They aren't subtle, either.
As pointed out by @lukec on Twitter earlier today, Microsoft apparently paid to be listed as the top result when you search for ‘firefox’ on Twitter. What an odd coincidence, considering Firefox 4 was just released.
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Stupid Mistake: “The requested session access is denied” When Logging In
I was trying to assist another admin with a login issue on a Windows Server 2008 terminal server when I encountered a slightly different login error than the one he was describing. When attempting to connect to the terminal server with a user not in the Domain Administrators security group I received the following message:
“The requested session access is denied”
The problem, it turns out, was me. When connecting, I used a desktop shortcut for Remote Desktop Connect that had the “/admin” switch applied, which instructs Remote Desktop to connect to the Console session, which is restricted to administrators only. Using a regular shortcut without said switch solved the problem.
D’oh.
Old-ish News: Micorosoft Kills Off SteadyState
I’ve only used Microsoft SteadyState a few times, but it’s a great product if you can’t afford the per-seat licenses for Faronics Deep Freeze. So when I was given the task of putting together a small lab environment with old computers and no funding, SteadyState was the first thing that came to mind.
Unfortunately, when I went to download the latest version of it, 2.5, I found this notice on the download page:
ANNOUNCEMENT: Windows SteadyState will continue to be available for download through December 31, 2010. Support for Windows SteadyState will continue to be available through the Microsoft Knowledge Base portal through June 30, 2011.
This announcement does not affect your right to continue to use Windows SteadyState.
Wait, what? Further digging revealed almost no information other than a vague statement saying that SteadyState wouldn’t be updated to support Windows 7. Additionally, while the system requirements state that Windows XP SP3 is supported, there are no references to IE8 — only IE7. Even worse is the list of Windows Vista supported versions — RTM and SP1 only.
I decided to try it out on a Virtualbox VM running XP SP3 and Internet Explorer 8 (although it technically isn’t supported), as that’s what my little lab will be running, and the results were actually pretty surprising. SteadyState actually works quite well with IE8 – all of the restrictions/settings function as expected, and it’s very easy to lock everything down.
So if you’re looking for a free alternative to Deep Freeze, and running Windows XP, then SteadyState is the way to go – just make sure to grab it before December 31st of 2010, or you’re out-of-luck. If you’ve moved on to Windows 7, though, prepare to pay up for a few Deep Freeze licenses (which, to be fair, are worth the cost if you can work it in to a budget).
Update: Microsoft has published a posting on the Windows Team Blog about why SteadyState wasn’t updated for Windows 7. As some of the comments say, the whitepapers provided fall short of what most admins who use[d] SteadyState want — disk protection that isn’t available in Windows 7.
Short: Microsoft Hints at MSE Support in WHS
I received an email today welcoming me to the Microsoft Security Essentials beta (which is odd, as I’ve been in the MSE beta since it was first launched), as the following paragraph jumped out at me as I skimmed it:
Notice to Windows® Home Server customers: Microsoft Security Essentials Beta is not supported on Windows Home Server (WHS). Beta testers who have installed Microsoft Security Essentials Beta on WHS should consider uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials Beta to avoid potential incompatibility problems. Those who plan to beta test Microsoft Security Essentials Beta unsupported on WHS should wait until the next Windows Home Server update rollup currently scheduled to occur on or about September 1, 2010.
Emphasis mine. It’s not a lot to go on, but Microsoft may finally be officially adding support for their own anti-virus product to Windows Home Server. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, “Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!”
Short: Microsoft Security Essentials Upgrade Error 0×80070050
I downloaded the Microsoft Security Essentials Ongoing Beta from Microsoft Connect this evening, and as before it installed normally. However, when I tried to update it to the latest version (the setup file on Connect is very out-of-date) the definitions came in fine but the core product refused to upgrade and only provided the error code 0×80070050.
Event viewer wasn’t helpful, a reboot didn’t fix it, and neither did uninstalling/reinstalling. On a whim, though, I decided to try to the upgrade through Windows Update (after enabling Microsoft Update) and what do you know, it worked!
TL;DR Version: If you get the 0×80070050 error code while trying to upgrade MSE through the MSE program itself, enable Microsoft Update via the Windows Update Control Panel and do the upgrade from there.
Non-Tech: Unintentional Humour from Valve
When Valve was first leaking details about Steam for Mac, they released a series of images parodying ‘classic’ Apple ads. This was one:
I get what they’re trying to say – the PC is boxy and old-fashioned while the Mac is shiny and new. The unintentional humour is that while the Portal turret does it’s job adequately in its game, it’s easily defeated. The PC (or Team Fortress 2 turret) on the other hand starts out small and meek, but can be easily upgraded in to a massive powerhouse. That said, which would you rather have? Effective but locked down, or less-than-pretty but easily customizable?
Of course, I could just be reading too much in to things again.
Microsoft Launches “Canadian Open License for Government” Program
According to a letter I received in the mail today (I had no idea people still used ‘letters’ for communication anymore), Microsoft is launching a new ‘Canadian Open License for Government’ program.
The Post-It Note is for my own protection - click for a larger view
Details are rather scarce at the moment. The letter indicates that more information is available from http://www.microsoft.ca/licensing, but there isn’t even a full article present, just the following text:
Government Open License Program Announcement
On June 1st, 2010, Microsoft is launching the Government Open License program in Canada, which will reduce the cost of Open Licenses for Government organizations by approximately 20 percent. This new Volume License Program will also provide flexibility to Canadian Government organizations as customers will now have a viable option to procure licenses from their reseller of choice at competitive prices.Eligibility
With an initial purchase of five or more licenses, customers can acquire products as needed over the term of their agreement. Government organizations will also have to meet the eligibility definition requirements in order to qualify for the Government Open License Program: English – French.For more information, or to find a Microsoft reseller near you, call the Microsoft Resource Centre at (877) 568-2495.
I called the number listed, and the lady I spoke with said that she had information that was passed to her, but she was unsure if she was allowed to give it out. What did tell me wasn’t any different than what the text above said – qualifying Government organizations (definitions of ‘qualifying’ vary depending on if you are part of the government or how much funding you receive if you’re a contractor).
So in short, if you meet Microsoft’s definition of a Government organization in Canada, you can now obtain software at a 20% discount.
Rant: Microsoft Telephone Activation
I’ve blogged about Microsoft Telephone Action before, but now I’m off on a rant….
Click ‘Continue Reading’ for the wall-of-text!
Updated: Office Apps Stuck on Downloading Files from Network Shares
For a while now I was having problems opening Word and Excel (2007 and 2010) documents on my work computer. Most of the time everything would work, but every now-and-again I’d go to open something and Word or Excel would report that it was “Downloading <filename>”, and simply get stuck. Although I could click the little ‘X’ to cancel and close the window, the process for either Word or Excel would stay active, and any attempts to kill it would fail. In the end, I’d have to hard power off the computer to get it to shutdown, and then do a cold boot.
Oh, 'Downloading' message, how I hate thee.
I wasn’t really bothered by it until a few of my users started reporting the same problem. I had a look in to it, and after a lot of fiddling, came across two Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that eventually led me to a solution.
By adding the registry value from the first KB article linked above (EnableShellDataCaching), and by removing the Group Policy object that was creating a persistent drive mapping and replacing it with a login script (below) to map the drive, I haven’t had any further reports of the problem.
REM Login Script – Paste these lines in to a batch file, and add that .bat file to a GPO
net use z: /deletenet use z: \10.0.0.100share
Note the use of the IP Address, rather than the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) – this was essential to getting things working in the end.
