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.

Printers

HP Laserjet Will Not Print Multiple Copies

This is a problem I have come across a few times.  What usually happens is that a user will try to print multiple copies of something but always just receives one.  This problem is caused by Mopier Mode being enabled by default.  Mopier Mode is supposed to minimize traffic by sending 1 copy to the printer. The printer is supposed to store the one copy and use it to produce multiple copies.  Most HP Laserjets do not have enough internal memory to do this, so only 1 copy is printed.

To disable Mopier Mode:
1.  Go to Devices and Printers
2.  Right click on your HP Laserjet printer
3.  Select Printer Properties
4.  Click on the Device Settings tab
5.  Scroll down to the bottom.  You may have to expand the Installable Options
6.  Click on Mopier Mode
7.  Select Disable in the selection box that appears
8.  Click Apply

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.
Windows Server

Installing Adobe Flash Using Group Policy

Downloading The MSI’s

Before you can download the full installation msi files you must sign up with Adobe to distribute Flash.  This is free and relatively easy to do so.  At the time of this posting this was the link used to sign up.
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=distribution_form&pv=rdr
After you sign up Adobe will send you a link to the full install files.

There are 2 types of installation.  If you are only going to be running Internet Explorer on your machines you only need to download the Active X version.  You will need to download the plugin version if you are running browsers like Firefox and Chrome.

Editing The MSI’s

The msi files can be edited using Orca.  I have not tested any of the switches at this time.

Deploying Via Group Policy (GPO)

Now you are ready to deploy the package via Group Policies. The general process is to do the following:

  1. Create new GPO (or use existing GPO for same software title)
  2. Copy the install files to a network share
  3. Add MSI package
  4. Add MST transforms file (note you can only do this at the beginning, and it cannot be changed later).

Turning Off Auto Update

You can turn off the auto update by editing or creating the mmc.cfg file.  The file is located in different spots depending on you OS.  For Windows 32 bit OS’s it will be located in the C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlash directory.  For Windows 64 bit OS’s It will be located in both the C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlash and the C:WINDOWSSysWOW64MacromedFlash directories.

The mmc.cfg file I created has the following entries.
AutoUpdateDisable=1  <– “1” turns off the AutoUpdate
SilentAutoUpdateEnable=0  <–  “0” Leaves Silent off “1” Turns it on

The file must be saved using UTF-8 encoding
The file is created automatically if you install Flash using the .exe installer.  If the .msi installer is used the file will not be created.  Be aware that if you have modified the file and update your Flash using the .exe installer, your modified file will be overwritten.

I decided I didn’t want to manually copy the file so I created a startup script that copies the file for me.  I read that a logon script does not work because users may not have permissions to copy the files.  Here is what my startup script looks like.

Set oFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
sNetworkFlashPath = “\SERVERpathmms.cfg”
sLocalFlashPath = “C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlashmms.cfg”
sLocalFlashPath64 = “C:WINDOWSSysWOW64MacromedFlashmms.cfg”

If oFSO.FolderExists (“C:WINDOWSSystem32MacromedFlash”) Then
oFSO.CopyFile sNetworkFlashPath, sLocalFlashPath, True

End If

If oFSO.FolderExists (“C:WINDOWSSysWOW64MacromedFlash”) Then
oFSO.CopyFile sNetworkFlashPath, sLocalFlashPath64, True

End If

Set oFSO = Nothing

I put this startup script in my GPO that deploys the Flash software.

Windows Server

Installing Java Using Group Policy

Download Java

You need to download the full offline installation package.  As of the time of this post the link is
http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Extracting The MSI

Double click on the EXE file and leave the installation window open.

Now while that window is still open open up Windows Explorer and go to the below location and you will see the CAB and MSI files that are needed to deploy via GPO.

1 C:Users%username%AppDataLocalLowSunJavajre1.6.0_26

Note: You need to keep the setup window open for 64bit version because it removes the temp files when you cancel the install process. 32 bit doesn’t but its good practice.

Copy these files to your distribution location (or your staging area where you can modify the file using ORCA)

Modifying The MSI

So now we need to make some changes to the Java MSI installation so that it installs correctly and does not try to auto update seeing as most admins don’t give their users local admin rights. The tool that I use is ORCA, and is available for download from the Microsoft website.

Here are some common properties you can modify.  I have found that changing the update settings work, but if you check in the control panel, it appears as if nothing has changed.

Table Property Original Value Proposed Value Description
Property JAVAUPDATE 1 0 All three need to be changed to completely disable Java automatic updates
Property AUTOUPDATECHECK 1 0
Property JU 1 0
Property IEXPLORER 0 1 Activates Internet Explorer plugin
Property MOZILLA 0 1 Activates Mozilla plugin
Property SYSTRAY 1 0 Disables system tray icon when Java applets are active
Property RebootYesNo Yes No Suppresses the need to reboot – not affected by GPO that I’m aware of but does when installed manually.
Property EULA 0 1 I leave this setting to 0, however if you are installing it via the msiexec through cmd prompt you may need to set this to 1 to install without interuptions.

Once you have made the changes you are happy with you can simply save the changes to a MST (transforms) file. The transforms file simply tells the MSI to use its preferred settings, and the benefit is you can have one MSI to multiple MST files.

NOTE: if you wanted to use a transforms file, you need to create a transforms in ORCA first by clicking Transform -> New Transform, and then when you are finished you need to go to Transform -> Generate Transform.

Deploying Via Group Policy (GPO)

Now you are ready to deploy the package via Group Policies. The general process is to do the following:

  1. Create new GPO (or use existing GPO for same software title)
  2. Copy the install files to a network share
  3. Add MSI package
  4. Add MST transforms file (note you can only do this at the beginning, and it cannot be changed later).