CSIDL

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762494%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

YouTube clips on Hyper-V machines

Error occurred on Windows 7 Hyper-V guest on a Windows 8.1 Host.

If you attempt to play a YouTube video on a direct connection to a Hyper-V virtual machine instance an error will occur:

"An error occurred please try again later"

Vague?!

The suggested list of thing to try is predictably unhelpful.

The problem appears to occur because Hyper-V virtual machines do not have any virtualised sound hardware.

Using a RDP connection to the guest unexpectedly enabled the video to play because the sound was configured in the RDP client to "Play on this computer"

Further infomation here.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-2146986/problem-occured-youtube-error.html

Shutdown

Really? A blog on the shutdown command? Why's that then?

Because you can't remotely shutdown a Windows 8 PC over an RDP connection using the interface - you have to use shutdown. I know I know - leave it.



Force apps closed and Restart in 10 seconds ( use 0 for immediate) :
Remember this as Force a Restart in 10 seconds
shutdown /f /r /t 10 


Force apps closed and Shutdown in 10 seconds:
Remember this as Force a Shutdown in 10 seconds
shutdown /f /s /t 10


Get a nice remote shutdown GUI on the local machine for sending shutdown commands out to other machines:
shutdown /i

The shutdown command for a remote machine
shutdown /m \\machinename /f /s /t 10

How to create a photo album/link in Google+ and email it to people

Wow this is annoying.

Google obviously want everyone in the world on Google+ so that is why this is so annoying to do.

To create an album of pictures and then send the link to the album to others - who don't necessarily have Google+ - do the following.

Get the pictures into your Google+ photos area using your preferred method - Google Drive sync / Autobackup / manual upload etc

1. Login to Google+ and go to All Photos.
2. Select the pictures or videos you wish to put into an album.
3. Click Share and Enter an Album Name in the Create an album box.
4. Enter your email address in the To: box.
5. This creates an album which you can then share via a direct link.
6. Go to Albums and select the album name
7. Click the down arrow and choose sharing options
8. Locate the Share via Link and generate the link which you can then email to anyone.  They will be able to view the album without a Google+ account.

addendum

Google Apps Status page
http://www.google.co.uk/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status

Windows 8 Media Center DVD player might not work with Hyper-V services enabled

Windows 8 Media Center DVD player might not work with Hyper-V on.  While Hyper-V capability is enabled Media Center produces the following message if playing a DVD is attempted

Cannot Play DVD

The DVD may be in use by another application. If all other applications are closed, the video resolution may need to be lowered or the display connection type may not support playback of the DVD.
This occurs when Hyper-V services are activated.  Hyper-V services is the other application which is holding the DVD drive in use.  You can verify this by deactivating / reactivating Hyper-V and checking the behaviour.  To deactivate/reactivate Hyper-V carry out the following in an elevated command window:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

restart the machine to apply the setting.

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

Notice also that this problem is not codec related because Media Center is still capable of playing any DVDs which may have been ripped to the hard drive.

I have two machines of this type but only one of them has this issue so it is likely there is another factor involved.

More on bcdedit.exe
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709667(v=ws.10).aspx

RunVirtual Key may finally be the answer in App-V 5 SP3

RunVirtual enables App-V packages to run on locally installed applications e.g. add-ons

Set the new registry subkey’s value to the PackageId and VersionId of the package, separating the values with an underscore.

Syntax: <PackageId>_<VersionId>

Example: 4c909996-afc9-4352-b606-0b74542a09c1_be463724-Oct1-48f1-8604-c4bd7ca92fa

The application in the previous example would produce a registry export file (.reg file) like the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppV\Client\RunVirtual] @="" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppV\Client\RunVirtual\MyApp.exe] @="aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeee_11111111-2222-3333-4444-555555555

SP3 finally seems to have this all covered off.  Imagine there are 3 different addons for 3 different users.  One app can only have a relationship with one GUID string so a connection group is required.

According to the SP3 doc link below the users will only get the individual App-V packages in the connection group - the ones they are entitled to and not the ones they are not supposed to have.

FINALLY !

references
http://stealthpuppy.com/app-v-5-0-delivers-internet-explorer-plugin-nirvana/
SP2 related - it still wasn't *total* nirvana when this was written though.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn858703.aspx

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn858700.aspx#BKMK_runvirtual_reg_key

http://www.tmurgent.com/TMBlog/?p=2211

http://virtualvibes.co.uk/everything-you-need-to-know-about-app-v-5-0-sp3/
http://virtualvibes.co.uk/connection-groups-2-0-in-app-v-5-0-sp3-more-manageable-more-flexible/
http://virtualvibes.co.uk/runvirtual-comes-to-the-user-in-appv-5-0-sp3/


Another reason why you need SP3.

Sequence an addon in SP2 - say a lovely ActiveX control with a shortcut to launch IE pointing to the relevent website.  Deploy, test and marvel at your wonderful package.

Now close your IE session and start a normal IE session which is just running normally.  NOW try your lovely package - ain't gonna work is it? cause it gives you a some kind of IE session spawned from the original.  Your ActiveX control is no where !  SP3 might sort that out for ya.

SCCM 2012 Configuration Manger Console may require the MDT

Could not load file or assembly file:///C:\Program Files (6)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\Microsoft,BDD.CM12.Actions.dll’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

The above occurs because files named Microsoft.BDD* are not present. These are not installed by the SCCM Admin Console installation but by the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). The files then have to be copied over to the required folder shown in the error message