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Showing posts from 2015

Now Available: Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10

Throughout the latter portion of the Windows Insider program testing of Windows 10, and continuing on since the release of Windows 10 last month, one question has been very popular: Where is the Remote Server Administration Tools package for Windows 10? Finally, the wait is over: Download the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10

No KMS Key in the VLSC for Windows 10 for OPEN License

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With the release of Windows 10, many IT workers are beginning to look into it and perhaps test it for use in their organizations.  When the time comes to set up KMS activation of the new OS however, those IT staff using Microsoft's OPEN Licensing may find that something is missing... When I logged in to the Volume License Service Center recently to look up the KMS activation key for Windows 10 Enterprise, I was surprised to find that only Multiple Activation Keys (MAK) were listed.  Searching online, I came across this blog post  from someone who ended up calling Volume Licensing support to get his KMS key, but with no explaination as to why.  After digging around a bit, I happened to come across an entry in the VLSC FAQ which explains the missing key.   If you can't read that, it says: I am an Open Customer and do not see my KMS (Key Management Service) key displayed on VLSC. How can I get it?  KMS keys are no longer pre-assigned to Open agreements as use of MAK

Convert Windows 10 Pro ISO to Enterprise

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For recent builds of the Windows 10 Technical Preview, when Microsoft has released ISO images of a build they have elected not to release ISO's of Enterprise Edition.  The most recent Enterprise edition ISO available is for build 10074.  While it is possible to download and install that build, then upgrade to the more recent builds using windows update, having install media for the current version would make things much easier. The good news is, all of the bits for Enterprise edition are included in the ISO of Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview, and with a few simple commands it's possible to change from Pro to Enterprise edition. To get started, download the latest Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview ISO .  As of the time of this writing, the image currently available is build 10162.  Extract the contents of the iso into a temporary directory.  In my example, I use D:\10162\. From a command prompt, Create an empty directory to mount the wim file in, and mount the image: C

ISP DNS Hijacking breaks DirectAccess connectivity

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Edit: Thanks to Richard Hicks for commenting on this post. It seems that my understanding of exactly why things broke the way they did may have been flawed. I leave the post here for reference however, since it does describe the symptoms and the solution that worked in this particular situation. Understand however that the explanation of why the solution worked may not be correct. We recently began piloting Microsoft's DirectAccess (DA) for use connecting remote/mobile computers to our internal network over the internet.  Yesterday I received a call from a user who had been using DirectAccess for several weeks without issue, but suddenly was not able to access internal resources.  I'm documenting the issue here in hopes that it will help others experiencing similar issues with DirectAccess connections. The first thing I tried was to remote control the computer using SCCM.  When this connected successfully, I knew that the DA connection had at least established the tunnel a

Windows Update doesn't work in Windows 10 Technical Preview build 10041 on a corporate network

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After updating to the recently released build #10041 of the Windows 10 Techincal Preview, I found that Windows Update wasn't working for me.  The old style Windows Update was no longer available from the Control Panel.  The new Windows Update in the modern "Settings" app showed that I had no updates available, and last checked for updates on 2/2/2015.  If I clicked the Check Updates button, nothing seemed to happen, or occasionally the "last checked" date would flicker briefly, but not change. This PC is a member of a domain, with an active System Center Configuration Manager 2012R2 server.  As such, it would normally get it's updates from the SCCM server (which in turn pulls them through the associated WSUS server.)  However, SCCM doesn't offer updates for the Technical Preview, so that isn't an option when running a preview build of Windows 10. I found that to get Windows Update working, I had to change the policy setting which points my workst