Powershell

Right-Click Option: Showing the Collection Membership of a Resource in ConfigMgr 2012 via PowerShell

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Last week someone triggered me that it wasn’t possible to ‘just’ see all the collections that a device is a member of. The only thing I could show, and tell, him, at that moment, was the Deployments –tab in the Properties of the device. The problem with this is that it only show the collections, of which the device is a member, with a deployment targeted. So it misses all the collections, either without an deployment targeted, or with client/ antimalware settings targeted. This triggered me to create a small PowerShell script to show the Collection Membership of a specific device in a nice form. Show Collection Membership Form This script creates a nice form to show the Collection Membership of the specified device. It …

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Changing a Site Name in ConfigMgr 2012 via PowerShell

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Already a few years ago, I did a small post about Renaming your ConfigMgr Primary Site. Even though it was not a supported action, as it meant directly editing the site control file, it was sometimes necessary. Since the release of ConfigMgr 2012, I’ve had many questions if that post is still applicable. The answer on that simple, it’s not applicable for ConfigMgr 2012, as it doesn’t use the sitectrl.ct0 file in that form anymore. So, does this mean that we can’t change the site name anymore? Well, the answer on that is also, no. Of course we can still change it! The only thing to keep in mind is that we’re moving into a grey area, of what’s supported, and what’s not. PowerShell and …

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Changing the Deployment Package linked to an Automatic Deployment Rule in ConfigMgr 2012

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This week I want to devote a post to changing the Deployment Package, which is linked to an Automatic Deployment Rule. I came on this subject as I got and read some questions about it. Actually it was not just that, also the fact that the answer was usually, that it’s not possible, at leas not via the console. As I couldn’t imagine that it’s not possible I went on a small research to see where it’s stored and how we can change it. XML and WMI Let’s start with where it’s stored. In WMI it’s stored in the class SMS_AutoDeployment and then the property ContentTemplate. Here it’s stored in XML format, like this: <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-16″?><ContentActionXML xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”><PackageID>PTP00027</PackageID><ContentLocales><Locale>Locale:9</Locale><Locale>Locale:0</Locale></ContentLocales><ContentSources><Source Name=”Internet” Order=”1″/><Source Name=”WSUS” Order=”2″/><Source Name=”UNC” Order=”3″ …

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Just Released: Import Computer Form v0.7

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Today I released a public version of my Import Computer Form. Many has been written about scripts to Import Computer Information in ConfigMgr 2012, via PowerShell, but there was never a worked-out example (like all the different HTA’s there where for the previous version). That’s why I thought it would be nice to post an example form to just simply Import Computer Information in ConfigMgr 2012. Again, like with my Approval Manager, I did NOT use the PowerShell Cmdlets for ConfigMgr 2012, but just PowerShell to WMI. The main reason for that is, still the same, that using WMI, via PowerShell, is much friendlier for remote usage. Import Computer Form This public version gives the user the possibility to perform the following actions, without the …

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Updated: Approval Manager v0.8

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After I released the first public version of my Approval Manager, last week, I’ve got some nice comments on it. One of these comments was that it would be very handy to built-in some alerting. And that’s what I did in this updated version! Approval Manager This updated version gives the user the possibility to perform the following actions, without the need of access to and/ or a locally installed ConfigMgr console: Select a User from the specified Collection. Show only Approval Requests, for the selected User, that are Pending Approval. (NEW!) Show an alert when new Approval Requests, are Pending Approval, for the Users of the specified Collection. Approve, the selected, Approval Request. Deny, the selected, Approval Request. Close the form. Alerting As mentioned, …

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Managing Approval Requests in ConfigMgr 2012

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This week I want to devote a post to managing Approval Requests in ConfigMgr 2012. I’m not going to discuss whether the current model works, or not, I’m just going to say that in general it won’t work. The reason for that is simple, because it’s just one big list for everyone and every single Approval Request. To fill a small gap here, there is the Application Approval Workflow (solution accelerator), but for that also System Center 2012 – Service Manager and – Orchestrator are required. This just doesn’t fill the gap for everyone and/ or every company. So where does this leave us? Approval Manager Instead of complaining about all this, something that’s in a humans’ nature to do, we can also look at …

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Deploying Windows Server 2012 including Roles and Features with ConfigMgr 2012

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This week, for me, was all about deploying Windows Server 2012 (which is currently still in RC), with ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 (which is currently still in CTP) and MDT 2012 Update 1 (which is currently still in BETA). So it was one big test case, but it showed a lot of possibilities for the coming releases. For those who follow me on twitter this post will contain a lot more information about the short tweets that I already did the last week. For instance, the need for running your own Build-and-Capture Task Sequence got a lot smaller with Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 8), because the default install.wim will install on the C-drive ánd ConfigMgr 2012 brings Offline Servicing. So when you’re used to deploy …

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