Monday, February 25, 2013

Windows 8 - Modify Lock Screen Timeout Period

So I am doing some tuning of my new Windows 8 Enterprise install and one of the things I like to change is the Lock Screen timeout. Essentially this is the setting that turns off your monitor(s) a minute after you lock your computer. If I am just stepping away for a moment I don't like to have to wake my monitors back up again every time I step away, especially if you have older monitors that take extra time to wake up.

So the first thing you need to do is enable the power setting that controls this feature in the registry. Copy the following code to a text file and save it as LockScreen.reg:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7]

"Attributes"=dword:00000002
Go ahead and run the registry file once its created.

Once you have changed the registry setting go into the Control Panel then Power Options. From here you want to Change plan settings of the currently selected plan.

 Then you want to Change advanced power settings

In the Advanced settings scroll down and expand Display. Then expand Console lock display off timeout (which is the setting you enabled in the registry).  You can then adjust your timeout settings for On battery and Plugged in.

Once you have made your changes Click OK and you are done!


More to come!


If you like this blog give it a g+1

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hyper-V - Importing a Server

In Hyper-V Exporting a Server I covered how to export a server out of Hyper-V. That process is fairly simple to execute. The importing process is a bit more complex and has a few more steps.

In the Actions pane Click Import Virtual Machine...

This will kick off the Import Virtual Machine wizard.On the Before You Begin Page Click Next

You will be asked to select the folder where your VM server is located. Before I began I went ahead and copied the entire VM folder for my server to its final location. This makes things easier down the road as I won't have to do a move after I import. Click Next

You will then be promped to select the virtual machine you wish to import. Make your selection and Click Next

Now you will be asked to choose the type of import you wish to perform. I selected Register the virtual machine in-place, since the server is not new and is in its final location.The second choice would be for if you are restoring from a backup, and the third would be if you are building a new machine from a template (I'll cover this in a later segment). Click Next

You will need to select the virtual network switch you want the VM to connect to. Since I just spun up this Hyper-V instance I haven't actually set up the network yet, so I left it Not Connected.Click Next

You will then be prompted to choose the virtual network switch for any snapshots that may be associated with this machine (if any). Same as before, I selected Not Connected.Click Next

You will be provided with an import summary. Click Finish to complete the import. This may take a few minutes depending on the size of the .vhdx files. You will see your newly imported VM in the Virtual Machines list pane when the import is complete.



More to come!


Like this blog, give it a g+1

Hyper-V - Exporting a Server

There may come a time where you need to move a virtual machine from one Hyper-V server to another. In my case I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows 8 Consumer Preview to Windows 8 Enterprise. In doing so I also upgraded my hard drive to a 1TB solid state drive. I have several servers in my lab setup on my laptop which I did not want to rebuild so I had to go through the process of exporting out the machines on the old drive and import them back in on the new one. I will cover the import in another segment.

The steps to export a machine are pretty simple actually. Once the VM is off simply Right Click on the one you want to export and Click Export

You will then be asked to select an export location where you want to save the files.

Once the export is complete you will be able to import them to the new machine. Simple Right?


More to come!


If you like this blog give it a g+1

SCOM 2012 - System Error 5 (0x00000005): Access is Denied

So I ran into this one during a recent deployment where we were trying to install the SilverLight Client Configuration plugin for the Web console on some of the service team's desktops. System Error 5 (0x00000005): Access is Denied

As it turns out a lot of the team is locked down pretty tight security wise and they don't have local admin rights for their PC's.

The easy fix is to Right Click on the SilverLight Client Configuration install and Run as administrator or else add the logged in user as a local administrator on the machine.

Once you do this the client will install normally, and you will be able to load the web page.


More to come!


Like this blog, give it a g+1