Knowledge Base for Windows

Description/Problem:
Windows Update Service is really helpful tool but sometimes presents many different error codes. We found the list of these codes which can help you to solve some major problems with WSUS. The list is really long!

Solution:

List of Windows Update Error Codes

Description/Problem:
New day – new issue, in this case related to lost information about one partition which store several GB of user data. We use small but powerful free data recovery tool called TestDisk. This software was designed to help fix partition table, recover deleted partition, FAT32 boot sector from its backup, rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector, fix FAT tables, rebuild NTFS boot sector, recover NTFS boot sector from its backup, fix MFT using MFT mirror and also undelete files from FAT or NTFS.

Solution:

Download

Description/Problem:
If you are interested in Microsoft Security Essentials you can ready one of the most complex review and install also official version of new antivirus solution for Windows XP or Windows Vista/7 (32/64-bit).

Solution:

• Review (published on WinSuperSite.com)
• Download Microsoft Security Essentials

Description/Problem:
Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration makes visible only those files or folders that the user has the rights to access. When Access-based Enumeration is enabled, Windows will not display files or folders that the user does not have the rights to access. You can use this special feature on your files servers.

Solution:

Download / NetworkNet Blog

Description/Problem:
We identify the next issue related to the to non-administrator users which were not able to logon over graphical user interface into the Windows Server 2003. This server was operated as standard file & print server with basic security settings. The users did not receive any error message, they only saw desktop background color.

Solution:

Over the Process Monitor (application from Windows SysInternals) it’s possible monitoring the logon process:

• Process winlogon.exe called userinit.exe,
• Process userinit.exe read shell from registry and called explorer.exe,
• Process explorer.exe crash during the startup procedure,
• Process userinit.exe keep running without shell,
• For small test we defined new shell over registry – winver.exe,
• User logon process running without any problem and winver.exe start as shell,
• Roll back the changes and compare results from Process Monitor,
• Difference was that process explorer.exe try to access “%windir%\registration” folder where were missing the permissions for users and system account also,
• Enable inheritance of permissions for the folder “%windir%\registration”,
• Users are able logon without any problems.

Description/Problem:
Everything worked fine for several weeks. After that we identify on Windows 2003 Terminal Server (Service Pack 2) strange issue related to Event ID 333 written to the system event log. This error indicate that operating system is not able to flush out or write to the registry hive.  The symptoms that accompany an Event ID 333 can vary between server hangs, “Insufficient resources exist to complete the requested service” errors, etc. In our case the solution was not so easy because all user profiles contain NTUSER.DAT file with size about 40 – 60 MB!

Solution:

• Took a backup of registry key and delete all the entries under it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Hewlett-Packard

• Disable the PML Driver HPZ12 service,
• Took a backup of numerous entries under below registry keys and delete them:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Control\DeviceClasses\{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}\##?#Root#RDPDR#0000#{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet003\Control\DeviceClasses\{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}\##?#Root#RDPDR#0000#{28d78fad-5a12-11d1-ae5b-0000f803a8c2}

• Delete all the user profiles on the Terminal Server,
• Logon to the Terminal Server with valid user account,
• Check that NTUSER.DAT file size will be about 200 – 400 kB.

Some additional information related to this issue are published also in TechNet article: Troubleshooting Event ID 333 Errors.

Description/Problem:
Some months ago I published an article SharePoint Site Backup Script which described shortly how to implement an easy backup script for the SharePoint Portal Sites over scheduled tasks. Now would be the right time to present information how to restore SharePoint content backuped via this script.

Solution:

• Identify folder where SharePoint Site Backup Script stored the backups (for example: X:\Backups)
• Execute from command line: “stsadm -o restore -url http://sharepoint.portal.com -filename X:\Backups\sharepoint.portal.com-2009-05-15-08-00-30.dat -overwrite”

Description/Problem:
Several days ago I had a problem to remove (un-install) Windows Internal Database related to WSUS Service & SharePoint Service on one server. On the Internet exist lot of discussions about this topic but only some of them are really helpful. I prefer this way…

Solution:

• Open Add/Remove Programs and check that Windows Internal Database is listed there
  • Try remove Windows Internal Database via standard way, click to the button Uninstall
• If Windows Internal Database is not listed in Add/Remove Programs try one of these commands (TechNET.com):
  • On 32-bit platforms: “msiexec /x {CEB5780F-1A70-44A9-850F-DE6C4F6AA8FB} callerid=ocsetup.exe”
  • On 64-bit platforms: “msiexec /x {BDD79957-5801-4A2D-B09E-852E7FA64D01} callerid=ocsetup.exe”
• If standard un-installation process failed with unexpected error you can continue with these steps:
  • Delete registry key: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services”
  • Import from the file registry temporary settings (listed below) and then try un-install Windows Internal Database again

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup]
"WmsdeInstalled"=dword:00000000
"InstallType"=dword:00000001
"Version"=dword:00000003
"wYukonInstalled"=dword:00000000
"SqlServerName"=hex(2):25,00,63,00,6f,00,6d,00,70,00,75,00,74,00,65,00,72,00,\
6e,00,61,00,6d,00,65,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,00,49,00,43,00,52,00,4f,00,53,00,4f,\
00,46,00,54,00,23,00,23,00,53,00,53,00,45,00,45,00,00,00
"SqlAuthenticationMode"="WindowsAuthentication"
"SqlDatabaseName"="SUSDB"
"SqlUserName"=""
"SqlEncryptedPassword"=""
"ContentDir"="X:\\WSUS"