The following registry keys in this post control the privacy settings in Windows 10. These settings can be found in the GUI by going to SETTINGS\PRIVACY.
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The following registry keys in this post control the privacy settings in Windows 10. These settings can be found in the GUI by going to SETTINGS\PRIVACY.
Read more
Well Microsoft has changed things again since my last post that showed you how to reset the start layout in Windows 10 1709. Now with 1809 there is a new key name and it does look to be slightly random so I am now having to use a wildcard. I’m currently only testing every other build so please keep me updated if this breaks with a spring feature upgrade release.
Remove-Item 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\*$start.tilegrid$windows.data.curatedtilecollection.tilecollection' -Force -Recurse Get-Process Explorer | Stop-Process
Are you trying to reset the start layout for Windows 10 1709? Click here to find out how.
Have you tried to install Office 365 ProPlus updates during your SCCM build and capture task sequence and it never installed? Well that is most likely due to a registry key that was not updated. The update channel registry key value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration should not be pointing to your ccmcache folder. If it is, then this fix will work for you.
In order to update this key, you should run the following command before the Install Updates step in your task sequence.:
“C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\OfficeC2RClient.exe” /update SCHEDULEDTASK displaylevel=False
Note: This command must run before you attempt to install any Office 365 ProPlus software updates in your task sequence. If it does not then your update channel value will still be pointing to the ccmcache which will stop the updates from running.
Find more information here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/sum/deploy-use/manage-office-365-proplus-updates#updating-office-365-during-task-sequences-when-office-365-is-installed-in-the-base-image
You can run the following script against an SCCM collection to identify a system’s Bitlocker encryption method. This will help you find any computers that may be vulnerable to ADV180028.
Note: Your system may be vulnerable if your encryption method is set to Hardware Encryption!
$EncryptionMethod = manage-bde -status C: | Where-Object {$_ -match "Encryption Method"}
If ($EncryptionMethod -ne $Null) {
$EncryptionMethod = $EncryptionMethod.Split(":")[1].trim()
}
Else {
$EncryptionMethod = "Encryption Method not found"
}
$EncryptionMethod
Learn more about ADV180028 here.
Learn how to deploy scripts in SCCM here.
If you landed on this page you are probablly working on packaging Microsoft Teams and have been banging your head against a desk trying to figure out how to disable it from loading at startup. Fortunately for you, I figured out a solution that works 100% of the time.
What do you need?
Node.JS
Microsoft Teams
Notepad++
Where to download?
Node.JS – https://nodejs.org/en/
Microsoft Teams – https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads
Notepad++ – https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Brief background
Essentially, Microsoft Teams is a webpage in the background. It was developed with Electron which is a framework that lets developers create cross-platform desktop apps with web front-end technologies. Some other popular applications such as Skype, and Visual Studio Code were also built with using this technology.
With Electron apps, most of the source files for the application will be packaged into a file named app.asar. You can open the file in Notepad but you cannot save it since it is a READONLY file. From my experience, any changes made to it via Notepad will crash the app and prevent it from loading.
How do you do it?
npm install -g asarasar extract "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams\current\resources\app.asar" C:\Temp\asar
li>
Last but not least, it is time to repackage everything!
asar pack "C:\TEMP\asar" "C:\TEMP\app.asar" --unpack *.nodeNow that you have a customized app.asar, you can silently install Teams and also not worry about it launching at startup. See the install script below for an example:
# Install Microsoft Teams Start-Process "$PSScriptRoot\Teams_windows_x64.exe" -ArgumentList "-s" -Wait # Copy customized app.asar Copy "$PSScriptRoot\app.asar" "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Teams\current\resources\app.asar" -Force
You can use the following script to add a new module path to the PSModulePath environmental variable. Adding modules to this path will allow you to use them in your own scripts and if you have Powershell 3.0+ these modules will be automatically loaded when you call one of the custom CMDLET’s.
Notes:
Please replace the $ModulePath variable with the path that you would like to use.
$ModulePath = "YOUR PATH HERE"
$Path = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Environment").PSModulePath
$NewPath = "$ModulePath" + ";" + $Path
If($Path -notlike "*$ModulePath*") {
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Environment" -Name PSModulePath -Type String -Value "$NewPath"
}
The following script can be used in an SCCM or MDT upgrade task sequence to check if a laptop is connected to a charger. If the script detects that the laptop is not connected to a charger, it will prompt the user to connect the laptop to AC power.
$ChassisTypes = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_SystemEnclosure).ChassisTypes
Switch($ChassisTypes) {
3 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
4 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
5 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
6 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
7 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
8 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
9 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
10 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
11 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
12 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
14 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
15 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
16 { $Chassis = "Desktop" }
18 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
21 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
23 { $Chassis = "Server" }
31 { $Chassis = "Laptop" }
}
If($Chassis -eq "Laptop") {
Do {
$PowerStatus = (Get-WmiObject -Class BatteryStatus -Namespace root\wmi -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).PowerOnLine
If($PowerStatus -ne $True) {
$TSEnv = New-Object -ComObject "Microsoft.SMS.TsProgressUI"
$TSEnv.CloseProgressDialog()
$wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
$wshell.Popup("Please Connect AC Power - Click OK to Continue",0,"AC Power Check",0)
}
}
Until($PowerStatus -eq $True)
}
Since a lot of people are having issues with the start menu tiles in their images, I decided to create the following script to help others troubleshoot some common issues that may occur.
Note: This script is compatible with Windows 10 1709 and above.
The script will run through the following checks:
$CurrentUserStartMenu = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml"
$DefaultStartMenu = "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml"
If((Test-Path "$DefaultStartMenu") -eq $False) {
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "$DefaultStartMenu does not exist!"
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "Possible Solution - Use Import-StartLayout to import your start layout (You will need to login as a new user to see the changes)"
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Press any key to exit"
If($Prompt -ne $Null) {
Return
}
}
Else {
If((Get-FileHash $CurrentUserStartMenu).hash -ne (Get-FileHash $DefaultStartMenu).hash){
Write-Host "The default profile layoutmodification.xml and the current user's layoutmodification.xml do not match!" -ForegroundColor Red
Copy-Item "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml" "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml" -Force
Remove-Item 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$start.tilegrid$windows.data.curatedtilecollection.root' -Force -Recurse
Get-Process Explorer | Stop-Process
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Is your custom start layout visible when you launch the start menu? (YES, NO)"
If($Prompt -like "Y*") {
Write-Host "Solution - Copying the default profile's layoutmodification to $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml fixed the problem" -ForegroundColor Red
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Press any key to exit"
If($Prompt -ne $Null) {
Return
}
}
Else {
Write-Host "Unable to determine a solution" -ForegroundColor Red
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Press any key to exit"
If($Prompt -ne $Null) {
Return
}
}
}
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red "Confirm that the default start layout is the same start layout that you imported"
Start-Process Notepad -ArgumentList "$DefaultStartMenu"
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Is this the same layout that you imported? (YES, NO)"
If($Prompt -like "Y*") {
Remove-Item 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$start.tilegrid$windows.data.curatedtilecollection.root' -Force -Recurse
Get-Process Explorer | Stop-Process
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Is your custom start layout visible when you launch the start menu? (YES, NO)"
If($Prompt -like "Y*") {
Write-Host 'Possible Solution - Delete Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$start.tilegrid$windows.data.curatedtilecollection.root from C:\Users\Default\NTUser.dat' -ForegroundColor Green
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Press any key to exit"
If($Prompt -ne $Null) {
Return
}
}
Else {
Write-Host "Unable to determine a solution" -ForegroundColor Red
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Press any key to exit"
If($Prompt -ne $Null) {
Return
}
}
}
Else {
Write-Host "Possible Solution - Replace C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml with your custom LayoutModification.xml(You will need to login as a new user to see the changes)" -ForegroundColor Green
$Prompt = Read-Host -Prompt "Press any key to exit"
If($Prompt -ne $Null) {
Return
}
}
}
During my early testing of the Windows 10 1803 upgrade, I have noticed that Microsoft is now creating an Edge shortcut on the desktop.
This shortcut is not in the default profile but you can disable the functionality by running the following command:
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer /v "DisableEdgeDesktopShortcutCreation" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
If you are reading this, you are most likely aware that Microsoft has changed how you can configure file associations. Pre-Windows 8, we were able to configure file associations by manipulating the registry but now this method does not work because Microsoft verifies a hash key to determine if the change was made by the user.
Until recently, the only way to configure file associations in Windows 10 was to use DISM to import your file associations XML or use a GPO which would lock down your associations. Using the DISM method only worked for new users so any existing users would have to manually configure their file associations. Luckily someone named Christoph Kolbicz has reverse engineered the algorithm used by Microsoft to create the hash key so now we can programmatically configure file associations!
You are probably wondering how you can do this. Well.. Christoph has been kind enough to share a command line tool that he has created and that you can download from his website http://kolbi.cz/blog/?p=346.
How do you use it?
It’s easy! You can just run the following command to make Adobe Reader DC the default pdf reader for the current logged in user:
SetUserFTA.exe .pdf AcroExch.Document.DC
For more information about SetUserFTA.exe goto http://kolbi.cz/blog/?p=346!