Google Update error 0x8004070 - Solved!

Error 0x8004070 when installing the Music Manager, which actually kicks off a GoogleUpdate.exe process.

Lot's of people have seen this error with various google products, I tracked it down to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Update\ - had to kill active GoogleUpdate.exe process, then deleted whole folder. Success!

Local Update Publisher (Software deployment via WSUS)

This is a quickstart tutorial/demonstration of Local Update Publisher

"Local Update Publisher allows system administrators to publish their own updates to Windows Server Update Services using local publishing."


Pros:
Consolidates management and storage (one console, minimal Group Policy fiddling, no separate fileshare.)
Users can install updates on their schedule and/or admins can force schedule.

Cons:
Relies on a (small?) 3rd party project. (Though open-source, and using an official Microsoft API.)
Can't assign or offer to users, only per machine.


This tutorial assumes you have a working install of WSUS, and a basic knowledge of .MSI packages.

Remember everything is stored on your WSUS server, LUP is "just" a gui that talks to it, similar to the WSUS admin console. So download and install the EXE,  run it (you will need to "Run as Administrator"), point it at the WSUS server ("Localhost" if you're on the server, in our case "guard.ourdomain.com", port 80, no SSL for now), and go!

To publish:

First, acquire your MSI. In this example, we'll use the Frontmotion - supplied package of Firefox.

Select Tools -> Create Update. Point it at your .MSI. Confusingly, you *DON'T* provide the "MSI Path". (This is only if it is contained in an .EXE).

LUP (WSUS?) requires a Vendor and Product to be defined. Fill in any other details you think are relevant.(I like to include the version number in the name.)

You can then click through the next few screens, accepting the defaults for now. (These let you write more complex rules, to only target x64, for instance.) Click "finish". You'll get a progress window as it re-packages it for WSUS and uploads it the server.

Notice in this example there are now two versions of the package. Be sure to retire/remove the old version, or else clients will do weird things, i.e. continually install one then the other in the case of Firefox updates.)

Now, we just approve this update (in this case, only for the METRO-TEST group:

Now to see the results of our labor, first we have to assign our testing machine to the METRO-TEST WSUS group.Open up the WSUS admin console, find your target machine(s), right-click and give them membership the appropriate group.

From the LUP wiki:

"The WSUS clients have a locally stored cookie that stores the groups that the client is associated to. Until that cookie expires the client will not create a new one. This means that if you add clients to a group and then immediately try to force a client in that group to detect updates it will likely not find updates you have approved for your new group. You can either wait an hour or force the cookie to expire by running wuauclt with the /resetauthorization flag."

Once I did this, then re-ran "Check for updates" (CLI version: "wuauclt /detectnow"). Looks promising...

Success!!

Now, go forth and publish!

Older XP system, most any (un)install failed:
"this installation is forbidden by system policy"



Event Type: Information
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11729
Date: 3/9/2012
Time: 12:25:26 PM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: VH229A
Description:
Product: Sophos Anti-Virus -- Configuration failed.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 7b 30 33 34 37 35 39 44   {034759D
0008: 41 2d 45 32 31 41 2d 34   A-E21A-4
0010: 37 39 35 2d 42 46 42 33   795-BFB3
0018: 2d 43 36 36 44 31 37 46   -C66D17F
0020: 41 44 31 38 33 7d         AD183}  

Event Type: Information

Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1035
Date: 3/9/2012
Time: 12:25:18 PM
User: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: VH229A
Description:
Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Sophos Remote Management System. Product Version: 3.0.14. Product Language: 1033. Reconfiguration success or error status: 1625.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 7b 46 46 31 31 30 30 35   {FF11005
0008: 44 2d 43 42 43 38 2d 34   D-CBC8-4
0010: 35 44 35 2d 41 32 38 38   5D5-A288
0018: 2d 32 35 43 37 42 42 33   -25C7BB3
0020: 30 34 31 32 31 7d         04121}  

Event Type: Information

Event Source: MsiInstaller

Event Category: None

Event ID: 11729

Date: 3/9/2012

Time: 12:07:50 PM

User: DEPT-LAWR\0mparsons

Computer: VH229A

Description:

Product: Spelling Dictionaries Support For Adobe Reader 8 -- Configuration failed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 7b 41 43 37 36 42 41 38   {AC76BA8

0008: 36 2d 37 41 44 37 2d 35   6-7AD7-5

0010: 34 36 34 2d 33 34 32 38   464-3428

0018: 2d 38 30 30 30 30 30 30   -8000000

0020: 30 30 30 30 33 7d         00003}  

Event Type: Information

Event Source: MsiInstaller

Event Category: None

Event ID: 1035

Date: 3/9/2012

Time: 12:07:50 PM

User: DEPT-LAWR\0mparsons

Computer: VH229A

Description:

Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Spelling Dictionaries Support For Adobe Reader 8. Product Version: 8.0.0. Product Language: 1033. Reconfiguration success or error status: 1625.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 7b 41 43 37 36 42 41 38   {AC76BA8

0008: 36 2d 37 41 44 37 2d 35   6-7AD7-5

0010: 34 36 34 2d 33 34 32 38   464-3428

0018: 2d 38 30 30 30 30 30 30   -8000000

0020: 30 30 30 30 33 7d         00003}  

Most troubleshooting posts I found reference "Prohibit non-administrators from applying vendor signed updates" or Software Restriction Policy "All users except local administrators." Sorta close, same area in local policy editor: Local Computer -> Computer Config -> Admin Templates ->Windows Components -> Windows Installer. However "Disable Windows Installer" was enabled! Unconfigured, instant success.

Win 7 Updates fail with error 0x80071a90 0x800705b4

(And the error causes everything installed to be rolled backed.)

The fix is at
http://www.davewolf.net/2011/05/windows-7-x64-updates-failing-april-2011

Manually installing at least one of them worked around the issue for me. Thanks Dave!

Addendum: On another system, (7x64), I narrowed it down to KB2515325. Manually download/install that one, then run Windows Update and install the rest.

Win 7 and SSD's (Swapfile is good!)

From http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

Should the pagefile be placed on SSDs?

Yes. Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.

In looking at telemetry data from thousands of traces and focusing on pagefile reads and writes, we find that

• Pagefile.sys reads outnumber pagefile.sys writes by about 40 to 1,
• Pagefile.sys read sizes are typically quite small, with 67% less than or equal to 4 KB, and 88% less than 16 KB.
• Pagefile.sys writes are relatively large, with 62% greater than or equal to 128 KB and 45% being exactly 1 MB in size.

In fact, given typical pagefile reference patterns and the favorable performance characteristics SSDs have on those patterns, there are few files better than the pagefile to place on an SSD.

Merging lost .vmdk (delta) snapshots!

http://redshift10.blogspot.com/2008/04/vmdk-snapshots-and-importance-of-cid.html

Installing .NET on WFLP (Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's)

I was using a WFLP VM for my day-to-day admin stuff, as it was lighter-weight. However, vSphere Virtual Infrastructure Client 4.x uses .NET 3, which wouldn't install,  so 

Installing .NET gave a generic "error 1603", which just means "Failed Installation". (Windows Update error was 0x643)

Delving into the .net install/error logs,

%temp%\dd_dotnetfx35error.txt:


[03/19/12,16:41:09] WIC Installer: [2] Error code 1603 for this component means "Fatal error during installation.
"
[03/19/12,16:41:10] WIC Installer: [2] Setup Failed on component WIC Installer

%temp%\dd_dotnetfx35install.txt:

[03/19/12,16:41:07] UTILS::RunNGENAction: Started

[03/19/12,16:41:07] UTILS::RunNGENAction: Unable to find mscoree.dll

[03/19/12,16:41:07] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty - Property: {092114C2-997D-4D68-8F3A-8BC2584FD23B} - PropertyName: Quiet Mode Setup - Value: 1

[03/19/12,16:41:07] WIC Installer: ISetupManager::GetGlobalCustomProperty() failed to find global prop in CBaseComponent::GetGlobalCustomProperty()

[03/19/12,16:41:07] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty - Property: {BBE1827C-F2FD-4FDA-A6D6-C83B62FFFDCA} - PropertyName: compfailed - Value: 0

[03/19/12,16:41:07] Setup.exe: GetGlobalCustomProperty - Property: {8297A38B-6431-4F1D-9F6E-C3D371CEA383} - PropertyName: WebSetup - Value: 1

[03/19/12,16:41:07] WIC Installer: GenericComponent Action: CreateProcess launched with cmd line : e:\4ead3337240831714fa0329a6cdf8a\dotnetfx30\WIC_X86_ENU.exe /quiet /norestart /log:"%TEMP%\dd_WIC.txt"

[03/19/12,16:41:07] BWaitForMSI(): Verifying we're the only installation currently in progress.

[03/19/12,16:41:07] BWaitForMSI(): Ready to proceed with installation.  Continuing...

[03/19/12,16:41:09] WIC Installer: e:\4ead3337240831714fa0329a6cdf8a\dotnetfx30\WIC_X86_ENU.exe exited with return value 1603

[03/19/12,16:41:09] InstallReturnValue: GFN_MID WIC Installer, 0x643

[03/19/12,16:41:09] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty

[03/19/12,16:41:09] WIC Installer: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Error code 1603 for this component means "Fatal error during installation.

"

[03/19/12,16:41:10] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty

[03/19/12,16:41:10] WIC Installer: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Setup Failed on component WIC Installer

 pointed to "missing" DLL's:

windowscodecs.dll

windowscodecsext.dll

I tried installing "Windows Imaging Components" but it said a newer version was already installed:

%temp%\dd_WIC.txt:

0.230: 2012/03/19 16:41:09.603 (local)

0.230: e:\8536f54655b5da03535394513236\update\update.exe (version 6.3.4.0)

0.230: Failed To Enable SE_SHUTDOWN_PRIVILEGE

0.230: Hotfix started with following command line: /quiet /norestart /log:C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\dd_WIC.txt 

0.260: In Function GetBuildType, line 1170, RegOpenKeyEx failed with error 0x2

0.260:  C:\Windows\system32\WindowsCodecs.dll is Not Present

0.260: First Condition in Test.WindowsCodecsVer.Section Succeeded

0.260: Condition succeeded for section Test.WindowsCodecsVer.Section in Line 1 of PreRequisite 

0.260:  C:\Windows\system32\WindowsCodecsExt.dll is Not Present

0.260: First Condition in Test.WindowsCodecsExtVer.Section Succeeded

0.260: Condition succeeded for section Test.WindowsCodecsExtVer.Section in Line 2 of PreRequisite 

0.270:  C:\Windows\system32\WMPhoto.dll is Present

0.270: FileVersion of C:\Windows\system32\WMPhoto.dll is Greater Than 6.0.5840.16388

0.270: Condition Check for Line 3 of PreRequisite returned FALSE 

0.310: WIC Setup encountered an error:  Newer version of update is already on the system.

0.330: Newer version of update is already on the system.

0.330: Update.exe extended error code = 0xf0f4

0.330: Update.exe return code was masked to 0x643 for MSI custom action compliance.

So had to extract the DLL's  from the WIC installer and manually overwrite the newer ones in windows\system32. (In retrospect I should have backed up the new .DLL's and tried replacing them after the fact.)

Success! After that, all .NET installs worked, and I was able to install VIClient! (I started with .NET 3.0, but 3.5 includes 2 and 3). This also allowed the installation of PowerShell 2 goodness.

DLL's were ver. 6.0.6001.17009, FWIW.

Commandline to enable Apple Remote Desktop.

YourSudoEnabledAccount$ sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -users YourRemoteAccount -privs -all -restart -agent

Location of Linux Java browser plugin...

Just needed to test a little web java applet from a server, but firefox wasn't recognizing the plugin, even though I had symbolic links to it from about 4 different places...

Found the answer but of course I missed it the first time in that post, because I thought the major difference was the filename to the plugin. Well "duh" I thought, it's basically the only .so file there...no, look again, it's a whole different path.

Instead of [JRE]/plugin/i386... it's [JRE]/lib/i386/...

/me smacks head on desk.

Lightweight (In requirements) heavyweight (in features) audio player for OS X - Vox.

http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/

From their website:

"Vox is a little and simple music player for Mac OS X with support for many file types, including FLAC, MP3, AAC, Musepack, Monkey's Audio, OGG Vorbis, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, IT, MOD, XM, Games Music and many others. Includes numerous effects like Equalizer, Reverb, Time Stretch, Pitch Shift, Echo. Moreover, all supported files can be exported to AAC+, Apple Lossless, WAV and other formats with enabled effects."

Error installing PowerShell2/WinRM, Event ID 4373 "Access Denied"

Had to use the ever-useful process-monitor in order to find out what the issue was. In this case a registry entry at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost


Gave admins write access, and fixed!


P.S. And what was the super-important item that had to be written?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SvcHost\WINRM]
"CoInitializeSecurityParam"=dword:00000001
"AuthenticationCapabilities"=dword:00003020



Huh.


UPDATE: Discovered (Thanks to this post) that the issue was caused by the GPO I had created months ago as per the MS-specified confiker mitigation KB. (To be fair the article does warn about inability to install updates...but it was easy to miss.)