How to: Change computername in Windows Explorer on Windows Server 2012 R2

When you’re are using a lot of virtual machines or environments, it’s somethimes realy usefull to see in what environment or on what server you’re logged in. If created a really nice solution for my servers, basically Remote Desktop Services in different environments, that does exact my I need! I’ve changed the displayname in Windows Explorer to the value “user on server”, for example: “mark on prod-rds-01”.

You can set this new value with Group Policy Preferences or some other scripting.

1.) Create a new GPO in the Group Policy Management Console
2.) Navigate to “User Configuration / Preferences / Windows Settings / Registry
3.) Create a new registry item and browse to the following registry key:
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/CLSID/{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
4.) Change the default REG_SZ value to “%username% on %computername%”
5.) Login to the specific server where you targeted the GPO and open Windows Explorer
6.) The name of your computer has changed to “username on computername”

2015-12-04_11h19_20    2015-12-04_11h20_16    2015-12-04_11h20_48

2015-12-04_11h21_11    2015-12-04_11h21_40    2015-12-04_11h37_48

How to: Save Windows tiles in Windows 8.1 using RES Workspace Manager 2014

Whitin Windiws 8.1 users are able to add there own Windows tiles on the start screen. Here you can create your own selection of the most used applications and group them together. When you’re usning Windows 8.1 with RES Workspace Manager 2014, you can save this layout. So after logout and login again, the layout is still there.

1.) Open the RES Workspace Manager 2014 Console
2.) Navigate to Compsotion \ User Settings
3.) Create a new setting named: Save Windows Tiles
4.) Add the following two files to be saved
%LoacalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms
%LoacalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak
5.) Assign the settings to the right user(s) and Workspace
6.) Login, change your Windows tiles and logout….
7.) Browse to your PersonalSettings folder and see if there is any UPF file

2014-10-01_15h29_48    2014-10-01_16h00_58    2014-10-01_16h02_14

How to: Create shutdown, logoff and restart Windows tiles in Windows 8.1 using RES Automation Manager 2012

By default, there’s no shutdown, logoff or restart button anymore in Windows 8 and 8.1. Microsoft has released a script to create these Windows tiles. You can download this script in the Windows Gallery. In this example I’ve created the Windows tiles in Windows 8.1 using RES Automation Manager 2012.

1.) First create a Windows share where you put the PowerShell module for the Windows tiles
2.) Next I’ve created a new module with some Powershell commands
Set-Executionpolicy unrestricted -force
Import-Module \\RESMNG01\Source\CreateWindowsTile\CreateWindowsTile.pm1
New-OSCWindowsTile
3.) when you run this module on your RES AM agent(s), the new Windows Tiles will be created

Very usefull in a large environment with Windows 8 or 8.1 🙂

2013-10-28_11h51_23    2013-10-28_12h02_32    2013-10-28_12h02_46

2013-10-28_12h03_04    2013-10-28_12h03_20    2013-10-28_12h00_00

2013-10-28_12h01_46

 

RES AM 2011 “No licensed connector found for domain controller”

As we all know you can create an Active Directory User account with RES Automation Manager. To perform this job, you’ve to create a Active Directory connector within RES Automation Manager. After this you can create a new module to create a Active Directory User account based on some parameters. Let’s have a closer look at this process.

1.) First of all create a Active Directory connector unther Datastore, Setup, Connectors
2.) Check the licensing overview to see the used licenses for this connector (32 licenses)
3.) The next step is to create a new module. New Module, Provisioning, Active Directory User, Create.
I’ve used the following parameters to fill in after running the module:
– User logon name: $[UserLogonName]
     – First name: $[FirstName]
     – Last name: $[LastName]
     – Full Name: $[FirstName] $[LastName]
     – Password: $[Password]
4.) Schedule this module

When you schedule this module, you’ve to fill in the parameters above, so User logon name, First name, Last name, Full name and password. I received an error after a few seconds: “No licensed connector found for RES-DC01”. Mmmm, that’s strange. I’ve succesfully created the Active Directory connector and it is licensed! The solution for this error message is the targetname in the connector. I’ve fill in a name easy to remember, but it must be the name of your domain controller.

After that, the job completed succesfully 🙂