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Saturday, March 19, 2016

Repair Windows 10 with DISM command in command prompt


Windows 10 while it is running you can check and fix components and the component store. (this goes far beyond of the capabilities of SFC.exe)

Instructions:
a. Start cmd.exe from start menu with right click as Admin (very important!)
b. Or Win + X Command Prompt (Admin)



You see now in the command prompt: C:\Windows\system32\
1. Check if errors are in the registry:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

2. Check if errors are in Windows Components Store

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

3. Repair the registry and component store (you need online connection to Windows Update!)

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth


If the repair is done you can double check with no2. again (/ScanHealth option)







If there are still errors you can use the components from the ISO media or the installation DVD:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:wim:C:\install.wim:1 /limitaccess

ATTENTION you may need to adjust /source:wim:C:\install.wim:1
Probably the C: is  not the drive to the install.wim. It might be e.g. D:\sources\install.wim

Also make sure that you use the same ISO as you have as OS installed.
Simply open winver.exe to check the version of the OS.

If you need the media as you have no media. You may download it here. This also allows you to upgrade to a newer version if you are running an older one.


 

How to check for generic devices in Windows

When you check your computer management console in devices you may find something like this here:




to get more arround this you should open the properties of this device and check:


1. Click on Details
2. Select under Properties "Hardware IDs"
3. Now you should see something like this here:
(As my own notebook is missing the unknown device I just used the properties of another device. But it is the same procedure and does not matter if the device is known or unknown).






Here the stuff after PCI\VEN is the key. In PCI language this is the manufacturer code of the device. This is what we need:


PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_5227(ignore the rest for now)


VEN = Vendor ID = 10EC (as example in relation to the picture above!)
&DEV = Device ID = 5227 (as example in relation to the picture above!)


Know you are looking in a web database for its meaning.


Visit www.pcidatabase.com and check seach in the Vendor field for: 10EC or the Vendor in your case which may vary (e.g. 8086)




After you found the manufacturer you can click on its name.
This brings you to this Website where you have a list of all known Device IDs from the manufacturer.

Please Keep in mind that this list is not sorted.

Therefore please use CTRL+F and use the search function of your browser to look for the device ID (in my example I would look for 0x5227  (0x which tells you and the System it is hex-decimal number).





When you know what is the right Vendor and device you have a good Chance to identify the right driver on the vendors support page.


This here is a 90% solution. There is also a chance that the device is either not in this list or the vendor does not provide a Driver for your OS.


Depending on the Driver it might be that a Windows 7 or 8/8.1 Driver might also work on Windows 10. Some Driver types have an unchanged Driver model behind. But it allways depend. Try out the new Driver. Just in case you are able to rollback to the driver before.




Good luck!







Azure transfer of administrative user to organizational user (Azure AD synced account)

I had recently a customer they played around with Azure RMS. We used a trial account with a Microsoft Account (azureadminCUSTOMER@live.com) this becomes in the Azure Default Directory the user azureadminCUSTOMERlivecom.onmicrosoft.com.






















No wonder that the customer was not happy with this username to administer his Azure tenant. It created some headache and many discussions with many People at MS.

And dont believe that everybody there is on the same level and topic a subject matter expert. It may take some time to reach out to the right people.

Finally I found the right distribution list to ask excactly for this topic. And guess what. It is definitelly possible to move your Azure admin account to an organizational Account (local AD synced with Azure Active Directory).




Azure payment via Invoicing

I had recently a customer they dont want to pay Azure with credit Card. Instead they want to use invoicing. To make this happen, simply follow the steps described here:




Biometric Windows Hello also with Surface PRO3 (workaround)

Users of Surface Pro 3 may be very disappointed as they have no chance to use their face for logon simplification. As there is no Windows Hello camera integrated.


But recently MS released the new TypeCover for Surface Pro4 with Fingerprint Reader which gives you a great Chance still to use Windows Hello.






Just to clarify in "Windows Hello ready" devices mostly the Intel Realsense camera is used for 3D face recognition. A normal camera does not work for this feature as you need the 3rd dimension information just cameras like these create.

This is also the reason why "just a picture" does not work.
Also cut off the head does not work either. Just to make clear we did not tried that! :-)


But the Realsense technology take advantage of infrared light processing as well.


When you have a Surface Pro4 then Microsoft uses it's own camera sensor which is comparable with the Intel Realsense camera. There you Can use for Windows Hello logon your face.

But Windows Hello is not limited to this.

You can use also other biometric informations for Windows Hello as well. Here Comes the new keyboard into Play. The Keyboard is compatible for Surface PRO 3 and PRO4.

When you connect this great new keyboard with Fingerprint Reader with your Surface Pro3 (at least the typing experience alone is worth the money compared to the old one!) then you have all you need to run also Windows Hello.
And now you just need your finger to logon. :-)





Just to clarify. I was not sponsored from MS to write this blog. Nor I get an typecover upfront for writing this article. :-)