I’m no longer getting error 0x80244018, and I can roll it out to the XenDesktop users.

HOWTO: Set the creation and modification timestamp on a file via #PowerShell

November 25, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Recently, I updated one of our internal tool kits, and then packaged it for distribution. It was a busy day when I updated it, so I didn’t manage to package it on the same day as I had updated / built / compiled it. Internally, we use the date as the version number of the tool (occasionally suffixed with a letter which indicates my screw-ups in the build process on that given day). In this particular case, the version number was 2018-11-24b, indicating I updated it on 2018-11-24, and that this was the 3 revision (no suffix, a, then b) that I had created on 2018-11-24 (I found bugs in the first two after testing the packaging).

Because I wasn’t packaging on the same day as I updated it, the time stamps on my archives didn’t match the build date, so I need to change them – all of them! So I figured up PowerShell and used it instead. Below are the commands necessary to view and set both the creation and modification timestamps on a file via an elevated PowerShell prompt.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

To view the file creation timestamp:

(Get-ChildItem “c:\path\file_to_change.wim”).CreationTime

To set the file creation timestamp:

(Get-ChildItem “c:\path\file_to_change.wim”).CreationTime = ’11/24/2018 11:24AM’

To view the file modification timestamp:

(Get-ChildItem “c:\path\file_to_change.wim”).LastWriteTime

To set the file modification timestamp:

(Get-ChildItem “c:\path\file_to_change.wim”).LastWriteTime = ’11/24/2018 11:24AM’

To set the creation and modification timestamp on every single file in a folder:

foreach ($objFile in Get-ChildItem “c:\path\*”) {$objFile.Creationtime = ’11/24/2018 11:24AM’}

foreach ($objFile in Get-ChildItem “c:\path\*”) {$objFile.LastWriteTime = ’11/24/2018 11:24AM’}

HOWTO: Permanently replace the ugly Windows 10/2016 login screen background and colors for all users with #PowerShell

October 23, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

I can’t stand the default Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 logon background, and one of the first things I do when I build a new Windows template at a customer site is wipe that default background out! I typically replace it with a single solid color, and I’m kind of fond of the old blue backgrounds that came with Windows XP (or was it Windows NT 4 – or may Windows 2000, I don’t remember now) as they are easy on the eyes… Anyways – the background color I like and use has a RGB value of 58 110 165.

I used to have a basic batch file to wipe it Microsoft’s stock background out by copying an existing background over from my staging server, but with every iteration of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, the path to img100.jpg in C:\Windows\WinSxS changes. So last night I decided it was time to use some PowerShell to take care of this menace and allow the script to run on multiple platforms and software updates.

I struggled with creating a new solid color background jpg in PowerShell using the RGB value I wanted, but eventually I found some code that someone had posted elsewhere on how to create a gradient jpg, so I snagged it and set the gradient to be same at the end as the beginning, which results in a solid color all the way across. I’m sure someone with better skills than me could clean this up properly – but this suits my purposes for what I need so I stopped searching for a better way.

So basically what this script does is create a new jpg that is 640×480 in C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Staging, adjusts the accent colors for the current user and the default user profile, finds the path to img100.jpg and replaces it after taking ownership and setting appropriate ntfs rights to it, then clears out the lock screen jpgs using RoboCopy. The lock screen jpgs are owned by the System account, and Robocopy /mir /zb is the simplest way to wipe them out that I know of without using Sysinternals Suite psexec to involve System account privileges and delete the jpgs.

You definitely need to run this in an elevated PowerShell session too!

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

New-Item -Path "C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Staging" -ItemType "Directory" -Force -Confirm:$false | out-null
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
$newbackground = New-Object System.Drawing.Bitmap 640, 480
[System.Drawing.Graphics]::FromImage($newbackground).FillRectangle(
(New-Object System.Drawing.Drawing2D.LinearGradientBrush(
(New-Object System.Drawing.Point(0, 0)),
(New-Object System.Drawing.Point(640, 480)),
[System.Drawing.Color]::FromArgb(58, 110, 165),
[System.Drawing.Color]::FromArgb(58, 110, 165))),
0, 0, $newbackground.Width, $newbackground.Height)
$newbackground.Save('C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Staging\background.jpg',[System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat]::Jpeg)
copy-item -path C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Staging\background.jpg -destination c:\windows\web\wallpaper\background.jpg -force -confirm:$false
REG LOAD HKEY_USERS\ZZZ C:\USERS\DEFAULT\NTUSER.DAT
REG ADD "HKEY_USERS\ZZZ\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "StartColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffa66c39
REG ADD "HKEY_USERS\ZZZ\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "AccentColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffb51746
REG UNLOAD HKEY_USERS\ZZZ
REG ADD "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "StartColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffa66c39
REG ADD "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "AccentColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffb51746
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "StartColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffa66c39
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "AccentColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffb51746
REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent" /f /v "DefaultStartColor" /t REG_DWORD /d 0xffa66c39
takeown /f C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData /a /r /d y
takeown /f C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img100.jpg /a
icacls C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img100.jpg /grant Administrators:F
$lockscreen = "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_Z"
$tempfolder = "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\SystemData\S-1-5-18\ReadOnly\LockScreen_Temp"
$img100 = Get-ChildItem C:\Windows\WinSxS -Recurse -Include img100.jpg
write-host $img100
takeown /f $img100 /a
icacls $img100 /grant Administrators:F /q
copy-item -path c:\windows\web\wallpaper\background.jpg -destination $img100 -force -confirm:$false | out-null
copy-item -path c:\windows\web\wallpaper\background.jpg -destination C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\BlueBackground.jpg -force -confirm:$false | out-null
copy-item -path c:\windows\web\wallpaper\background.jpg -destination C:\Windows\Web\Screen\img100.jpg -force -confirm:$false | out-null
New-Item -Path $tempfolder -ItemType "Directory" | out-null
Robocopy $tempfolder $lockscreen /zb /mir /njh /njs
Remove-Item -Path $tempfolder -force -confirm:$false | out-null

HOWTO: #PowerShell script to download, extract and add #SysinternalsSuite to the path

October 18, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

I absolutely love Microsoft’s Sysinternals Suite – it’s an amazing set of tools for troubleshooting and tweaking Windows machines. Heck – there isn’t a day goes by that I don’t use at least one of the tools out of the suite. I generally try to download, extract and add the suite to the path of any computer I touch.

This morning while building a new 2016 template for a customer, I realized I had missed downloading and adding it to the path, but the VM was in a firewalled VLAN and unable to reach my staging and support server – so I couldn’t just grab the extracted directory from my staging server. This got me to thinking there must be a simple way to use a cli or script to download, extract, and add the extracted folder to the computer’s path. So I took 30 minutes and wrote one.

Basically, this script can be cut and pasted into an elevated PowerShell session, and it will grab the most recent SysinternalsSuite.zip from Microsoft, extract the .zip to C:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite, and then add C:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite to the computer’s path if it does not already exist in the path.

I’ve tested this with Windows 7, Windows 10 (1803), Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

Import-Module BitsTransfer
$url_zip = "https://download.sysinternals.com/files/SysinternalsSuite.zip"
$output_path = "C:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite"
$output_zip = $output_path + '\SysinternalsSuite.zip'
Remove-Item -Path $output_path\*.* -force -confirm:$false
New-Item -Path $output_path -ItemType "Directory" -Force -Confirm:$false | out-null
Start-BitsTransfer -Source $url_zip -Destination $output_zip
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
function Unzip
{
param([string]$zipfile, [string]$outpath)
[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory($zipfile, $outpath)
}
Unzip $output_zip $output_path
Remove-Item -Path $output_zip -force -confirm:$false
$oldpath = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" -Name PATH).path
If ($oldpath -NotLike "*SysinternalsSuite*") {
$newpath = "$oldpath;$output_path"
Set-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" -Name PATH -Value $newPath
}
$writtenpath = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" -Name PATH).path
write-host $writtenpath

HOWTO: Send “Shift + F10” to a remote #VMware / #vPro console over #RDP

May 4, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

We typically do a lot of our work at client locations over RDP to a server that resides on-prem in the client’s data center. We then use that on-prem server as a jump server to manage other systems that reside on-prem and for the most part it works well except for the occasion keyboard combo press that just won’t go through to the client machine we are remoted into via the RDP jump server. This is particularly a problem is when we are deploying Windows images to machines, which we do either via Intel’s vPro KVM controls (if it is physical) or via VMware Console (if it is virtual). Occasionally the Windows machine will fail to boot during the specialize phase of sysprep, and we need to troubleshoot the issue.

If we were physically sitting in front of the machine, the process would be pretty simple – hit Shift + F10 and a command prompt pops open, and from there you navigate to C:\Windows\Panther and access the sysprep logs using Notepad. But in our case, because we are utilizing a jump server via RDP to access the console (either vPro or VMware), Shift + F10 is being intercept by the jump server and not passed on to the vPro KVM session or the VMware Console, which means we can’t get to a command prompt to start troubleshooting. When this happens, we need to disconnect from the RDP session, and use either RealVNC Plus (for the vPro console) or the VMware client directly from our local machines over VPN, which in some cases is deathly slow at best.

After getting stuck the other day having to troubleshoot a sysprep error over VPN using vPro instead of RDP using vPro, I decided there had to be a way to script a hotkey to send Shift + F10 to the console via RDP. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything readily available, so I scripted my own using AutoIt, which I then compiled into an .exe and digitally signed with my code signing certificate.

Basically the script searches for a window that has a title of “Intel(r) AMT KVM – VNC Viewer Plus” or a window that has a title that contains ” on ” (as in Windows7 on ESXiHost” and makes the first instance it finds the active window, then sends a Shift + F10 to the window.

Now when I have to send a Shift + F10 to a remote console during troubleshooting, I simply run the correct executable on our RDP jump servers and up comes the command prompt in the remote console!

Below are the two AutoIt scripts and further down are the two compiled .exe files.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

Code for Intel(r) AMT KVM – VNC Viewer Plus:

$Title = "Intel(r) AMT KVM - VNC Viewer Plus"
WinWait ($Title)
WinActivate ($Title)
Send ("+{F10}")
Sleep (100)
Exit

Code for VMware Console:

Opt("MouseCoordMode", 0)
Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)
$Title = "[REGEXPTITLE:(?i)(.* on .*)]"

WinWait ($Title)
WinActivate ($Title)

MouseClick ( "right",9,88,1 )
Send ("+{F10}")
Sleep (100)
Exit

Already compiled and digitally signed AutoIT executables:

SendShiftF10toVMware
SendShiftF10tovPro

HOWTO: Fix Windows Server 2016 BSOD Stop 0x00000133 after a failed Cumulative Update installation (#WindowsServer2016 #BSOD #Microsoft)

May 2, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

This morning I logged into my HPE Proliant DL60 which is running Windows Server 2016 (1607) and noticed it wanted to install KB4093119, which is the “2018-04 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 for x64-based Systems (KB4093119)”. When I was done doing what I had originally logged in for, I told the update to install and reboot. After many reboots (I don’t have an LCD on the DL60, but it’s here in my office so I can tell every time it reboots by the fans), I figured something was wrong and hopped on the ILO to see what was going on where I was greeted by a BSOD loop – STOP 0x00000133 (DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION). After troubleshooting (I couldn’t even get it to boot into the current build of Microsft DaRT as it too would cause a BSOD), I decided to make a Windows Server 2016 installation USB key from the setup DVD using Rufus. (I could have booted off the DVD ISO image via the ILO, but the ILO emulates USB 2 as opposed to the physical USB 3 ports in the server, so it would have been much slower). I copied the boot.wim to my C: drive and injected the most recent driver pack into it from the current HPE Support Pack for Proliant (in the root of the HPSPP DVD, called \WIN_DRV) before copying the wim back to the USB key.

I then booted off the USB key and when the Windows Server 2016 Setup Window opened, I hit Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. I deleted C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml then ran “wpeutil reboot“. As soon as the F9 to F12 function keys became available in the Proliant POST screen, I hit F11, which eventually brought me to the Proliant boot menu. Here I selected “Windows Boot Manager” and then immediately started hitting F8 to get to the Windows boot options. This allowed me to select “Last Known Good Configuration”, which allowed the server to boot into Windows without a Stop 0x00000133 (note – selecting just “Last Known Good Configuration”, or deleting just C:\Windows\winsxs\pending.xml won’t help – I found you must do both).

I retried the Windows Update a couple of times only to have the same thing happen again and again, so I followed the above steps again and again to get Windows Server 2016 running again. Then I Googled the KB number (KB4093119) and went to the Microsoft Support article about it. At the bottom of the support article, under “How to get this update” is a link to the stand-alone installation package on the Microsoft Update Catalog website. This allowed me to download the .msu for KB4093119, which I saved to C:\DL\UPDATES as KB4093119.msu.

I rebooted once again off the Windows Server 2016 installation USB key. When the Windows Server 2016 Setup Window opened, I hit Shift + F10 to open a command prompt. In the command prompt, I ran the following two commands:

md c:\temp
dism /image:c:\ /add-package /packagepath:c:\dl\updates\KB4093119.msu /scratchdir:c:\temp

Once dism finished successfully, I rebooted the server with “wpeutil reboot”

Windows Server 2016 finally booted successfully with the Cumulative Update installed, and I did another check for updates – there were no updates left to install. I suspect these same steps would work on a Windows 10 machine that is having similar issues – although I don’t know if “Last Known Good Configuration” is an option with the most current version of Windows 10.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Approve just the #WSUS updates that are needed using #PoshWSUS and #PowerShell on a schedule

April 4, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Recently we deployed a new “do-all, be-all” server (AD, WSUS, etc) to a small client with very poor bandwidth availability. Just allowing WSUS to auto-approve every published update across all categories and all select products just wasn’t an option (and really shouldn’t be anyways) because it would have taken a month to download them over 3Mbps DSL. So I wanted to only approve and download those updates that were needed, as opposed to WSUS built-in process of automatic approve everything in a classification or product then immediately trying to download it.

For a bit more background information, typically we configure WSUS at our smaller “hands off clients” to check for new updates at 4 am daily (although I’m considering switching to manual synchronization and using PowerShell to invoke the check on a schedule that is more “robost” shall we say. This gives us about a day to vet the basic updates on our own production system (which is typically close in configuration to our smaller “hands off clients”) before the updates auto-approve after synchronization at the client locations.

In the past I have played with the native Windows Server Update Services PowerShell cmdlets, but lets be honest, they are only about half baked and certainly not ready for enterprise IT production (I’m really not sure what Microsoft was thinking). The inability to auto-accept EULAs is bad. Even worse is that if there is a EULA waiting to be accepted, Approve-WsusUpdate just pukes, exits, and refuses to acknowledge, and refuses to approve any other updates (even without EULAs on them). So this means there really is no hands free way provided by Microsoft to auto-approve just the needed updates as they come out…

After some research, I settled on PoshWSUS. In my honest opinion however, it is not well documented or supported (but it is good given the resources the author likely has at his disposal)… It took me 4 hours of scouring Google and trial and error to come up with this basic script, which simply looks at all the needed updates and approves them, in the fewest lines of PowerShell possible. In the end I had to mash together both the native WSUS PowerShell cmdlets and the PoshWSUS cmdlets to make this work, but it does work (so far anyways).

So, download PoshWSUS_2_3_1_0.zip from GitHub, drop it in C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules and lets go…

First of all, we need to find just updates that are needed – err – rather **ALL** the updates that are needed. I didn’t find a way in PoshWSUS to do this, but the native WSUS cmdlets let you do this. Great – but you can’t pipe these updates (directly out of Get-WsusUpdate) into PoshWSUS’s Approve-PSWSUSUpdate, and I couldn’t find any way to get all needed updates out of Get-PSWSUSUpdate (which can pipe to Approve-PSWSUSUpdate), so I needed to get creative… Get-PSWSUSUpdate, using a piped Where will allow you to select by the UpdateId, and Get-WsusUpdate will output UpdateId… Hmmm….

Now – how to get the UpdateId from Get-WsusUpdate to Get-PSWSUSUpdate… How about by piping the UpdateId via >> to a text file, then use foreach to read that text file into Get-PSWSUSUpdate, which then pipes to Approve-PSWSUSUpdate… It’s ugly, it’s slow, but hey it works, and should only take a minute or two to run even on the heaviest of Patch Tuesdays… And along the way, the text file needs cleaned up before being fed into Get-PSWSUSUpdate.

So here is the entire process (save this script as C:\Windows\WSUS_Updates_Approval.ps1)…

Import-Module PoshWSUS
$DNSDomainName=$env:userdnsdomain
$ThisComputersFQDN = "$env:computername"+"."+"$DNSDomainName"
Connect-PSWSUSServer -WsusServer $ThisComputersFQDN -Port 8530
$UpdateIDFile = "C:\Windows\Temp\UpdateIDFile.txt"
If (Test-Path $UpdateIDFile){Remove-Item $UpdateIDFile}
Get-WsusUpdate -Approval Unapproved -Status Needed | Select-Object UpdateId >> $UpdateIDFile
(Get-Content $UpdateIDFile| Select-Object -Skip 3) | Set-Content $UpdateIDFile
(Get-Content $UpdateIDFile| Foreach {$_.TrimEnd()}) | Set-Content $UpdateIDFile
$Groups = Get-PSWSUSGroup -Name 'All Computers'
foreach ($NewUpdateID in get-content $UpdateIDFile) {Get-PSWSUSUpdate | Where {$_.UpdateID -eq "$NewUpdateID"} | Approve-PSWSUSUpdate -Action Install -Group $Groups -Confirm:$false}

Finally, we just need to schedule this script to run on a regular basis… I typically schedule it to run every 15 minutes. To do that, run this in an Administrative Command Prompt:

schtasks /create /tn "WSUS Updates Approval" /tr "\"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe\" -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -noprofile -File C:\Windows\WSUS_Updates_Approval.ps1" /sc minute /mo 15 /st 00:02:00  /rp "*" /ru "%userdomain%\%username%"

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Nuke Windows Server 2012R2 #WSUS and start fresh without actually having to uninstall, reinstall, or even reboot!

April 3, 2018April 3, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

Recently I ended up in a situation where WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) running on a Windows Server 2012 R2 box was messed up and would have required more time to fix and clean up than I wanted to invest. So I started looked into my notes for resetting WSUS to defaults to start over, but I found conflicting information on it in the notes I had made over the years. So – off to my R&D lab for testing and here is the working results…

First, I always install SQL Express Advanced (with tools) as the default unnamed instance (MSSQLSERVER) on the server before I enable and configure the WSUS role (both of which I do via scripting). Second, I always put the WSUS content folders in D:\SHARED\WSUS. By doing so, I find this:

allows me more control over how the server is setup
allows me to cookie cutter my customers’ environments
allows my support team to already be knowledgeable with the setup before they even see / support it
allows me to script the setup, which saves me time!!!

So, back to my current issue – nuking WSUS and starting it fresh. The general process to do so is:

Stop the WSUS, WWW, and BITS services
Delete the WSUS database from the MSSQL instance
Delete and recreate the WSUS content folders
Restart the WWW and WSUS services (BITS will start on its own when needed)
Run the WSUS post-install setup utility to provision WSUS to the MSSQL instance and set the content directory
Run the WSUS Setup Configuration Wizard

Of course, it’s very simple to script all that into a repeatable process for my support team in case they run into issues with a client’s WSUS, and because I script the initial setup of WSUS, all our clients WSUS servers are configured the same, which means my script will work on all my clients WSUS servers.

So to Nuke WSUS and start it fresh, open an Administrative Command prompt and paste in the following commands (note the -Q in sqlcmd is case sensitive).

net stop /y WsusService
net stop /y w3svc
net stop /y bits
sqlcmd -Q "drop database [SUSDB]"
rd /q /s D:\SHARED\WSUS
md D:\SHARED\WSUS
net start w3svc
net start WsusService
"C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall SQL_INSTANCE_NAME="%computername%" CONTENT_DIR=D:\SHARED\WSUS
"C:\Program Files \Update Services\AdministrationSnapin\wsus.msc"

You should now have a nice clean WSUS server to start fresh with.

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.

HOWTO: Install Windows Server 2012 R2 #WSUS via script (including all prereqs)

April 3, 2018@DeanColpittsLeave a comment

It’s probably no secret that I’m a fan of scripting. I love the ability to be able to get consistent and even results on every job, install or upgrade my support team or I do. The end result is it makes installations and updates faster. And it definitely makes everyone’s life easier when trouble finds you – all you have to do is compare your broken system to a working system that is configured the same way and you can usually figure out the issue. Also I’ve been around the industry long enough to remember DOS 5, DOS 6.22, and early versions of OS/2 (not to mention the Vic20, C64 and Amiga 500s I had over the years) – I’m generally always faster on a keyboard than with a mouse (although I actually use a trackball when I’m at my desk), albeit sometimes the mouse is just simpler – but those cases are few and far between in an enterprise class IT world.

One of the tools I end up often having to install from scratch at client locations is WSUS (Windows Server Update Services). And it’s a pain in the ass to install. You need to install IIS, you need to install SQL, you need to install WSUS, and then you have to configure WSUS itself. All time consuming if you use Server Manager. But hey – breakout the Command Prompt and PowerShell and you can be done in no time with a few simple commands.

Before you follow these instructions, make sure the server you are doing this on is an already updated Windows 2012 R2 Server with all current Microsoft Updates (otherwise it may cause you extra bullshit and grief later on). Then after WSUS is installed, be to check for Microsoft Updates (hey – you could probably use your shiny new WSUS server to do that!) again to update the prerequisites you had to install before even installing WSUS.

Speaking of those prerequisites, of course WSUS on Windows Server 2012 R2 has a few prerequisites. The first one is IIS – it must be installed with specific features. Being lazy, I usually install most all the features with my catch-all IIS installation script. Open an Administrative Command Prompt and run:

DISM.EXE /enable-feature /online /featurename:IIS-ASP /featurename:IIS-ASPNET /featurename:IIS-ASPNET45 /featurename:IIS-ApplicationDevelopment /featurename:IIS-ApplicationInit  /featurename:IIS-BasicAuthentication  /featurename:IIS-CGI  /featurename:IIS-CertProvider /featurename:IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication /featurename:IIS-CommonHttpFeatures /featurename:IIS-CustomLogging  /featurename:IIS-DefaultDocument  /featurename:IIS-DigestAuthentication  /featurename:IIS-DirectoryBrowsing /featurename:IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics /featurename:IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic  /featurename:IIS-HttpCompressionStatic /featurename:IIS-HttpErrors /featurename:IIS-HttpLogging /featurename:IIS-HttpRedirect  /featurename:IIS-HttpTracing /featurename:IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility /featurename:IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication  /featurename:IIS-IPSecurity  /featurename:IIS-ISAPIExtensions /featurename:IIS-ISAPIFilter /featurename:IIS-LegacyScripts /featurename:IIS-LegacySnapIn /featurename:IIS-LoggingLibraries  /featurename:IIS-ManagementConsole /featurename:IIS-ManagementScriptingTools  /featurename:IIS-ManagementService /featurename:IIS-Metabase  /featurename:IIS-NetFxExtensibility  /featurename:IIS-NetFxExtensibility45 /featurename:IIS-ODBCLogging /featurename:IIS-Performance /featurename:IIS-RequestFiltering /featurename:IIS-RequestMonitor /featurename:IIS-Security /featurename:IIS-ServerSideIncludes  /featurename:IIS-StaticContent /featurename:IIS-URLAuthorization /featurename:IIS-WMICompatibility /featurename:IIS-WebServer  /featurename:IIS-WebServerManagementTools /featurename:IIS-WebServerRole /featurename:IIS-WebSockets /featurename:IIS-WindowsAuthentication /featurename:NetFx4Extended-ASPNET45

Next, we need to install SQL Express. I’ve been pretty much standardized on SQL Express 2014 SP2 with tools (SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe) for a while now. From the command prompt you are going to extract it to C:\TEMP then run an unattended SQL setup using these two commands from an Administrative Command Prompt (**note: this command line expects you to be using SQL Express 2014 SP2 and not a previous version of SQL Express, even if WSUS supports it**):

SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe /q /x:"c:\TEMP\SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU"
c:\TEMP\SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU\SETUP.exe /ACTION=Install /ADDCURRENTUSERASSQLADMIN /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE="AUTOMATIC" /BROWSERSVCSTARTUPTYPE="AUTOMATIC" /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,Replication,Tools /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /INDICATEPROGRESS /INSTANCEID=MSSQLSERVER /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /NPENABLED=1 /QS /ROLE=AllFeatures_WithDefaults /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="Administrators" /SQMREPORTING=0 /TCPENABLED=1

WSUS also has a prerequisite that IIS_WPG, NETWORK, NETWORK SERVICE, and SERVICE have “Log on a service” rights on the WSUS server. Unfortunately, this part is a mouse job (I haven’t done the research yet to script this). Start the Local Security Policy Management Console on the WSUS server. Navigate to Local Policies –> User Rights Assignment branch, edit the “Log on as a service” setting, and add the following four accounts (you should be able to cut and paste these into the add accounts dialog box):

IIS_WPG; NETWORK; NETWORK SERVICE; SERVICE

There is a chance IIS_WPG won’t exist, don’t worry about it, just remove it and keep on going (if it doesn’t exist now, then it isn’t going to exist when WSUS is installed either). After closing Local Security Policy, don’t forget to update the policy with “gpupdate /force” from the Administrative Command Prompt before continuing.

Now open an Administrative PowerShell and run:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name UpdateServices-Services, UpdateServices-DB -IncludeManagementTools

Once Install-WindowsFeature completes, back in the Administrative Command Prompt run:

"C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall SQL_INSTANCE_NAME="%computername%" CONTENT_DIR=D:\SHARED\WSUS

When wsusutil.exe has completed, if KB3148812, which is a May 2016 Windows Update (or later version of it, which is required for distributing Windows 10 Anniversary or new version updates) has not yet been installed on the server (this is why told you earlier to start with a fully patched Windows 2012 R2 Server because you don’t need to deal with this bullshit if you do), after installing KB3148812 (or whatever Microsoft superseded it with) you must open an Administrative PowerShell and run:

Install-WindowsFeature -Name NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45

Then, still related to KB3148812 (see my bullshit comment above – you should have started with a fully patched Windows 2012 R2 Server to begin with), open an Administrative Command Prompt and run:

"C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\wsusutil.exe" postinstall /servicing

Finally, after taking care of all the KB3148812 bullshit (I told you that you should have started with a fully patched Windows 2012 R2 Server to begin with), or if you smart enough to actually take my advice and start with a fully updated Windows 2012 R2 server, it’s finally time to the launch the WSUS console and run the configuration wizard by running this from the Administrative Command Prompt :

"C:\Program Files\Update Services\AdministrationSnapin\wsus.msc"

Lastly, if you are lazy like me, you’ll just next, next, next all the way through the WSUS Setup Wizard, skipping the “Synchronize Now” option. Once you end up at the normal WSUS console, open a new Administrative PowerShell and run:

Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Applications"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Critical Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Definition Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Security Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Service Packs"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Tools"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Update Rollups"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Updates"} | Set-WsusClassification Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Drivers"} | Set-WsusClassification -Disable Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Feature Packs"} | Set-WsusClassification -Disable Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusClassification | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Classification.Title -Eq "Upgrades"} | Set-WsusClassification -Disable Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "CAPICOM"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Dictionary Updates for Microsoft IMEs"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Exchange Server 2007 and Above Anti-spam"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Exchange Server 2013"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Exchange Server 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 1"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 3"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Design 4"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Media 2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Media V1"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Web 3"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Expression Web 4"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2012"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2014"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server 2017"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio v17"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "New Dictionaries for Microsoft IMEs"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2002/XP"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2003"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2007"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2010"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2013"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Office 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Report Viewer 2005"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Report Viewer 2008"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Report Viewer 2010"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SDK Components"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2000"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2005"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2008"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2008 R2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2012 Product Updates for Setup"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server 2014-2016 Product Updates for Setup"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "SQL Server Feature Pack"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Silverlight"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2005"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2008"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2010"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2012"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Visual Studio 2013"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows 10 LTSB"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows 2000"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows 7"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows Server 2008 R2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows Server 2012 R2"} | Set-WsusProduct Get-WsusServer | Get-WsusProduct | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Product.Title -Eq "Windows Server 2016"} | Set-WsusProduct

You can then go back to the WSUS console, select Options, and now Products and Classifications. The above PowerShell commands will give you a great Product and Classification base to start your WSUS server configuration from without all the mouse clicks during the configuration wizard.

Congratulations – you now have a fully installed and configured WSUS server!

As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.