Tech Blog

Had a strange problem where the proxy was forcing IE to an incorrect proxy server so to fix:

1.Clear the Internet Explorer cache completely: ActiveX Controls, Cookies, History, etc..

2.Close all instances of Internet Explorer.

3.Delete all WPAD script instances. Open a command window as administrator and type the following command:

del \wpad*.dat /s

4.Clear the DNS and Netbios name caches. Open a command window as administrator and type the following commands:

ipconfig /flushdns

nbtstat –R

Done.

So further to my post about roaming profiles going screwy i.e.

When a roaming user logs off their profile isnt fully deleted meaning when they log on they get a second profile on the computer called Username.Domain.

This second profile results in a black background because the following registry key: HKEY\Current User\Control\Desktop\Wallpaper\ points at their orgininal profile which is half deleted.

To fix this you need to ensure the profile is deleted so I’d recommend a policy to turn off the PC’s off in the evening with a shutdown script to run Delprof2.exe.  If this still doesnt work then you can cheat a little and change the registry to point at the roaming profile:

Key: HKEY\Current User\Control\Desktop\Wallpaper\
Value: REG_SZ
Value: \\ProfileServer\Staff_profiles_Share\%username%.v2\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg
Although if your sensible you would have a mandory wallpaper and wouldnt have this issue (we’re not as users like pictures of their kids).

Problem:

1. Initial problem, A roaming profile user logs out and the profile isn’t deleted even though the Group policy “Remove roaming user profile on logoff” is set to delete profiles on logoff. I.e. You get this sort of thing in C:\Users\
Username.domain
Username.domain.001
Username.domain.002

The left behind profile only seem to contain “TextHarvester.Dat” i.e.
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\InputPersonalization\TextHarvester\TextHarvester.Dat

So, what is “TextHarvester.Dat”?

1. The TextHarvester.dat file is related to the Tablet Input Service (Touch and Pen input).
2. The folders are recreated when the Windows Search service is stopped and restarted.
3. Not really related but still relevant – is that Windows Vista/7 stores user profile information in the registry as well as in the filesystem so just deleting User folders isn’t good enough.
Solutions:

After a bunch of googling I found a hotfix:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2866086
Which we deployed via WSUS.

But since the faulty profiles are still there, we need to remove them so first to prevent the issue along side the hotfix:
1. Make Windows Search index only relevant stuff via group Policy.

In Group Policy, Enable…
Computer Configuration \ Policies \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Search \ Prevent indexing of certain file types
By default, when you enable this it pre-populates a list of file types including .dat.

2. Download Delprof2.exe from HelgeKlein.

3. Stop the windows search features and Tablet input services and delete the profile with Delprof2.exe, you could make a batch file as below to do this:

net stop WSearch
net stop TabletInputService
DelProf2.exe /u
net start TabletInputService
net start WSearch

Please note the above script came from here: Clicky

4. Deploy the script via shutdown GPO.

Done.

So I have a ESXi 5.1 set-up at home where I have a few Windows 7 machines running.  After connecting to a win7 VM the other day via RDP I noticed no sound was being passed.  Sound was enabled via RDP which left the VM itself, after some digging I found I had to edit the VMX file of the VM to add sound.  So after turning the VM off and browsing to the datastore I downloaded the VMX file and added these entries:

sound.present = “TRUE”

sound.virtualDev = “es1371”

sound.fileName = “-1”

sound.autodetect = “TRUE”

sound.startConnected = “TRUE”

Once I re-uploaded the VMX, Boom (literally), sound!!

I’m sure you all know what group policiesare as I’m guessing you wouldn’t be here otherwise!

Well here’s a quick how to on the settings you need to set up a login Wallpaper for Win 7:

Firstly you’ll need a Domain Controller running Server 2008 (I used R2) or a Windows 7 workstation with the AD tools installed and be logged on as a admin of some sort (preferably a Domain Admin):

1. open group policy Management.

2. Go to: Computer Configuration\Preferences\Windows Settings\Files

3. Right-click the “Files” icon and click:  New > File

4. Select Replace