Error importing drivers into SCCM 2012 SP1

While attempting to resolve what I thought was a malformed driver, I removed the Intel Chipset driver from SCCM. Upon attempting to re-import the driver again I was presented with this error (found in the DriverCatalog log).

“Import failed as \\server\share\driverpath\* is a Reparse Point that SMS does not support via downloads.                 DriverCatalog  06-03-2013 14:24:23”

It turns out to be a problem when the driver source location is hosted on a Server 2012 platform with data De-duplication enabled. After much googling, I found this post on technet.

"please be aware that you can run into issues with using server 2012 de-dupe.  ConfigMgr does not currently support re-parse points, so if you attempt to import a driver package or something else that has a re-parse point in it, it will fail."

One solution is to delete the files from the package source and re-copy, this will remove the re-parse points from the De-duplication database and allow SCCM to import the driver. 

The other is to exclude any directories that are used as replication parents from the data de-dupe schedule. Package source, Driver source and OS installation/updates sources should *not* be de-duped. It's annoying not being able to de-dupe these folders but it's safer than having driver packages suddenly (and randomly) become corrupted.

It's a shame that SCCM 2012 R2 still doesn't support re-parse points as we were enjoying a 71% de-dupe rate. Maybe in the next version Microsoft will fix this problem.

Fingers crossed !

Office Customisation Tool Adding desktopfolder shortcuts

When adding shortcuts in the Office Customization Tool for the desktop for Word, Excel, Outlook etc, you will get the follow error message, please note that if I look at the pre-configured shortcuts for the start menu, they do not have a Start In folder specified.



So I added the start in folder off: C:\Program files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\
Fine, no problem right? Well by doing so and clicking OK, the OCT tool adds the same string to the Arguments field and if I try delete that and OK it, it comes back when I open it again:



Sure enough, after install when launching the programs with these shortcuts I get error messages starting with:
"Sorry, we couldn't find your file. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted? (C:\Program.doc)"

The solution is quite simple. Delete the arguments string and replace it with a space and the shortcut will function normally.

Group Policy Preferences: Enabled/Disable settings

Have you ever noticed this:

Yeah I know. Everybody has seen the power options from Group policy preferences. But have another look. You will see that all the options are colored with green.

What this means is that this settings is Active. You can turn on and off this options by using
F5 F6 F7 and F8.

• F5 activates all the options you see. Turning every option Green
• F6 activates only the chosen setting. Turning it green (you can use TAB to choose or click it with your mouse)
• F7 Disables only the chosen setting. Turning the color to red/white
• F8 Disables all the settings. Turning every option into red/white

When the color is red/white the setting will not come into the play. In other words, 

you disable the option completely.

Here is a picture with all the settings disabled so you can see the difference.

Another interesting thing is that regional settings are red/white by default. Thereby these settings will not be turned on until you use the F5 or F6 key. I wonder how many people that did not know this. It was new to me at least.

You can also right click the setting you have made and view the xml to verify that the option is really on.

Update MS Doc: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754299.aspx
* This post was copied verbatim from an article I found a while back. It was reposted here for my reference.