Chris Nackers Blog

It can certainly be challenging at times to find what you need in the massive reference known as TechNet.  The search box that is provided searches all of TechNet, not just the section you happen to be in, which is unfortunate. However, thanks to Carol Bailey (Principal Technical Writer for ConfigMgr) there are a few nifty search strings you can use to help narrow down your results.  I’ve been using these for a little bit now and they work really really well for me.

Search the Configuration Manager Documentation Library

Find information online from the Documentation Library for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager.

This customized Bing query scopes your search so that you see results from the Documentation Library for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager only. It uses the search text Configuration Manager, which you can replace in the search bar with your own search string or strings, and choice of search operators, to help you narrow the search results.

Example Searches

Use the Find information online link and customize the search by using the following examples.

· Single search string: To search for topics that contain the search string Endpoint Protection, replace Configuration Manager with Endpoint Protection:

("Endpoint Protection") site:technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library meta:search.MSCategory(gg682056)

· Combining search strings: To search for topics that contain the search strings Endpoint Protection and monitoring, use the AND operator:

("Endpoint Protection") AND ("monitoring") site:technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library meta:search.MSCategory(gg682056)

· Alternative search strings: To search for topics that contain the search string Endpoint Protection or monitoring, use the OR operator:

("Endpoint Protection" OR "monitoring") site:technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library meta:search.MSCategory(gg682056)

· Exclude search strings: To search for topics that contain the search string Endpoint Protection and exclude topics about monitoring, use the NOT operator:

("Endpoint Protection)" NOT ("monitoring") site:technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library meta:search.MSCategory(gg682056)

Search Tips

Use the following search tips to help you find the information that you need:

· When you search on a page in TechNet (for example, press Ctrl-F1, and enter search terms in the Find box), the results exclude text that is in collapsed sections. If you are using TechNet in Classic view, before you search on the page, click Expand All at the top of the page, before the topic title. By default, you must first click Collapse All, and then you can click Expand All. With all sections expanded, search on the page can then search all sections on that page. If you are using TechNet in Lightweight view, this configuration does not support the Expand All option and you must manually expand individual sections that are collapsed before search on the page finds text in those sections.

Tip

To change from TechNet Lightweight view (the default) to Classic view, click the Preferences icon at the top of the page, click Classic, and then click OK.

· To search a topic in the help file, press F1, and enter search terms in the Find dialog box. The help file does not support the Expand All option and you must manually expand individual sections that are collapsed before search on the page finds text in those sections.

· Whenever possible, use the TechNet online library rather than downloaded documentation. TechNet contains the most up-to-date information and the information that you are searching for might not be in the downloaded documentation or there might be corrections or additional information online.

Ronni Pedersen has a nice walkthrough on converting your CM2012 installation from Eval to Full.

This guide will help you though the process of converting a System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Evaluation, to a Full Product Version.

Read the post here.

Ran into a really weird issue on RTM code of ConfigMgr. I was having trouble getting PXE to respond to requests so I decided I would just remove the role, uninstall WDS, clean up the remoteinstall folder and re-add everything. Just like I used to do with ConfigMgr 2007, only that doesn’t work in 2012. 

Turns out there are actually a couple issues to contend with.

The first issue is that when you uncheck the "Enable PXE support for Clients" checkbox, you don’t get the option to "Apply" settings.  If you close the dialog and re-open, you will find that the checkbox is still checked. 

The workaround for this is to first uncheck either "Enable unknown support" or "Allow this DP…" and then unselect "Enable PXE support…". This will enable the "Apply" button. 

However, this still didn’t uninstall the PXE role for me, if I opened the DP properties, I would still again see PXE enabled.  Monitoring distmgr.log I didn’t notice any changes actually happening. Hmmm…

After chatting with my fellow MVP’s about the issue, Ronni Pedersen had also run into the issue and provided me with a work-around. 

1) On the PXE tab, remove the "Enable PXE.." checkbox

2) Switch to the General tab. 

3) Update the date on the PXE certificate so it’s changed

4) Then select "Apply".  Close the dialog.

Now, you should see the change pick up in distmgr.log and you will see PXE actually remove itself and WDS uninstall. 

This is a known bug and hopefully we’ll have a fix for it soon. In the meantime, I hope this post helps someone and saves them the headache I had!

Posting this for all my RSS subscribers that might not have picked up the change.

I updated my previous post to reflect to the new DB requirements for ConfigMgr 2012 final release.

Read that post here.

Whether you attended MMS or not, you can view all the sessions for free here.  Stefan Roth has created a great PowerShell script that will go out and download all the sessions you want. 

Read his post and download the script here.

Great work Stefan!

Deployment Fundamentals – Volume 3 is crammed with a lot of useful information on how to deploy Windows 7 with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R3. We (the authors) have all been fighting with OS deployment for many years, and we simply decided to fill the book with everything we know on how to make it effective and easy to manage OS deployment in ConfigMgr. You also will find many real-world examples, including ready-made scripts and solutions you can use directly in your environment. Although this is a ConfigMgr 2007 book, there are few changes in the way OS deployment works in ConfigMgr 2012. Therefore, all of the useful insights and practical knowledge shared in this book translate easily to ConfigMgr 2012.

Discover how to – Install ConfigMgr 2007 R3 for OS deployment in multiple sites – Migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 – Create the perfect reference image – Integrate with MDT 2010 and why – Manage device drivers – Install applications and software updates – Configure your OS deployment with BitLocker and automate BIOS configuration – Extend and customize ConfigMgr 2007 OS deployment – Create custom scripts and frontends and extend the database – Install and configure User-Driven Installation (UDI) – Perform advanced troubleshooting

You can purchase the book here from Amazon.com