Category Archives: Windows 7

Windows 7

Group Policy Program Installation Registry

I have come across another reason why Windows will not install assigned programs in a Group Policy.  It thinks they are already installed!  I have had a few instances where a program was not installed and I could find no errors in the the event log files.  When I checked the registry there was already an entry for the program indicating that the program had already been installed via Group Policy.

Resolution

Open regedit and go to the following path
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\AppMgmt

One there you will find an entry for each program you have assigned through Group Policy.  Find the entry for the program that you are having the issue with and delete it.  The computer should attempt to install the program again once the computer is rebooted.

Windows 7, Windows Server

Goup Policy Program Assignments Not Installing

After installing some newer Windows 7 computers I ran into a problem where several computers would not install program that were assigned through Group Policy.  The majority of these computers were at remote locations using slower network connections.  I knew that the computer was receiving the policy because I could perform a gpupdate /force and the computer would indicate that a restart was needed to install the program.  After checking the event logs of these computer I saw 2 different events.

Event 1129: The processing of Group Policy failed because of lack of network connectivity to a domain controller. This may be a transient condition. A success message would be generated once the machine gets connected to the domain controller and Group Policy has successfully processed. If you do not see a success message for several hours, then contact your administrator.

Event 1055:  The processing of Group Policy failed. Windows could not resolve the computer name. This could be caused by one of more of the following:
a) Name Resolution failure on the current domain controller.
b) Active Directory Replication Latency (an account created on another domain controller has not replicated to the current domain controller).

I figured out the issue was slow connectivity to the network, so I had to make a few changes in Group Policy accommodate for this.

1.  Computer Configuration > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Logon
Setting Name: Always wait for network at computer startup and logon
I changed this to enabled.

2.  Computer Configuration > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Group Policy
Setting Name: Startup policy processing wait time
I enabled this setting and set the wait time to 60 seconds.  This forces the computer to wait at least 60 seconds before moves on without network connection.

I had to make these changes on the local PC Group Policy using the gpedit.msc because these setting were not on our Server 2003 Group Policy. I would assume that these setting are in later versions of MS Server.

Printers, Windows 7

Network Printer Disappears

I have run into a problem where I install a networked printer on a computer as a local printer and once I reboot the computer the printer disappears.  I made sure the printer was available, and I could reinstall the printer, but as soon as I restarted the computer it would disappear again.

I realized the problem had to do with the share name.  Even though I was not sharing the printer through the computer I needed to have a share name on the printer.  Usually one is provided during the install, but I have found that occasionally the field is blank during the install process.  If one is not provided, usually all you have to do is click the share button.  Once you do this, a name usually appears.  Then just click Do not share printer.

Here is a screen shot of the install showing the share name blank.

As you can see once I click Share this printer a name is populated.  You can change this to whatever you want.

You can see that when I click on Do not share, the name stays populated.

 

I have had this problem on 3 different computers, and this fix has worked every time.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

OpenOffice Java Is Defective Error

When attempting to use the letter wizard in OpenOffice an error occured indicating that  Java was defective. This issue appears to be a result of using Java 7.  Many forums I visited suggested downgrading Java to a version 6.  DO NOT DO THIS!  There is a better and easier way of resolving this issue.  You need to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Restributable. 

The link at the time of this wrinting to download the C++ 2010 Library is:  http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/C/5BC5DBB3-652D-4DCE-B14A-475AB85EEF6E/vcredist_x86.exe

 

Windows 7, Windows Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Adobe Flash Player Error 2753

While trying to push out the 2 different Adobe Flash Player .msi install files via Group Policy, I noticed a few computers were not being updated by one or both of the installers.  I looked in the Event Viewer of these computers and found my error on the Applications tab.  The error was 2753: The file “InstallAX.exe” is not marked for installation.  I found the file name varied based on the system and which file or files were not installing.

The files names could be any of these:
InstallAX.exe
InstallAX64.exe
InstallPlugin.exe
InstallPlugin64.exe

You may also receive this error if you try to manually install the .msi file.  After a little research I found that this error is caused by some incorrect registry values for Adobe Flash Player.

Resolution

Uninstall the current version of Adobe Flash Player.  It is best to uninstall both the plugin and the activex version if they are both installed, but I found if you are only having problems with the plugin or activex you only need to uninstall that version of it if you are careful when modifying the registry in the next step.

Open up the registry editor (regedit.exe), and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTInstallerProducts.  The sub-keys in this registry key contains the installer registry settings the the software installed on the computer.

Before editing the registry, it is always best to make a backup in case you accidentally delete or change you didn’t mean to.

Every piece of software installed will be represented with a unique GUID.  Use the find function (CTRL+F) in this registry key only and search for “Adobe Flash”.  Delete the corresponding GUID key.  If you only unistalled the plugin or activex version pay attention that you only delete the keys associated with that version.  There could be more than one GUID entry that needs to be deleted so make sure to continue searching the entire HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTInstallerProductskey for “Adobe Flash” until you have deleted all the keys.

After you have deleted all the keys, close the registry editor.  Your Flash Player .msi file should now install correctly.

Windows 7, Windows Server

Windows Start Up Messages

One of the things I don’t like about Windows 7 is that it lacks any kind of start up messages, for my domain users.  When they boot up their computer all they see is “Please Wait”  I have had users think that their computer was frozen and pull the plug on it when actually it was installing a software patch via group policy.  But I found an easy fix for this in group policy.

The setting is found under Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Verbose vs Normal Status Messages
By enabling this setting you will get descriptive messages when your domain computers boot up and shut down.  I have found that it gets a little too descriptive on XP machines, but I would rather have too much info than not enough.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Resetting Forgotten Windows Passwords

Occasionally I will have a person bring me a computer with a password protected user account that they don’t know the password to.  There is commercial software that you can purchase to reset the password but why pay for it if you don’t have to.

Windows Reset Disk

Windows 7 offers you a way to reset your password using a password reset disk.  The only problem with this is that you have to have made the disk prior to forgetting the password.  Who plans for that?  But if you did plan ahead good for you.

Offline Password Reset

Now the majority of people who didn’t plan ahead.  There is a program called Offline NT Password Registry Editor.  You can download a reset CD from them directly or you can also acquire the program with the Hiren Boot CD.  I use the Hirens Boot CD

  1. Boot your computer using the Hirens Boot CD
  2. Select Offline NT Password Changer
  3. After it is loaded the first prompt will ask you to select a partition.  You need to select the partition where windows is installed. IF your are unsure try picking the largest partition
  4. You will need to select the directory path to your windows registry.  The program will check to see if it can find the path to you registry files.  If it does, it will default to that partition.  You can usually just enter through this.  I find that if it could not find the path you have selected the wrong partition.
  5. Next you need to select “Password Reset”.
  6. You will now want to select “Edit User Data and Passwords”
  7. The program will list all of the users that it finds. You can just type in the name of the user that you want to edit.
  8. You will be given a few choice once you select a user.  I have had some problems trying to edit the users password, especially in Windows 7, so I usually clear (blank) out the users password.
  9. After clearing out the password you will need save the registry changes.
  10. You can now remove the boot CD from your computer and restart.  The computer should automatically boot up and move right to the desktop.  If not you might have to type in the username your cleared out and log in with no password.
  11. Once you have logged in you can go to the control panel and select user accounts.  From there you can create a new password for your account.