You might encounter a situation where you log on to your Windows 10 client and the Start menu is unresponsive and the taskbar remains empty.
The following two actions help to recover from the situation.
Open an administrative PowerShell window and execute the following command
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Restart Windows and check if the issue has been fixed.
Reinstall (fix) all Windows apps. This step requires internet access, as all sources are downloaded using the local app manifest information
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
Be patient and wait until the app download and installation process has been completed. Just ignore any error message and restart Windows.
The first step might fix the issue already. if this is the case, do not execute the PowerShell cmdlet described in step 2.
The other day I came across the famous "Windows Installer reconfigured the product X" error. I am going to name it an error even if the event log entry is catagorized as informational.
Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: [PRODUCT NAME]. Product Version: [VERSION]. Product Language: [LOCALE ID]. Manufacturer: [MANUFACTURER]. Reconfiguration success or error status: 0.
In preparation for an Exchange Server 2013 setup I was wondering that Event Id 1035 was logged every 4 hours. The MsiInstaller itself got triggered by the Systems Account, which is pretty normal. By using Windows Performance Recorder (WPR) and Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA) I was able to identify that the MsiInstaller was triggered when a PowerShell script got executed.
Note: WPR and WPA are part of the Windowas ADK (see Links section)
It turned out that the PowerShell script itself was part of a Nagios-style monitoring solution and was executed as part of a plug-in. The system monitoring was part of the base template of the virtual machine.
But why would a PowerShell script trigger MsiInstaller?
The script was using a Get-WmiObject query to fetch an inventory of installed software on the server.
To quote Ed Wilson (The Scripting Guy):
"This would not a terrible thing to do in your dev or test environment. However, I would not recommend querying Win32_Product in your production environment unless you are in a maintenance window."
Think of running such a query on an Exchange Server 2013 in production environment (which I did just for the sake of it) triggers the "reconfiguration" of all installed software on the server. The number of generated event log entries will drive you (as an Administrator) crazy.
If you are in need to get an inventory of the installed software on server, do not use the Win32_Product class.
Instead follow the advice given by Ed Wilson to query the Windows Registry and fetch the data provided under
HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
PowerShell Query:
Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate | Format-Table –AutoSize
Enjoy.
Changes to AutoDiscover settings in Exchange are cached by each AutoD IIS application for approximately 2 hours. If you want to have configuration changes available quickly, it required to restart the AutoD application pool on each Client Access Server serving AutoD request. Additionally you have top restart the MSExchangeServiceHost process as well.
You can use the following PowerShell code to restart the application pool and the MSExchangeServerHost process across all Exchange 2013 servers.
Restart Application Pool
Get-ExchangeServer | ? { $_.AdminDisplayVersion -like '*15.*'} | % { Invoke-Command -ComputerName $_.Name -ScriptBlock {Restart-WebAppPool MSExchangeAutodiscoverAppPool } }
Restart MSExchangeServiceHost
Get-ExchangeServer | ? { $_.AdminDisplayVersion -like '*15.*'} | % { Invoke-Command -ComputerName $_.Name -ScriptBlock {Restart-Service MSExchangeServiceHost } }
You need assistance with your Exchange Server setup? You have questions about your Exchange Server infrastructure and going hybrid? You are interested in what Exchange Server 2016 has to offer for your environment?
Contact me at thomas@mcsmemail.de Follow at https://twitter.com/stensitzki
When you maintain a number of servers which require to trigger the same scheduled task manually, you can simply the process by triggering the scheduled task remotely.
In this example I assume that the script is being executed on a dedicated management server (aka job server) within an Exchange Server 2013 environment. The scheduled task must exist on all servers having the same name.
Create a simple PowerShell script at a file location of your choice (i.e. D:\Scripts\Start-RemoteScheduledTasks.ps1)
$cimSession = New-CimSession -ComputerName SERVER1,SERVER2,SERVER3,SERVER4 Start-ScheduledTask TASKNAME -CimSession $cimSession Remove-CimSession $cimSession
Now create a new shortcut on your server desktop with the following configuration:
Target: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -command "& D:\Scripts\Start-RemoteScheduledTasks.ps1"
If required, select "Run as Adminstrator" in Shortcut -> Advanced settings.
Enjoiy.
This post has been published originally on my legacy blog SF-Tools.
Sometimes you need to know the version of the installed .NET Framework version quickly.
Simply use the following PowerShell one-liner:
(Get-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP\v4\Full' ).Release
Enjoy!
You have an Exchange Server 2016 organization and plan to upgrade to Cumulative Update 10. You log on to an Exchange Server, activate DAG maintenance and prepare the Server Component States for installing the new Cumulative Update.
You open an elevated PowerShell Session and start the Setup using
./Setup.exe /Mode:Upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
Out of a sudden the Exchange Server CU Setup fails while executing setup step Stopping Services with an error:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 10 Unattended Setup Copying Files... File copy complete. Setup will now collect additional information needed for installation. Languages Management tools Mailbox role: Transport service Mailbox role: Client Access service Mailbox role: Unified Messaging service Mailbox role: Mailbox service Mailbox role: Front End Transport service Mailbox role: Client Access Front End service Performing Microsoft Exchange Server Prerequisite Check Configuring Prerequisites COMPLETED Prerequisite Analysis COMPLETED Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server Preparing Setup COMPLETED Stopping Services FAILED The following error was generated when "$error.Clear(); & $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:DisableServices -Roles:($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -SetupScriptsDirectory:$RoleBinPath; & $RoleBinPath\ServiceControl.ps1 -Operation:Stop -Roles:($RoleRoles.Replace('Role','').Split(',')) -IsDatacenter:([bool]$RoleIsDatacenter) " was run: "Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ProcessCommandException: Cannot stop process "fms (2496)" because of the following error: Access is denied ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Access is denied at System.Diagnostics.ProcessManager.OpenProcess(Int32 processId, Int32 access, Boolean throwIfExited) at System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessHandle(Int32 access, Boolean throwIfExited) at System.Diagnostics.Process.get_HasExited() at Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StopProcessCommand.ProcessRecord() --- End of inner exception stack trace ---". The Exchange Server setup operation didn't complete. More details can be found in ExchangeSetup.log located in the <SystemDrive>:\ExchangeSetupLogs folder.
Why would an error like Access Denied happen while executing the Setup.exe as a member of the local Administrators security group from within an elevated PowerShell session?
The PowerShell code executed as part of the CU Setup sets the startup type of Exchange and some Windows services to Disabled. This ensures that in the case of a server reboot an automatic start of the service will not interfere partially executed the setup. After setting the startup type to Disabled the services are stopped.
The services are controlled by the ServiceControl.ps1 script which is located on the Exchange Server installation media in \Setup\ServerRoles\Common\.
The function StopServices stops services using the Stop-Service cmdlet. Due to some timing issues some services are stopped by killing the running processes using Stop-Process -Force.
The services stopped by stopping the running process are:
Executing the Stop-Process cmdlet results in the Access Denied error.
The issue is related to fact that the user account logged on the server and executing the Exchange Server Cumulatice Update does not have the local User Rights Assignment to Debug Programs.
By default the right to debug programs is assigned to the local Adminstrators security group. In secured Active Directory infrastructures the user rights assignments and local security groups are often managed using Group Policy Objects (GPO). The GPOs manage the names of local security groups, group memberships and even user rights assignments.
The client encountering the issue described above hasn't had any issues installing Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2013 in the past. So this is solution is related to the setup of Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Updates on Windows Server 2016 only. If you have any information regarding Exchange Server 2013, let me know using the comments section below.
Enjoy Exchange Server!
Recently I was facing an issue where Windows Server 2012 R2 reported remaining 22% of free disk space of one of the Exchange Server data volumes. The Exchange Server data volumes are connected using mount points.
Before trying to identify any issues in regards to hidden system files or streams, I checked the volume shadow copy configuration using the Disk Management MMC.
Windows Disk Management showed that volume C: was using a mounted volume as shadow copy target.
Examining the available disk space using the Get-Diskspace.ps1 PowerShell script, it showed that WMI was reporting the FreeSpace the same way as the Disk Management.
[PS] D:\SCRIPTS\Get-Diskspace>.\Get-Diskspace.ps1 -ComputerName EX01 Fetching Volume Data from EX01 Name Capacity (GB) FreeSpace (GB) BootVolume SystemVolume FileSystem ---- ------------- -------------- ---------- ------------ ---------- E:\ExchangeDatabases\DatabaseSet1\ 2048 1083 False False NTFS E:\ExchangeDatabases\DatabaseSet2\ 2048 445 False False NTFS E:\ExchangeDatabases\DatabaseSet3\ 2048 1219 False False NTFS E:\ExchangeDatabases\DatabaseSet4\ 2048 1091 False False NTFS
The only viable solution to reclaim the wasted disk space was to remove the shadow copy of volume C.
First I checked the current list of shadow copies using the vssadmin command line tool.
D:\>vssadmin list shadows vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool (C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp. Contents of shadow copy set ID: {eb09ce08-f8a6-47ea-b48d-2d6da7591d4e} Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 23.06.2017 16:05:56 Shadow Copy ID: {3684b224-bca2-42c4-a0b3-43b7d0db2d96} Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{df40ac48-f610-11e3-80ce-806e6f6e6963}\ Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1 Originating Machine: ex01.granikossolutions.eu Service Machine: ex01.granikossolutions.eu Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0' Type: ApplicationRollback Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, Differential
The vssadmin tool does not clearly state the path to the shadow copy volume. Therefore, it is much more convenient to identify the shadow copy target using Disk Management. But the output shows that the shadow copy is nearly six months old. So it's safe to delete this orphaned shadow copy.
You can easily delete all shadow copies of a selected volume using the following command
vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all
But it turned out that the shadow copy could not be deleted, even with administrative credentials in use.
D:\>vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool (C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp. Error: Snapshots were found, but they were outside of your allowed context. Try removing them with the backup application which created them.
Needless to say, that a well-known third party solution is in use to backup the servers. The shadow copy remainers are copies created by the backup solution and were not properly removed after backup due to a system failure during backup.
But how can you remove the current shadow copy without tempering the exisiting permissions for your account?
Simply use the Disk Management MMC to modifx the current shadow copy configuration and the shadow copy is removed.
Switch to the command line and check for existing shadow copies.
D:\>vssadmin list shadows vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool (C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp. No items found that satisfy the query.
The oprhaned shadow copy is gone.
Now open the Settings windows for the source volume again and change the Located on this volume to be the same as the source volume anfd change the Use Limit to the same value for the volume that is configured on other servers.
Enjoy Volume Shadow Copies