With the update to Windows 11 24H2, wmic is going away.
In many versions of Windows it has been possible to get the Windows serial number saved in the BIOS using the command:wmic bios get serialnumber
This can also be done with PowerShell:get-ciminstance win32_bios | select SerialNumber
So you can still get the bios key out of the bios from the command line.
Earlier today CrowdStrike release an update that can cause Windows based computer to crash to a bluescreen of death. An update to their product has been provided to stop this from impacting further computers.
If a computer is crashing to a BSOD the following can be done to get the computer to work normally.
1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment
2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
3. Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys” and delete it.
4. Boot the host normally.
Hopefully this helps my fellow techs.
When building fat Windows 10 Images it is necessary to sometimes install Windows Store apps, however you can’t just install them from the standard Windows Store, doing so will cause sysprep to fail. At no point should you try to run any Windows store apps when building an image.
DISM can be used to provision the app for all users in your image. The following is an example command using Microsoft Reader, it’s dependance of Microsoft VCLibs and finally it’s licence file:
Dism /Online /Add-ProvisionedAppxPackage /PackagePath:Microsoft.Reader_2017.612.315.3642_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.AppxBundle /DependencyPackagePath:Microsoft.VCLibs.120.00_12.0.21005.1_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx /LicensePath:Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe_e5086f30-ff13-cf16-91fb-0cc6ed9c5613.xml
To obtain the app files you must download them from the Microsoft Windows Store for Business. Sign in with a user account and find the package you are looking for.
Once you have found the app you’re looking for select offline for the licence type.
Click Manager, then no the next screen click Get App.
Now Select your Processor architecture, if 32 bit windows select x86, for 64 bit select X64, Finally select your language. Ignore the Download button at the end of the line this will download a JSON file not required for this process.
Scroll down and click the Download link under “Download the package for offline use”, this will download the Package for Reader.
The next link down the page is the licensing file for Offline install, download this preferably to the same location.
Finally after the licence link you will see “Required frameworks”, this of course depends on the app you are trying to download, these may be architecture dependent also. Download these files into the same location as well.
Once you have all the files in a single folder or location open a command prompt or powershell window with administrator privileges and change directory to the location of your downloaded files from the Windows Store.
Execute the DSIM command like the following:
Dism /Online /Add-ProvisionedAppxPackage /PackagePath:PackageFileName /DependencyPackagePath:DependencyPackageFileName /LicensePath:LicenceFilename
Once this as executed the package will install for all users, and your windows image will seal correctly.
TechNet – DISM App Package (.appx or .appxbundle) Servicing Command-Line Options
You may have noticed the Windows TEMP folder filling up with cab_XXX files on systems, probably more servers than anything. It appears that makecab.exe is trying to zip CBS log files in the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder, these files can be rather large and for some reason it’s unable successfully complete the operation, so it creates this cab file instead… every 30 minutes.
The only solution i’ve been able to find is to run the following two commands to clean up the files, the second line will remove the CbsPersist files that makecab.exe is trying to compress:
cmd.exe /c del C:\Windows\Temp\*cab* /Q
cmd.exe /c del C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\*
This appears to be a problem with relation to the Windows 8.1 Metro Apps and I resolved by doing the following (NB. critical to observe the sysprep log file (setuperr.log);
If you don’t care whatsoever for Metro Apps (which is the case in our environment) you could just run the following and remove all packages; Get-AppxPackage | Remove-AppxPackage
In Windows 10 there is a new feature added to Windows update, the P2P distribution of Windows updates. This is done to to reduce the load on Microsoft’s servers and that’s probably pretty heft given how many Windows computers are actually in the world, but maybe not so good for people with data caps or excess changes on there data usage.
Lots of people have panicked about this with some major sites saying you should turn this feature off completely, which is a stupid move on their part. This feature can be leveraged in your favour to save you some metered data.
My advice is to set this feature to On and set it to only use PCs on my Local Network.
Follow these steps:
This will restrict the sharing of updates files to your local network meaning other Windows 10 computers in your network will be able to leverage updates that they all have saving you data by only needing to download the update files once.
As of today if your still running Windows XP then you have a big problem. There will be no more security updates for Windows XP.
You may have notice this message on your computer recently as well.
You pretty much have no choice now, disconnected Windows XP from the internet or upgrade because it will just be a matter of time before you pay the price with a security breach if you havn’t already been hit.
Windows 8.1 Update 1 downloads, thats right you can download the updates now. Most of the changes in this update are designed to win back users who were unhappy with the interface changes mad in Windows 8 that are really designed for using a touch screen.
These updates must be applied in order:
x86: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2919442-x86_94ee3d715e732ed28c64b8096327375a35f5d211.msu
x64: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2919442-x64_f97d8290d9d75d96f163095c4cb05e1b9f6986e0.msu
ARM: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2919442-arm_506ed7113697c597c2859d295d562fa4311834ec.msux86: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2919355-x86_de9df31e42fe034c9a763328326e5852c2b4963d.msu
x64: download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2919355-x64_e6f4da4d33564419065a7370865faacf9b40ff72.msu
ARM: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2919355-arm_a6119d3e5ddd1a233a09dd79d91067de7b826f85.msux86: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2932046-x86_bfd8ca4c683ccec26355afc1f2e677f3809cb3d6.msu
x64: download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2932046-x64_6aee5fda6e2a6729d1fbae6eac08693acd70d985.msu
ARM: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2932046-arm_fe6acf558880d127aef1a759a8c2539afc67b5fb.msux86: download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2937592-x86_96a3416d480bd2b54803df26b8e76cd1d0008d43.msu
x64: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2937592-x64_4abc0a39c9e500c0fbe9c41282169c92315cafc2.msu
ARM: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/02/windows8.1-kb2937592-arm_860c83a0cccc0519111f57a679ae9f9d071315e5.msux86: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/03/windows8.1-kb2938439-x86_ac9aca7e41c8e818edbea0a8026189ee086f7aa2.msu
x64: download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/03/windows8.1-kb2938439-x64_3ed1574369e36b11f37af41aa3a875a115a3eac1.msu
ARM: download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/crup/2014/03/windows8.1-kb2938439-arm_4a536d9ddcd9993cbe4fbc309ebd50a18d65f954.msux86:
x64:
ARM: 
Ever had problems with Windows Offline files, e.g. you had some offline files pointing to a server that no longer exists, or it’s just being difficult. The best thing you can do is reset and clear it’s settings.