Allow non-Admins to install printer drivers

Had a need for users on the domain to be able to install printer drivers without being administrator.

Found this article at "Windows client TechCenter" (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprosecurity/thread/df21d2c2-c2d4-4107-bfe3-bf8c5a1cd946/)

Basically:

A. Use GroupPolicy to edit the Driver Installation policy. It is located:

Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Driver Installation

The setting is called "Allow non-administrators to install drivers for these devices setup classes". You will need to add the device class GUID of printers.
The GUIDs can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff553426(v=vs.85).aspx

B. Since these are network printers (from print server), modify the following:
1.Configure Group Policy settings for "Point and Print" on BOTH computer and user settings (Vista previously only had user settings). The Location of the settings can be found here in GPOs:
Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Printers\Point and Print Restrictions
User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Control Panel\Printers\Point and Print Restrictions
2.Point and Print settings will vary on what kind of restrictions you want, but if you want users to be able to install ANY printer, with ANY driver, from ANY server, set the Point and Print settings to "Disabled".

Upgrading SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 - error

When trying to upgrade SQL 2000 to SQL 2005, the SQL 2005 Upgrade advisor throws following error:

Existing Meta Data Services packages should be moved to SQL Server storage (in the msdb database) or to structured storage files before you upgrade. There are no DTS packages in the system...

Ignored the error and tried upgrade anyway but the process stops with error: "Upgrade Advisor returned -1" after complete upgrade analysis

I don't have any DTS packages.

Found solution:
COPIED THIS DLL ONE LEVEL UP
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\BPA\bin\BPAClient.dll

and upgrade worked like a charm. Believe its a bug...

REFERENCE: http://forums.databasejournal.com/showthread.php?t=51585

MMC not working on Windows 2003

I had a problem with the MMC not working on Windows 2003. Originally, it had IE 5.5 but was upgraded to IE6, then to IE8.

I kept getting the error: "MMC will not run with a version of a Internet Explorer earlier than Internet Explorer 5.5".

Did some searching and found that there is a work around for this issue; create a string entry (REG_SZ) with the name Version and the value "6.0.0.0" under the subkey
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer

Works like a charm!

OutgoingMessage mp_locatormanager "Will be discarded"

I had a SMS2003 client migrating to our new SCCM2007 site server.
The install of the SCCM client went well, but would not complete.
In the CCMEXEC.log, there were errors to the affect of:

OutgoingMessage(Queue='mp_(http)mp_locationmanager',ID=(XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX}): wILL BE DISCARDED (expired).


The laptop (clue 1) was using dhcp, but DNS was a non-Microsoft DNS and WINS was not entered. I decided to put our MS DNS and my WINS server setting in. Restarted the SCCM client, and it worked.

My guess is that it was looking for something from DNS/WINS that it was not getting from the non-Microsoft DNS/WINS.

Setting up PHP on IIS

Following the instructions from the PHP website was the best.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.manual.php

Make sure that your test page (index.php) uses the correct php tags.

< ?php
phpinfo();
?>