Distributing cloud printers to Chromebooks in Google apps

Before you add printers we will need to have a group created with all the users you want to use the printer.  In this case we have already created a group called printers@yourdomain.com  under the groups section in the google apps management console.

Now log into your printers web interface and go to HP Web Services.  Click Enable.

After you click enable an information sheet will be printed.  There will be an email address assigned by HP to use for cloud printing.

It should look something like this.  eml72whatwhat97@hpeprint.com

Now you will need to go to google chrome and login with an admin account for google apps.

https://www.google.com/cloudprint#printers

Click on Add a Cloud-Ready Printer

Now click on HP and then click on HP Registration Page

Now enter your email address created by HP e-Print Services

Now it should tell you the printer was added successfully

You can now go back to https://www.google.com/cloudprint#printers to share your printer.  Select your printer and then click share.

Next:  Enter printers@yourdomain.com in the invite people box and click share.

Voilà! Now your Chromebooks have the printer!

Windows Update Catalog - Handy for printer drivers

The information below if from this link. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323166 

To download updates from the Windows Update Catalog, follow these steps:

Step 1: Access the Windows Update Catalog

To access the Windows Update Catalog, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx

To view a list of frequently asked questions about Windows Update Catalog, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Faq.aspx

Step 2: Search for updates from the Windows Update Catalog

To search for updates from the Windows Update Catalog, follow these steps:

1. In the Search text box, type your search terms. For example, you might type Windows Vista Security.
2. Click Search, or press ENTER.
3. Browse the list that is displayed to select the updates that you want to download.
4. Click Add for each selection to add it to the download basket.
5. To search for additional updates to download, repeat steps 2a through 2d.

Step 3: Download updates

To download updates from the Windows Update Catalog, follow these steps:

1. Click view basket under the Search box to view the download basket.
2. Verify your list of updates, and then click Download.
   
   Note If you are prompted, click Accept to accept the license agreement.
3. Select the location where you want to save the updates. You can either type the full path of the folder, or you can clickBrowse to locate the folder.
4. Click Continue to start the download.
5. When the download is complete, click Close to close the Download Window.
6. Close the Windows Update Catalog Window.
7. Find the location that you specified in step 3c.
   Note If you have downloaded device drivers for installation, go to "Installing Drivers."
8. Double-click each update, and then follow the instructions to install the update. If the updates are intended for another computer, copy the updates to that computer, and then double-click the updates to install them.

If all the items that you added to the download basket are installed successfully, you are finished.

If you want to learn about additional update services, please see the "Software Update Services for IT Professionals" section.

Installing drivers

1. Open a command prompt from the Start menu.
2. To extract the driver files, type the following command at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   expand  -F:* 
3. To stage the driver for plug and play installation or for the Add Printer Wizard, use PnPutil as described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
   937793 The staging and the installation of driver packages by using the PnP Utility (Pnputil.exe) in Windows Vista
   Note To install a cross-architecture print driver, you must already have installed the local architecture driver, and you will still need the cross-architecture copy of Ntprint.inf from another system. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   952065 You cannot install third-party printer drivers for cross-architecture support in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008

Preparing USB Drive to Install Windows from a bootable USB Drive

These steps will take you through preparing a USB ram drive (thumb drive, pen drive, or how ever you care to refer to it) so that you may use it to boot your Windows image without the need of a hard drive (or bootable CD/DVD). These steps assume you already have an ISO image.  You can use SlySoft's Virtual Clone Drive to mount your ISO.  Click here to download

BE CAREFUL TO CHOOSE THE CORRECT DISK.  MISTAKES CAN LOOSE DATA!!!

1) Run diskpart from command prompt running as administrator (right click the command prompt icon and choose "Run As Administrator")

2) Type the command: list disk to see the available disks and note the one that represents your USB thumb drive

3) Select the disk: select disk # where # is the disk you determined in the above step

4) Now that the proper disk is selected, prepare it with the clean command by typing clean

5) Now create a partition on the clean drive by typing: create partition primary

6) Select the new partition by typing: select partition 1

7) Set the partition as active by typing: active

8) Format the partition as FAT32 by typing: format fs=fat32

9) Assign the new partition by typing: assign

10) Type exit to quit diskpart

Now you are ready to copy the files. 

Typically this file will contain three folders and a file: directories: boot, EFI, and source. file: bootmgr. Simply copy these files to the prepared USB thumb drive root and you are ready to go!

With the USB drive inserted, you will either need to go into the computer's BIOS settings at boot up and arrange the boot order to place the USB drive above the system hard drive. Alternatively most systems have a "Boot Menu" keystroke such as F12 which will let you choose the device to which you want to boot.

Sysprep more than 3 times

This will have to be done every time you capture the image

1. Open up Registry Editor. (Start > Run > regedit)

2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup\Status\Sysprep Status.

3. Change the value of CleanupState to 2. (0x00000002)

4. Change the value of GeneralizationState to 7. (0x00000007)

5. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform.

6. Change the value of SkipRearm to 1. (0x00000001)

7. After done with the registry, do the following :

1. Start -> Run : msdtc -uninstall (wait few seconds)
2. Start -> Run : msdtc -install (wait few seconds)
3. Restart the machine

Print Server feeling melancholy?

I had a client contact me the other day with a print server that was feeling a little melancholy.  They said the server rebooted and then the printers were no longer listed.  All clients showed the printers were offline.  I did no find any good documents on the interwebz that helped so I thought it would be a good idea to post how we finally cheered the server up.

Error that showed when the server boots:
"Spooler SubSystem App has encountered a problem and needs to close"

Problem:
The print spooler service would start then immediately shutdown.

Step 1:  Check to see if there are any hung print jobs

• Go to c:\%windir%\system32\spool\printers
• Delete any files in that folder
• If you want to do this from a CLI
• NET STOP SPOOLER
• DEL %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS\*.* 
• NET START SPOOLER

Step 2:  Backup then remove printers in the registry to find the culprit.

• Win+R to bring up the run window
• type regedit and press enter
• go to \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers\Version-3
• Right Click on said key and click export.  This will create a backup of this information that can be restored with a simple double-click so be sure to safe this in a safe place.
• Now you can delete the subkey that you believe could be the culprit.  To test go to services and start the print spooler service.  If it shuts back down you can assume it was not the bad driver.  So back to the registry to delete another driver.
• Once we've found the problem driver we can try to download an updated driver from the vendors website.

This should cheer that server right up.

Mounting disks on a wim

Well another little bit changed in windows great is mounting wim files.  A wim (Windows Imaging File Format)  is the type of file that stores an entire hard disk.  Sometimes these need to be edited to insert files that will be copied to the hard disk during install.  Back in the day we used to use a program called imageX.  I don't think Malcolm had anything to do with it.  In 8 we will use the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) utility.

basic syntax is:
dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:c:\users\cclose\desktop\image\factory.wim /index:1 /MountDir:c:\users\cclose\desktop\image\Mount
dism /Commit-Image /MountDir:c:\users\cclose\desktop\image\Mount

Here's a link to more information from Microsoft.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824814.aspx

MBR issues - Don't do this unless you know what you are doing!!!

Drive letters in WinPe will probably be different from what you see in windows - that is normal.

I would delete the bcd store and run the commands again. Yes you should be pointing them at the reserved system partition .

Otherwise, at cmd prompt, type:

diskpart

lis vol

( Look to see the drive letter for your main windows partition - if it is D then type as below, otherwise replace D with the letter diskpart gives for the main windows partition)

sel vol d

act

exi

bcdboot d:\windows /s d:

bootsect /nt60 all /mbr

restart the pc - you're good.

Need to know?

Want a quick way to see what ports are listening on your computer?

get to a cmd prompt and type
   netstat -ao |find /i "listening"

I had a customer accidentally turn on the server firewall.  I used this command to find what was listening and then I used the firewall log to see what was dropped.  Then you can open the ports you need to use for your clients to communicate.