Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--August 29, 2005

Windows Tips &amp Tricks UPDATE, August 29, 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 use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to enumerate MAC addresses on a machine?
Q. How can I set the default domain user profile?
Q. I'm trying to copy a user profile but the Copy To button is grayed out in the dialog box in the System Control Panel applet. How can I access this functionality?
Q. How can I add additional network and storage drivers to the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) that a system uses when you upgrade an OS via a Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) OS Deployment Feature Pack advertisement?
Q. Can I upgrade Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition to Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition?

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FAQs

Q. How can I use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to enumerate MAC addresses on a machine?

A. You can enumerate a machine's list of network adapters and find the associated MAC address. The following sample code, which you can download here, prints out the network adapter name and the MAC address.

Dim objNetworkAdapters, objAdapter, objWMI

Set objWMI = Nothing
Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:")

' Get a list of IP-enabled adapters.
Set objNetworkAdapters = objWMI.ExecQuery("select * from Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration where IPEnabled = 1")

For Each objAdapter In objNetworkAdapters
      wscript.echo "Network adapter: " & objAdapter.Caption & " has MAC address " & objAdapter.MacAddress
Next

Here's a sample execution showing two adapters on the machine: D:\temp>cscript getmac.vbs Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved. Network adapter: \[00000009\] Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated Controller has MAC address 00:0F:1F:25:DC:76 Network adapter: \[00000014\] Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection has MAC address 00:0E:35:6E:2C:B4

Q. How can I set the default domain user profile?

A. Most people are aware that you can set the default base profile on a per-workstation basis by replacing the "C:\Documents and Settings\Default User" folder on each local workstation. However, instead of performing this action on every workstation, you can specify a domainwide default profile. To do so, you need to save the required profile to the domain's Netlogon folder as name "Default User" by performing the following steps:

Create a profile that you want to use as the basis for all new users and log off as the user.
Log on to the workstation as a domain administrator.
Start the System Control Panel applet (Start, Settings, Control Panel, System).
Select the Advanced tab.
Click Settings in the User Profiles section of the tab.
Select the profile you created in the first step and click Copy To.
In the "Copy profile to" field, enter a location of \netlogon\default user. In the "Permitted to use" field, click Change and set to Everyone, as the figure shows. Click OK.
Click OK to the main User Profiles dialog box, then click OK to the System Properties.

When a new user logs on to a workstation for the first time, he or she will now have a profile based on the default profile stored on the Netlogon share. However, because end users can easily change these default profile settings, you'll typically want to use Group Policy instead of this method to set the mandatory configuration options. Group Policy settings will override attempts by the user to modify the profile settings.

Q. I'm trying to copy a user profile but the Copy To button is grayed out in the dialog box in the System Control Panel applet. How can I access this functionality?

A. The grayed out Copy To button usually occurs when you try to copy a profile that has been used since the computer has been started. Reboot the computer and don't log on as the profile you're trying to copy. The Copy To button should now be available. Also remember that you can't copy the profile you're currently logged on as.

Q. How can I add additional network and storage drivers to the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) that a system uses when you upgrade an OS via a Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) OS Deployment Feature Pack advertisement?

A. The default SMS OS Deployment WinPE has all the drivers that are included with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). If you need additional network or storage drivers, one option is to create a custom WinPE and copy the relevant driver files to the correct locations (which is what you have to do for a Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS)-based SMS OS Deployment Feature Pack installation). An easier option, however, is to use the drivers tab of the OS package properties to specify folders for the extra drivers. To do so, perform these steps:

Start the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) SMS Management snap-in (Start, Programs, Systems Management Server, SMS Administrator Console).
Expand the Image Packages branch and right-click the OS package for which you want to specify additional drivers.
Select the Drivers tab.
Select the check box for network or storage, and click Browse to specify where the additional drivers are located, as the figure shows. The specified folder must be a flat structure--subfolders won't be read. Also remember the storage driver location must have a valid txtsetup.oem file.
Click OK.

You'll notice that after you specify these drivers, the source folder for the OS package contains a new folder called "CustomWinPE," which has Inf, system32, and system32\drivers subfolders, with the necessary driver component files copied to the correct locations, as the figure shows. When a client receives the OS advertisement, SMS extracts the standard winpe.wim file to the minint folder of the receiving computer and copies the content of the CustomWinPE folder to the minint folder to provide the support for extra network and storage hardware.

Note that if you're deploying new OSs via RIS, these additional network drivers won't be used because RIS ignores the OS package's WinPE. You could copy the CustomWinPE folder content to the WinPE instance folder on the RIS server to add the additional drivers to avoid manually moving the required files to the correct directories (e.g. .inf files to the Inf folder, .sys to the system32\drivers). You also need to update all the OS package's distribution points so that the CustomWinPE content is available to the clients.

Q. Can I upgrade Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition to Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition?

A. Yes, this is a supported upgrade. Read the following Microsoft documents for more details: Supported Upgrade Paths Supported paths for upgrading to Windows Server 2003 or to Windows Small Business Server 2003.

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