Here’s a great script I thought about sharing since I find it to be very handy to assist for the following requirement.

Create a “all computers” collection for software updates and exclude various OU’s that have computers not allowed to be updated for various reasons. Please modify the RED areas with the correct information. The great part is, you don’t have to spell out the full OU name to be excluded.

Script

Pulling license data straight from the new MVLS website.

• Open Excel 2007
• Rename Sheet 1 'License Summary'
• Rename Sheet 2 'License Data'
• Delete Sheet 3

• Select the 'License Data' Worksheet
• Select Data Ribbon
• Click the 'From Web' icon

• Go to the https://licensing.microsoft.com/
• Sign in with your Windows Live ID

• Click the 'View your license summary' link

• Click the box to select the license data table
• Click 'Import'

• Click OK
• Delete column ‘A’

• On the 'License Summary' tab insert a pivot table referencing the table on the 'License Data' tab (including the column headers)

• In the PivotTable field list on the right hand side tick all 6 boxes from the top down. Should one appear in the 'Values' section below drag and drop it to the 'Row Labels' section instead

• In the 'Row Labels' section (keep doing this for each section. you will notice as you go through they will move to the right)
• Click each field in turn
• Select 'Field Settings...'

Example of the completed spreadsheet up to this point.

• On the 'Subtotals & Filters' tab
  • Select 'None'
• On the 'Layout & Print' tab
  • Select 'Show item labels in tabular form'

• On the PivotTable ribbon
• Select the PivotTable 'Options' drop down list.

• On the 'Display' tab set it to be 'Classic PivotTable' layout.
• On the Totals & Filters tab Uncheck both the "Show grand totals..." options

• On the 'License Data' tab make sure that any numeric only values in the 'Product Version' column are preceded with a ' character

• Save the file as an .xlsx file.
• Save the file as an 'XML Spreadsheet 2003' file to a share on the ConfigMgr server's system volume

• Import the file on the configmgr server by opening a command prompt, changing to the %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Configuration Manager\bin\i386 folder and running the following command:
• mvlsimport /file \\<SERVERNAME>\<SHARENAME>\<FILE>
  Example:  "E:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\bin\i386\mvlsimport" /file \package$\MVSL\MVLS.xml">\\<servername>\package$\MVSL\MVLS.xml"

I would like to give thanks to boredazfcuj’s blog at http://cid-07ee96368d0fff65.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7EE96368D0FFF65!138.entry

We all know the day comes where the customer/boss asks, “I need to see if this application is showing installed in the Add/Remove Programs”. Then you review DCM (Desired Configuration Management) and you ponder and ponder and ponder on how to make this work. Well, below is a way to accomplish this task while verifying two items at the same time. The first item is the name of the product and second item is the version of the product.

Here's what I did:

First run from a CMD prompt, “wmic path win32_product get name” and export this to a text file to refer back to while your building the DCM CI (Configuration Item).

Next Create a DCM CI and in the Setting tab, Click New, Click WQL Query.

Use the outline below to fill in the blanks to review Adobe Reader 9.1. To modify this, you will need to look at the txt file you ran in the beginning for the WMI Product Name. Match that Product Name where you see “Adobe Reader 9.1”. For the version, it’s best to go to Add/Remove Programs and click on the product, then click on “Click here for support information”.

General Tab
Display Name: Adobe Reader 9.1
Description: N/A
Namespace: Root\cimv2
Class: Win32_Product
Property: Version
WQL query Where Clause: Name='Adobe Reader 9.1'

Validation Tab
Data type: String
Details: Create a WQL Query
                   Name: WQLQuery_Adobe Reader 9.1 Version
                   Description: N/A
                   Operator: Equals
                   Value: 9.1.0
                   Severity: Error

Report a non-compliance event when this instance count fails: Checked
Instance count operator: Greater Than
Values: 0
Severity: Error

If your running IIS6.0 and running a large report, then the browser gives you an IIS error “HTTP 500”. The reason is, your default ASP Buffering Limit is generally set to 4mb. Well, as your Configuration Management database grows, your reports will grow larger. A simple rule of thumb is 1mb per 1000 records. However, I would double that for future growth.

Here’s how to resolve this issue.

1. On your SCCM server open the IIS Manager

2. Right click on the server name and click on Properties, now you should see a screen similar as shown.

3. If the “Enable Direct Metabase Edit” isn’t checked, Check that box and restart IIS.

4. Open the following file with Notepad C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\INETSRV\METABASE.XML

5. Search for “AspBufferingLimit”

6. Change to your new amount. As shown in the pic below, I set this one to 10mb.

7. Now save the file and restart IIS to make sure this file takes.

8. Run your SCCM report.

I found this on TechNet and had to work through it to make it work. I’ve added pics and better explanations on how to add and deploy the script to work for you. I found the scripts at this URL in TechNet. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/configmgrosd/thread/5924e840-eb6e-48c1-858f-766a5be625a6/

This script will detect if the current assigned value for the computer name begins with MININT, indicating that this image is bare metal image.  It then prompts the end-user to enter a new computer name.  It is primarily useful for task sequences that do both bare metal and in-place reimages.

Steps to implement the script.

3. In the folder copy the VBS script to Notepad and save the file as “askcomputername.vbs”

.

Dim sNewComputerName, oTaskSequence, sTSMachineName Set oTaskSequence = CreateObject ("Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment" ' Get the name the computer is set to receive and truncate to first 6 letters sTSMachineName = oTAskSequence("_SMSTSMachineName" sTSMachineName  = lcase(left(sTSMachineName,6)) If sTSMachineName = "minint" Then     ' The wscript.echo commands are logged in SMSTS.log for troubleshooting.     ' They are not displayed to the end user.     wscript.echo "Detected that the computer name is scheduled to receive a random value.  Prompting user to input a standard name."     sNewComputerName = InputBox ("Please enter a standard computer name.", "Computer Name", , 30,30)     oTaskSequence("OSDComputerName" = sNewComputerName     wscript.echo "Set Task Sequence variable OSDComputerName to: " & sNewComputerName Else     wscript.echo "Computer set to receive a standard name, continuing as is." End If

4. Create an SCCM package that holds this script.  Do not create a program. Leave the program blank. Add the package to the appropriate DPs

  5. Edit an existing task sequence or create a new task sequence and add a new task to Run Command Line.  Move it to occur between "Restart in Windows PE" and "Partition Disk"

  6. For the task, give it the name you want.  (e.g. AskComputerName)

  7. Select checkbox "Package" and then select the package created that has the script

  8. In the command line section, put the name of vbscript...with the file extension!

  9. Click OK

  10. When deploying an image, you will see the following box asking for the computer name.

While installing AppV at a customer, we ran into a serious problem causing time to be eaten up. Every time we tried to connect to the AppV database through the AppV management console, we received the error “0000c800”. After reviewing logs from various places, it seemed there was an authentication issue. Most of the URL's we came across on the internet and Technet kept directing us to KB articles 930470 and 930565. After calling my coworker Michael Vrabel, he stated he had the same problem and told me how to resolve it. His solution worked perfect. I'm posting the lessened learned to hopefully assist fellow techies out there who are running across the same problem.

Follow this process after you have installed all other AppV components with success and your trying to connect to the Database through the AppV Management Console while receiving an error code of “0000c800”

1. Uninstall .NET
2. Uninstall IIS
3. Reboot
4. Install IIS
5. Install .NET
6. Reboot
7. Start AppV Management Console and connect to the Database.

Even though the KB articles 930470 and 930565 wasn't able to assist us, I would still highly recommend reviewing those articles to verify all of your settings and components are configured.

Are you having issues with configuring Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point Role on SCCM??? If you are, it's most likely the large question, "Where do I get the CERT.PFX file?" Well, it's usually due to trying to figure out who to contact at Microsoft. No worries now, I'm going to tell you three ways to get this file. First way is to contact Software Assurance or your Microsoft Account Rep. Second way is to let Catapult Systems configure AI for you…in fact, let Catapult System setup and configure your SCCM. Third way and confirmed by my good buddy Jason Sandys, is to wait 90 days after Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 releases for SCCM 2007 SP2. In SCCM 2007 SP2, you will not have the need for CERT.PFX file when configuring the Asset Intelligence Synchronization Role.

Here's a few tips when configuring Asset Intelligence.

1. Make sure your server has access on port 443 to the internet.
2. You can manually synchronize once every 12 hours.
3. Make sure your hardware and software inventory are turned on within the Client Agents.
4. When enabling (Figure 1) this make sure this isn't in the middle of the day or when your SQL server is at it's peak.
5. This will increase the data size on SQL, so be prepared…TechNet estimates double in size.
6. This usually takes time to setup, so be patient like most other pieces of SCCM.

URL to Asset Intelligence in TechNet Library

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc161988.aspx

Figure 1