Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--February 28, 2005

Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, February 28, 2005, —brought to you by the Windows IT Pro Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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FAQs

Q. How can I view the content of a Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) image file?
Q. How can I add network drivers to my Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) installation?
Q. How can I configure my pagefile size to be "system managed" for Windows XP and later versions?
Q. How can I use Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) to create a partition that uses all remaining disk space on a volume?
Q. How can I force my Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 clients to check for new program advertisements?

Commentary
by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected]

In this issue, you can learn how to view the content of Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) image file, how to add network drivers to the image, and how to use ADS to create a partition that uses all remaining disk space on a volume. You'll also learn how to configure your pagefile size to be "system managed" and how to force Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 clients to check for new program advertisements.

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FAQs

Q. How can I view the content of a Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) image file?

A. ADS includes a command, Imgmount, which you can use to mount ADS image files as drives on the server so that you can view and modify the files' contents. Although you can modify an image file's content, you must use caution in doing so; changing just one file could, depending on what the file is used for, render the entire image unusable. To use Imgmount to mount an image, you need to specify the image file's full name--not its "friendly" name--and the /mount parameter, as the following example shows:

  imgmount /mount \{c735398a-2d56-46d1-8fcc-d4395ce41903\}.img

As you can see, the file's full name consists of its globally unique identifier (GUID) and the .img suffix. When you run the command, you'll see a message on screen similar to this:

  Image file mounted as driver letter \[L:\]

To check an image's GUID, open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) ADS Management snap-in and open Images. Right-click the image, and select Properties. Click the General tab, and you'll see the image's GUID, as the figure at http://www.windowsitpro.com/articles/images/adsimageguid.gif shows. You can view the mounted image's content as if it were an ordinary physical drive. By default, the image will be mounted as read-only. If you require write access to the image, add the /w switch to the Imgmount command. To unmount the image, use the /unmount switch and the drive letter that the image mount process assigned to the image file when you mounted it, as this example shows:

  imgmount /unmount l:

Q. How can I add network drivers to my Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) installation?

A. By default, the only supported network drivers for clients that boot from the ADS Deployment Agent are those included in Windows 2003. To add network drivers to an ADS installation, perform these steps: 1. Contact Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) to obtain the hotfixes associated with the Microsoft articles "The ADS Deployment Agent Builder Service does not correctly parse the latest .inf file formats" ( http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=830413 ) and "Vendor-supplied drivers that you add to the ADS Deployment Agent Builder service repository are not installed" ( http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=829053 ). Without these hotfixes installed, any network drivers that you add won't work. 2. On the ADS server, copy the content of the network drivers you want to add to the C:\program files\microsoft ads\nbs\repository\user\presystem folder. (Don't place the files in subfolders under the presystem folder.) You don't need to copy the txtsetup.oem file; the important files are the .inf and .sys files. 3. Stop and Restart the Adsbuilder service by running the following commands.

  net stop adsbuilder  net start adsbuilder

Test the new driver by attempting to boot a machine that uses the driver to the Deployment Agent.

Q. How can I configure my pagefile size to be "system managed" for Windows XP and later versions?

A. You can specify pagefile location and size by modifying the PagingFiles value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management registry subkey. If you want the system to manage pagefile size, simply set the initial and maximum pagefile sizes to 0, as the following example shows:

  C:\pagefile.sys 0 0

You must reboot the machine for the change to take effect.

Q. How can I use Windows Server 2003 Automated Deployment Services (ADS) to create a partition that uses all remaining disk space on a volume?

A. You create a partition by using the Bmpart utility within an ADS task sequence. The operation passes the partition's size to the Bmpart utility as a command parameter. However, if you want to create a partition that uses the remaining free space, specify the -c switch and no size parameter, as the following sample portion from an ADS task sequence shows:

&#160;&lt;task description="Partition Remainder of Disk" doesReboot="false"&gt;<br>
&#160;&#160; &lt;command&gt;/BMONITOR/bmpart.exe&lt;/command&gt;<br>
&#160;&#160; &lt;parameters&gt;<br>
&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; 
&lt;parameter&gt;\device\harddisk0&lt;/parameter&gt;<br>
&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;parameter&gt;-init&lt;/parameter&gt;<br>
&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &lt;parameter&gt;-c&lt;/parameter&gt;<br>
&#160;&#160; &lt;/parameters&gt;<br>
&lt;/task&gt;

Q. How can I force my Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 clients to check for new program advertisements?

A. Program advertisements occur as part of the Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation cycle action in the SMS 2003 Advanced Client. To force a client to find new programs that are available ahead of the regular discovery phase, perform these steps: 1. Start the Systems Management Control Panel applet (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Systems Management). 2. Click the Actions tab. 3. Select "Machine Policy Retrieval & Evaluation Cycle" and click Initiate Action. 4. Close the Systems Management Control Panel applet. Within a few minutes, the new-program advertisements should be visible.

Alternatively, you can use the Policy Spy Tool to force a Machine policy retrieval. You can download the Policy Spy Tool at http://www.microsoft.com/smserver/downloads/2003/tools/toolkit.asp.

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