Categories: System Center, ConfigMgr, OpsMgr

We are extremely excited to announce the availability of the release candidates for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (formerly known as Forefront Endpoint Protection 2012) today. Both releases are available through a single download package on the Microsoft Download Center. Special thanks to our Community Evaluation Program (CEP) and Technology Adoption Program customers, whose feedback was instrumental in achieving this important milestone.

Click the link below to continue reading and to download the RC:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/server-cloud/archive/2011/10/25/system-center-2012-configuration-manager-release-candidate-is-here.aspx

I'm very pleased to anounce that I have been renewed as an ConfigMgr MVP. This is the 3th year I got this award for my work in the community.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible! Much appreciated!

Dear Jannes Alink,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2011 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in System Center Configuration Manager technical communities during the past year.

I'm very excited to announce that Tech Ed Europe 2012 will be held 25th-29th June at the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. More information here!

Cool to have Tech Ed in my home country! Hope to see you al there!

In this post I want to share how you can activate your Windows server or desktop installation with ConfigMgr when you do not have a KMS server in place.

To script the activation we use a Windows built-in visual basic script named slmgr.vbs and is located in c:\windows\system32.

First of all we make a simple batch file by opening notepad. In the file type the first command:

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA

With /ipk switch we can specify the key we want to use to activate Windows. Keep in mind that there are multiple types of keys. When you enter an invalid key you might receive the following error message:

On a computer running Microsoft Windows non-core edition, run 'slui.exe 0x2a 0xC
004F015' to display the error text.
Error: 0xC004F015

The differences between the keys are described in this Microsoft article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793412.aspx

Now we only entered our key so the second step is to register the key with Microsoft Online for the actual activation, using an internet connection. To active the key online type the second command:

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato

So your batch file should just look like this:

cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA
cscript c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato

Save this notepad file as a batch file and create a ConfigMgr package for it and deploy it to your systems and you can also use it within your Task Sequences when you deploy new systems.

More information and options you can use for the slmgr.vbs script can be found here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793433.aspx

A couple of support changes for the following releases.

Configuration Manager 2007 SP2, R2 and R3 supports Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1:
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2, R2 and R3 now supports the Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 operating systems for client installation. The Configuration Manager console and branch distribution point are supported on these platforms. Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is supported for all core and feature-specific site system roles.

The following software update is required to add Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 to the Supported Platforms list:

KB 2489044 - Update rollup for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2 to add support for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 clients

KB 977203 - User state migration is unsuccessful on a SCCM 2007 SP1 client or on a SCCM 2007 SP2 client
Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.6 SP1 is now supported on Configuration Manager 2007 R2 with Configuration Manager 2007 SP2

System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 with System Center Configuration Manager SP2 now supports Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) 4.6 SP1 Desktop Client and Client for Remote Desktop Services. This client release enables support for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

The following are the limitations and workaround to import App-V packages using Configuration Manager.

Configuration Manager fails to import App-V packages when there is more than one XML in the package folder. App-V Sequencer 4.6 SP1 creates the file Report.xml when creating an App-V package. Configuration Manager expects to find only one xml file in the package folder and will fail when it identifies more than one XML file in the folder. To work around this problem delete the file report.xml manually from the package folder before you import the App-V package.

No software updates are required.

Configuration Manager 2007 SP2, R2 and R3 supports WinPE 3.1

System Center Configuration Manager SP2, R2 and R3 now supports WinPE 3.1 as the boot image used with operating system deployment. WinPE 3.1 is shipped with Windows 7 SP1 as a Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) supplement.

Steps to upgrade to WinPE 3.1 within the existing Configuration Manager Environment and known limitations with Win PE 3.1 can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2011/03/24/configuration-manager-2007-sp2-and-windows-pe-3-1.aspx

No software updates are required.

See also:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2011/03/24/configuration-manager-support-announcements-for-march-2011.aspx