Windows 10 Start Menu, Cortana, Not Working for Domain Users, But OK for Local Users

I looked at several of the posts out there about the issue where Windows 10 system Start Menu, Cortana, etc works fine with a local account, but when added to the domain, Start Menu hangs and Cortana/Windows Search does not work.

I tried copying the file(folder) ‘C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy’ to C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Packages\windows.immersivecontrolpanel_cw5n1h2txyewy’.

Didn't work.  Plus, the folder was the same size as what I copied.  Thought it may have been corrupted, but no change.

Went to the event log (should have went there first) and noticed all these errors from source:ESENT dealing with logging/recovery.  Error details was:
WebCacheLocal database recovery restore failed with unexpected error - 1907

Looked this up and found that deleting (actually renamed) the C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache\WebCacheV01.dat.   Now the start menu and Cortana works properly.  Wierd, but resolved.  Thanks to Cannot open up Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer in newly created profiles

WinRM Error number: -2144108526 0x80338012

I have two Windows 2012 servers in a Windows Failover cluster.  I was trying to look at the shares under the Fileserver role.  It kept spinning and returned error: “There were errors retrieving the file shares.”  One of the troubleshooting steps is to check WinRM.

When running the command:  winrm id -r:myserver
I received the standard error:


 Message = The client cannot connect to the destination specified in the request. Verify that the service on the destination is running and is accepting requests. Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the destination, most commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze and configure the WinRM service: "winrm quickconfig".  Error number:  -2144108526 0x80338012




On my workstations, winrm is working correctly, so I was unsure where the problem was.


When I run winrm enumerate winrm/config/listener  I got this weird:


Listener [Source="GPO"]
    Address = *
    Transport = HTTP
    Port = 5985
    Hostname
    Enabled = true
    URLPrefix = wsman
    CertificateThumbprint
    ListeningOn = null
Listener [Source="Compatibility"]
    Address = *
    Transport = HTTP
    Port = 80
    Hostname
    Enabled = true
    URLPrefix = wsman
    CertificateThumbprint
    ListeningOn = null
Listener [Source="Compatibility"]
    Address = *
    Transport = HTTPS
    Port = 443
    Hostname = server.network.home
    Enabled = true
    URLPrefix = wsman
    CertificateThumbprint = d1 ef b5 c3 64 48 c1 24  9b 3f h8 24 bb 68 8f 0354 27 64 df
    ListeningOn = null




The "ListeningOn = null" was strange.  I have WinRM configured using group policy.  After some research, discovered article Unable to Use Server Manager Remotely to help me realize that my group policy IPv4 filter was not set.  The article suggested that I create a new instance of the HTTP Listener for all IPs using (winrm create winrm/config/Listener?Address=*+Transport=HTTP )  .  But I have that configured in GPO.  I double checked between the two GPOs that I have for clients and servers, and discovered that I did not set an IPv4 filter for servers.


Once I entered it, ran gpupdate on servers and restared WinRM Service, all was good again.

Best Practices for Setting Folder Permissions

I thought this was a really good post on permission/ACL design on Windows file servers.
Following repost is from reference: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/c6242159-d15d-417e-91f8-eb19c0da3a35/best-practices-for-basic-ntfs-permissions-on-a-share?forum=winserverfiles




Suggested Reading
Axioms of Permissions Administration
http://networkadminkb.com/Shared%20Documents/Axioms%20of%20Permissions%20Administration.aspx
The Golden Rules of Permissions Administration
http://networkadminkb.com/Shared%20Documents/The%20Golden%20Rules%20of%20Permissions%20Administration.aspx
Differences between Authenticated Users, Domain Users, and Everyone groups
http://networkadminkb.com/kb/Knowledge%20Base/ActiveDirectory/Differences%20between%20Authenticated%20Users,%20Domain%20Users,%20and%20Everyone%20groups.aspx
Recommended NTFS Permissions for New Drives
http://networkadminkb.com/kb/Knowledge%20Base/Windows2003/Recommended%20NTFS%20Permissions%20for%20New%20Drives.aspx
Creator Owner Explained
http://networkadminkb.com/kb/Knowledge%20Base/ActiveDirectory/Creator%20Owner%20Explained.aspx
Doing security is about creating an developing a philosophy, there are many out there.  The one below is mine and works for most situations, this is just a simplified explanation of the Axioms and Golden Rules listed above.
For shares you should do the following
1) Everyone - Read  (optional not really needed but a nice just in case)
2) Authenticated Users - Change
3) Local Administators - Full Control
4) File Strucutre Administrators - Full Control
For Shares note the following:
Alway limit Authenticated Users to Change at the Share to pervent non-admin users from accidently being given Full Control to the file structure.
You should always configure Local Adminsitrators Full Control at the Share so they can administrate it remotely
You should always create and use a Files Strucutre Adminsitrators groups and assign them full control to every share.  This allows them to remotely administrater shares without being local administartors.
For your high level directories NTFS Permsisions where no files reside and only read access to folders is needed to get to the data in lower directories.
1) Authenticated Users - Read
2) Local Administators - Full Control
3) File Strucutre Administrators - Full Control
4) SYSTEM - Full Control
For NTFS in this situation note:
Alway limited Authenticated Users to Read to pervent non-admin users chaning folders and creating files here.
You should always configure Local Adminsitrators Full Control at the folder so they can administrate it remotely
You should always create and use a Files Strucutre Adminsitrators groups and assign them full control to every folder.  This allows them to remotely administrater shares without being local administartors.
For NTFS permissions where users need to write data, stop inheritance, copy permissions and replace Authenticated users to two different groups
1) Directory group - Read Only
2) Directory group - Read and Write
3) Local Administators - Full Control
4) File Strucutre Administrators - Full Control
5) SYSTEM - Full Control
For NTFS in this situation note:
Alway remove Authenticated Users so the appropriate group limite access
You should always configure Local Adminsitrators Full Control at the folder so they can administrate it remotely
You should always create and use a Files Strucutre Adminsitrators groups and assign them full control to every folder.  This allows them to remotely administrater shares without being local administartors.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverfiles/thread/68748d3a-575f-4ffa-bd98-c6b7fcb3a901

Powershell Redirection of output

Was needing to send error output from a command to the logfile.
Ran across these two articles that helped me.


Powershell Move-Item logging
You may just need to collapse the output file descriptors. According to the about_Redirection page, it should work if you do the following:

Move-Item c:\temp\*.* C:\Temp\2014 -Verbose -Force *>&1 | 
    Out-File -FilePath $MyLogPath

Or if you want to see the output at the same time

Move-Item c:\temp\*.* C:\Temp\2014 -Verbose -Force *>&1 |
    Tee-File -FilePath $MyLogPath

SMB Share in Failover Cluster - Server 2012R2

Ran into a problem with creating a SMB Transparent Failover share on our Server 2012R2 cluster.   It kept giving the error - “The request is not supported” and looking at the Event Log: Microsoft-Windows-SmbServer/Operational, there was the error: CA failure – Failed to set continuously available property on a new or existing file share as Resume Key filter is not started.


After some research, ran across the article from https://blog.workinghardinit.work: https://blog.workinghardinit.work/2012/09/28/continuously-available-file-shares-in-dont-support-short-file-names-the-request-is-not-supported-ca-failure-failed-to-set-continuously-available-property-on-a-new-o/




Followed the steps, essentially removing 8.3 filename support from my volumes.  These volumes were created on Server 2008R2 and apparently 8.3 filename support was enabled by default.  Server 2012 Failover clusters do not support 8.3 filenames or having the property enabled.

fsutil 8dot3name set 2

• The registry state is now: 2 (Per volume setting – the default).

fsutil 8dot3name set f: 1  

• Successfully disabled 8dot3name generation on f:

fsutil 8dot3name strip f:

• Remove any short file names present on this volume

Failover to each node and run these commands.

Reference for exporting bookmarks and history in Firefox

 

Exporting bookmarks into html format

1. Click the Bookmarks button and select Show All Bookmarks to open the Library window.
2. From the toolbar on the Library window, click Import and Backup and choose Export Bookmarks to HTML....

 

how do I save my browsing history to a separate file, before cleaning my cache

 

If you wish to preserve the history save your Firefox profile , or specifically the database file places.sqlite

 

Use SQLite plugin for firefox and mount the places.sqlite file.   The file is located in:

C: \ Users \ \ App Data \ Roaming \ Mozilla \ Firefox \ Profiles \ \ places.sqlite

 

Once SQLite is installed in Firefox, go to the Tools menu and select the application.  Once opened, use: Database / Connect Database / C:/temp/places.sqlite  (location you copied the users places.sqlite file)

 

 

Get the bookmarks into a readable format[1]

You can easily get dates in a readable format by converting the Unix Epoch format to a date/time format:

SELECT a.id AS ID, a.title AS Title, b.url AS URL, datetime(a.dateAdded/1000000,'unixepoch') AS DateAdded

FROM moz_bookmarks AS a JOIN moz_places AS b ON a.fk = b.id

I don't think that it matters which table is open when you paste the code in the "Execute SQL" text area to run the code.

 

 

 

 

In Firefox, need help pulling up history on specific date [2]

You need to scroll down through the history until you arrive there or try to formulate a query to select that date.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Places_query_URIs

---

You can also use the SQLite Manager extension to create list

• SQLite Manager: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/sqlite-manager/

1. Open Profile Directory -> places.sqlite -> Go
2. Hit the Execute SQL tab
3. Use a Select like this:

SELECT datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000,'unixepoch'), moz_places.url, moz_places.title

FROM moz_places, moz_historyvisits

WHERE moz_places.id = moz_historyvisits.place_id AND visit_date BETWEEN strftime('%s','2011-04-01')*1000000 AND strftime('%s','2011-04-30')*1000000

That query shows all history entries from April
The date and time is saved in 64 bit EPOCH format in micro seconds.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time

..........

---

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/996638

[2] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/835204

Secret Ctrl-F12 console in Adobe Premiere CS6

Was tired of having Premiere CS6 generate a peak file with every video that I imported into it.  Found this article 5 hidden features in Adobe Premiere CS6  that shows how to bring up a console allowing you to disable this feature and other setting in Premiere.

Using CSVDE - Group name with space

Was working with CSVDE to export users into a csv, but had no luck with exporting users from a group name containing spaces (i.e  "Group 2").  One of my examples had the filter contained in quotes.

Discovered that:
The filter clause should be enclosed in parenthesis, not quotes. The quotes
should enclose the distinguished name of the group.

csvde -f report.txt -r (memberOf=CN="Group 2",OU=Test1,DC=t410corp,DC=com) -l
sAMAccountName,displayName,mail

You can also replace the space with "\20" (without the quotes).

How to Fix C00002E2 Directory Services could not start error – jet engine error

 

Running a Active Directory on Windows Server 2012 Core in a VM on a Hyper-V host.  The host lost power and corrupted the AD instance running on the VM.

 

Server 2012 would enter into the Repair mode and I caught the error 0x0c00002e2 as the resultant issue and discovered that AD was indeed corrupted.  This is the only domain controller for the domain and has accounts on it, so a backup was not an option.  (I know.... Murphy was in rare form today).

 

I found two helpful links:

 

How to recover Hyper-V Guest Domain Controller from Stop Error 0xc00002e2
(Michael Pollards answer was helpful, but I ran into a deeper problem because the ntds.dit database was corrupt).

• Open a Command Prompt (Win-R, CMD, Enter). Type NTDSUTIL and press Enter.
• Type activate instance ntds and press Enter.
• Type Files and press Enter.
• Type Info and press Enter. Verify the folder is actually C:\Windows\NTDS.
• Type Compact to and press Enter. I created C:\Windows\NTDS\Temp and used that.
• Copy the new file Ntds.dit in the temp folder over top of the old one in NTDS, and delete all the *.log files.

However, when trying to compact the database, I received basically the error:
                        could not initialize the jet engine error 501

 

How to Fix C00002E2 Directory Services Could Not Start – Blue Screen
Very helpful, and I was able to boot the domain controller.

 

Basic steps were:

 

Boot into Directory Services Restore Mode. When the server powers on, press F8 before the OS begins to load.  I used the recovery mode| change startup button, to bring up the boot options.

 

I was running Server Core, so from the prompt, cd \windows\ntds
Created a 'temp' folder in the c:\windows\ntds folder.
Copied the ntds.dit file to that temp folder.
Ran the commands below:

 

• Type: esentutl /g c:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit
• This will perform an integrity check, (the results indicate that the jet database is corrupt - ok)
• Type: esentutl /p   c:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit
• Agree with the prompt

I had to run the last command twice for it to return success.
Rebooted and system was up an running. 

 

 

 

 

 

Renaming Server 2012 domain controller

In my test environment, I needed to change the hostname of the domain controller.  You can rename a domain controller using the netdom command.  It appears that you must first add a machine account based on the current machine account:

STEP 1: netdom computername /add:

so, in the powershell command prompt, type (with quotes) "netdom computername wrongname.domain.local /add:server.domain.local"



STEP 2: netdom computername /makeprimary:
so, we type netdom computername wrongname.domain.local /makeprimary:server.domain.local

Once the command completes successful, it will warn you that you need to reboot immediately, as it may not authenticate logons (very important if only DC in forest)


But, I kept getting this error message:
"Unable to add "VM1" as an alternate name for the computer.  The error is:
The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.
The command failed to complete successfully."

Discovered from the following link, that in Windows Serve 2008 and Server 2012, that the netlogon share is not present after you install Active Directory services.

The NETLOGON share is not present after you install Active Directory Domain Services on a new full or read-only Windows Server 2008-based domain controller

Changed the registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters\SysvolReady
from 0 to 1.

Ran the commands successfully and the domain controller hostname was changed.

-Reggie

REFERENCES:
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28188083/The-specified-domain-either-does-not-exist-or-could-not-be-contacted-error-message-in-Windows-Server-2012.html#a39336191

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/103538-properly-renaming-a-domain-controller-server-2012r2

[SOLVED] Large disk space consumption (Windows 7)

I’ve run into this on a system and wanted to share.

I was having aproblem with disk space and used diruse.exe utility to isolate an folder that was using an enormous amount of disk space.  The folder was in the ProgramData\Microsoft folder.

The article link is:  http://www.admin-enclave.com/en/articles/windows/133-taming-the-wer-windows-error-reporting-on-windows-7-2008.html was very helpful.

 

Basically, the Windows Error Reporting service captures errors and gathers data that may be related to a crash (i.e. files) and stores them in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue folder.  I had 33 GB of extraneous data there that I used the method in the link to clean up.

 

The WER service never deletes these files that it captures.  Absolutely, crazy!

 

 

-Reggie

Simple Folder compare script

DFS Replication was doing something strange when I enabled replication during the day.  Had a user complain that they were missing a file.  Another user said the same, so I needed to do a simple folder compare to see if there were differences.  The folders were different in *.tmp and ~*.* files, but I did find 7 files that were not on both replication partners.

Used the following script to do the comparison:

PS L:\shared\Peds IT\Nerds\Reggie\dfsr> $fso = get-childitem -recurse -path "Y:\replicated"
PS L:\shared\Peds IT\Nerds\Reggie\dfsr> $fsoBU = get-childitem -recurse -path "Z:\original
PS L:\shared\Peds IT\Nerds\Reggie\dfsr> Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $fsoBU -DifferenceObject $fso

Reference:   Easily Compare Two Folders with Powershell

AntiMalware Health State Error 0x800106f7

Discovered this error on one of my servers - "There was an error 0x800106f7 in creating the Antimalware Health State WMI instance."  This error was occuring every 30 seconds.

Found the article:  AntiMalware Health State Error 0x800106f7

Basically, kill the WMI provider (WmiPrvSE.exe) and let it restart on it own - like a reboot.

tasklist | find "WmiPrvSE.exe"
taskkill /im WmiPrvSE.exe /f

Powershell - Syntax notes

Powershell Split Operator
Had a problem with -split of a string variable that contained a "." (period) in it.  Discovered from this article that a period as a regular expression means 'any character', so you must escape the period with a "\".
For example:    $a,$b = $member.SamAccountName -split('\.')

See:   Article - Powershell Split Operator

Server Core to Gui Error: "The source files could not be found."

I had installed base Windows Server 2012 Core to a virtual machine and tried to upgrade it to the GUI version.  Had a crazy error:

 0x800f0906 or ‘the source files could not be downloaded’ error

My machine was not on the network and I had the install CD.  I could not get it to install at all.  Did some digging and found that the following will work.
Be sure to include the colon ":" after the word '-Source' and after the 'WIM' tag for the source location.   Knowing the correct index in the install WIM is important as well.


First, confirm your edition index in install.wim:
dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:d:\sources\install.wim

Index:1 Windows Server 2012 SERVERSTANDARDCORE
Index:2 Windows Server 2012 SERVERSTANDARD
Index:3 Windows Server 2012 SERVERDATACENTERCORE
Index:4 Windows Server 2012 SERVERDATACENTER

It will produce Win Server 2012 R2 SERVERSTANDARD as index 2, then:
Intall-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra -Source:wim:d:\sources\install.wim:2

The last number is the edition index, change to 4 if running in SERVERDATACENTERCORE.


Using the Dism command works as well, but it is a longer process, since you have to mount the WIM file.



USING A SHARE NAME from an existing machine:
Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:Server-Gui-Mgmt /All /Source:\\[serverfqdn]\c$\Windows\WinSxS /LimitAccess

Building an Unattened ISO for Windows Server 2012

Found a great article on creating an unattended xml and creating an ISO from Ezra Undag post at:
https://medium.com/tech-jobs-academy/creating-a-windows-server-2012-r2-core-unattended-installation-iso-ab8071c03279#.dzuri1h35


The steps are as follows, but for more details, take a look at his post.

Procedure

I. Install Windows ADK

1. Download and install Windows ADK for Windows 8.1. This works with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
2. Start the installation process. Leave everything selected by default but make sure that Deployment Tools and Windows Preinstallation Environment(Windows PE) are selected.

Select the features you want to install Window Dialog

3. Finish the installation.

II. Create an answer file

1. Open Windows System Image Manager by going to Start Menu > Apps List or by hitting Windows key + S combination keys and typing in “Windows System Image Manager”.

2. Mount the ISO file by double-clicking it or opening it via File Explorer. It displays a new drive indicated by a letter.

3. Go to sources directory and copy install.wim to a local drive, such as D.

4. Switch back to Windows System Image Manager. Click File Menu > Select Windows Image, locate the install.wim you copied.

5. Select the Windows Distribution to build an answer file for. We select Windows Server 2012 R2 SERVERDATACENTERCORE.

Select an image in the Windows image file

6. The Windows Image pane is populated with Components and Packages folders. Expand Components and scroll through until amd64_Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE_6.3.9600.16384_neutral. [..6.3.9600.16384_neutral] may differ on other Windows distributions. Right click on amd64_Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE_6.3.9600.16384_neutral and click Add Setting to Pass 1.

7. Under Answer File pane, collapse Components > 1 windowsPE and select amd64_Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE. Configure settings according to your requirements or the image shown below.

8. Collapse Components > 1 windowsPE > amd64_Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE and select SetupUILanguage. Configure settings according to your needed language or the image shown below. In this case, we use en-US(US English).

9. In this step, we configure disk partitions by scrolling through Windows Image pane under Components until amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_6.3.9600.17031_neutral is found. [_6.3.9600.17031_neutral] may differ in other Windows distributions. Right click on amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_6.3.9600.17031_neutral and click Add Setting to Pass 1.

10. Under Answer File pane, collapse Components > 1 windowsPE > amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral.

11. Under amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Setup_neutral, find DiskConfiguration and right click on it and select Insert New Disk.

12. In DiskConfiguration > Disk, right click on CreatePartitions and select Insert New CreatePartition. Configure the partition as shown in the image below. This partition becomes the System Reserved Partition which contains hardware-related files and the Boot folder that tell a computer where to look to start Windows. In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, the partition is 100MB. In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, it is 350MB.

13. Right click on CreatePartitions and select Insert New CreatePartition to create a second partition then set Extend to true. This means that the partition takes up the rest of the disk. This becomes our logical partition where the Operating System is installed.

14. Click on Disk under Disconfiguration. Set DiskID to 0 and WillWipeDisk to true. Disk 0 is generally the first disk in most computer systems where the Operating System resides.

15. Modify the System Reserved Partition by right-clicking on ModifyPartitions and selecting Insert New ModifyPartition. Configure settings as shown in the image below.

16. Modify the logical partition by right-clicking on ModifyPartitions and selecting Insert New ModifyPartition. Configure settings as shown in the image below.

17. Select ImageInstall and configure settings as shown in the image below. This means we do not install to the available partition because we are specifying it later.

18. Specify the OS to install. Collapse OSImage, right-click on InstallFrom and select Insert New MetaData. Collapse InstallFrom and select Metadata. Configure the settings as shown in the image below. Key field can be set to /IMAGE/NAME , /IMAGE/INDEX, or /IMAGE/DESCRIPTION. In this case, we use /IMAGE/NAME to correspond to the name of the Windows Distribution selected in step 5.

19. Set the Disk and Partition where OS will be installed. Select InstallTo and configure settings as shown in the image below.

20. Bypass EULA Dialog. Scroll down to find UserData and select it. Configure settings as shown in the image below. Fill up FullName and Organization if desired.

21. Configure UserData > ProductKey. This is not where we provide the product key. Leave empty as shown in the image below.

22. Set Computer name, product key, organization name and timezone. Scroll through Windows Image pane and find amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.3.9600.17031_neutral, (6.3.9600.17031 may differ in other Window distributions) right-click on it and select Add Setting to Pass 4 specialize.

23. In Answer File pane, collapse 4 specialize and select amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral configure settings as shown in the image below. If desired to set random computer name during installation, set [ * ] (asterisk symbol) to ComputerName field. By default, TimeZone is set to Pacific Standard Time.

In this case, we are using an evaluation copy for Windows so we are leaving ProductKey empty.

24. In Windows Image pane, right-click on amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.3.9600.17031_neutral and select Add Setting to Pass 7 oobeSystem to specify Out of Box Experience (oobe) settings.

25. In Answer File pane, select amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral and configure settings as shown below.

26. Collapse amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral, select AutoLogon and configure settings. Set LogonCount to 2 so that image build process goes quicker and in case administrator password is not configured in the answer file, we can reset it during the first two reboots.

27. Collapse AutoLogon, select Password and type in the the password which is automatically encrypted during installation. In this case, we type in a sample password. Please provide a more secure password.

28. In Answer File pane, scroll down to find UserAccounts and collapse it. Select AdministratorPassword and provide the same password as in the step 26.

29. Validate answer file. Click Tools menu, and select Validate Answer file. Make sure there are no errors in the Messages pane. Validation warnings are fine and normal.

30. Save answer file as autounattend.xml. This is placed in the root directory of our ISO image as instructed in the next section.

II. Generate an unattended installation ISO

1. In the previous section step 2, we mounted the ISO image that created a new DVD drive F. Copy and paste all the contents in DVD drive F to a folder in the computer’s disk. In this case, we created drive ISO folder in local drive E. Put autounattend.xml file to the ISO folder as shown in the image below.

2. In the sources directory, delete install.wim and replace it with the install.wim we copied and pasted to local drive D in the previous section step 3.

3. Launch Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment (included in Windows ADK).

4. Generate a new bootable ISO for unattended installation. Use oscdimg.exe command as in the image below. Update the paths accordingly.

Usage: oscdimg.exe [options]

oscdimg.exe -bE:\ISO\boot\etfsboot.com -u2 -h -m -lWIN_SERVER_2012_R2-CORE E:\ISO E:\WinServer2012Core_unattend2.iso

–b points to the etfsboot.com file which is necessary for bootable media such as CDs and DVDs. This file will be written to the boot sector of the disk.

–u2 this option is used to produce an image that has only the UDF file system on it.

-h this option will include all hidden files and directories under the source path for this image.

–m specifies that the file size can be larger than the maximum size limit.

–l is the label of the media that will be created.

5. Locate new ISO in drive E with file name WinServer2012Core_unattend2.iso. Configure a VM using Hyper-V or physical server to boot from it and verify that there are no prompts or errors during the installation process. Note that the disk configuration and data will be wiped during the seamless unattended installation process.

Windows Server 2012 dual boot with Centos 7

I needed a system that would dual boot Windows Server 2012 with Centos 7.
 I used half of the physical drive to create the Windows NTFS partition and installed Windows Server 2012 there.  Then with the remaining space, I installed Centos 7 on the remaining free space.

As expected, the Windows install does NOT show up in the boot loader menu.
Here is the instructions I followed to get it to display the Windows OS option.  Worked without issues.

1. to find out, on what partition Windows is actually installed (for me it is 0/sda1), run

fdisk -l
for example, it shows
.... /dev/sda1 * 2048 718847 358400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT ....

2. to find out partion UUID, by using blkid /dev/sda1 and find matching UUID

blkid /dev/sda1

3. then add the menu entry to /boot/grub2/grub.cfg like

menuentry "Windows 2012 R2" --class windows --class os {
     insmod ntfs
     set root='(hd0, 1)' 
     search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root XXXXXXXXXXXXX(UUID from step 2)
     chainloader +1
}


Worked like a champ!

Reference:  
 Windows Server 2012 R2 and Centos 7 dual boot