WMI: Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070005)

We have one computer at work that I couldn’t send a Remote Assistance request to and whenever I try to query it using WMI and PowerShell I get the following error message:

Get-WmiObject : Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

The problem turned out to be DCOM. For some reason it got disabled.

To change its settings, do the following:

1. Go to Start -> Run, type in dcomcnfg.
2. Go to Component Services -> Computers.
3. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
4. Go to the Default Properties tab.
5. Make sure that Enable Distributed COM on this computer is checked.
6. Compare the settings to a computer that is working properly and make the necessary changes. Compare the settings for the COM Security tab as well.
7. Reboot the computer and try it again.

Credit goes to this website where I found this solution.

12 New Microsoft Security Updates This Tuesday

It’s that time of the month again, the second Tuesday of every month known as “Patch Tuesday,” the time when Microsoft releases its security updates.

According to Microsoft’s website, they will be releasing 12 new security updates this Tuesday, February 12. Seven considered “Critical”, five marked as “Important.”

Critical (7) – Software Affected:

1. Windows
2. Internet Explorer
3. Office
4. Visual Basic
5. VBScript
6. JSCript

Important (5) – Software Affected:

1. Windows
2. Active Directory
3. ADAM
4. IIS
5. Office
6. Works
7. Works Suite

Happy Patch Tuesday fellow systems admins, let’s hope nothing breaks!

BDD 2007: Can’t connect to the deployment share

Error message: “A connection to the deployment share (\\server\deployment_share) could not be made. The deployment will not proceed.”

I ran into this problem this morning when trying to load Windows XP on a new computer using Business Desktop Deployment and Windows Deployment Services. It turned out that the reason for this is because my WinPE boot image didn’t have the network drivers for the new computer (when you type in ipconfig /all in the command prompt in WinPE, you’ll notice that there’s no IP assigned).

I fixed this problem by doing the following:

1. Download the network drivers for the computer having this issue.
2. Open the Deployment Workbench.
3. Add the network drivers to Distribution Share->Out-of-Box Drivers.
4. Go to Deploy->Deployment Points, select your deployment point and click Update. This will update your WinPE boot image (LiteTouchPE_x86.wim) to include the new drivers.
5. Open Windows Deployment Services and replace your boot image.
6. Reboot the client machine and boot in WinPE again, it should now be able to connect to the deployment share.

PowerShell Cheat Sheet

I found this PowerShell Cheat Sheet a while back when I was looking for tips on PowerShell. It contains commands that you’ll be using a lot when working with PowerShell, and also examples on how to use them. Very helpful especially if you’re just starting to learn it. Also check out the PowerShell team blog where I got this document from.

Useful PowerShell Scripts

Below are some simple PowerShell scripts that I find pretty useful in Windows administration:

Note: For the scripts that connect to a remote machine, you will need to run PowerShell as a user with Administrator privileges to that machine.

Aliases:

• Gwmi = Get-WmiObject
• fl = Format-List
• ft = Fomat-Table
• -Comp = -ComputerName

Get a list of installed applications for a specified machine (32-bit OS only).
Gwmi Win32_Product -Comp computer_name | Sort name | ft name, version, installdate

Get the Service Tag (Dell computers) and BIOS version for a specified machine.
Gwmi Win32_BIOS -Comp computer_name

Get the computer information for a specified machine (Domain, Manufacturer, Model, Name, Owner, Memory).
Gwmi Win32_ComputerSystem -Comp computer_name | fl

Get storage drive information for a specified machine (Hard Drive, Floppy, CD/DVD-ROM).
Gwmi Win32_LogicalDisk -Comp computer_name | fl

Get the logged on user name for a specified machine.
Gwmi Win32_Computersystem -Comp computer_name | Select Name, UserName

Get the running processes for a specified machine.
Gwmi Win32_Process -ComputerName computer_name | Sort processname | ft processname, ws, executablepath