Changing the ConfigMgr 2012 size and location

One of our labs requires different cache settings than the rest of the systems in our organization. I found some simple VB Scripts and PowerShell scripts that should accomplish this. Unfortunately, these would work when I ran them locally on the machine, but they would not run properly if deployed as an application.

As it turns out, modifying client cache location via app deployment does not work, because you're running the app from the existing cache location.

Rick Jones, a contributor on the ConfigMgr mailing list suggested creating a batch file that copies the VB Script to another folder and calling it from there. It's a nice little workaround!

Here's what I did (details below):

• Create a file called ChangeCacheSettings.cmd
• Create another file called ChangeCacheSettings.vbs
• Use the batch file to call the VBS file

Details of each file:

ChangeCacheSettings.cmd:

@echo off

MKDIR "C:\CCMCache"

:paths
SET loc=%~dp0

COPY "%loc%ChangeCacheSettings.vbs" "C:\CCMCache" /Y

cscript "C:\CCMCache\ChangeCacheSettings.vbs"

ChangeCacheSettings.vbs (mostly borrowed elsewhere online):

On Error Resume Next

'Sets cache size and location
Dim UIResManager 
Dim Cache 
Dim CacheSize
Dim CacheLocation

CacheSize=20480
CacheLocation="T:\"

Set UIResManager = CreateObject("UIResource.UIResourceMgr")

Set Cache=UIResManager.GetCacheInfo()

Cache.TotalSize=CacheSize
Cache.Location=CacheLocation

'Set registry key for detection method
const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
strComputer = "."
Set StdOut = WScript.StdOut
Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" &_ 
strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
strKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\CustomSettings"
strValueName = "ConfigMgr-Cache-Config"
strValue = "TRUE"
oReg.SetStringValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath,strValueName,strValue

'Sleep 5 minutes to allow time for for this portion of the script to complete 
WScript.Sleep 300000

'Clean-up - Delete the C:\CCMCache folder
strPath = "C:\CCMCache"

DeleteFolder strPath

Function DeleteFolder(strFolderPath)
Dim objFSO, objFolder
Set objFSO = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If objFSO.FolderExists(strFolderPath) Then
 objFSO.DeleteFolder strFolderPath, True
End If
Set objFSO = Nothing
End Function

'Sleep 30 seconds to allow time for this portion of the script to complete 

WScript.Sleep 30000

Adding the sleep command ensures everything executes properly. 5 minutes for the first one may seem excessive, but the same guy that offered this method recommended it, it worked for me, so I stuck with it.

Also, note that I did not specify a folder name for the cache folder. It will default to "ccmcache", in this case T:\ccmcache. If I specified T:\ccmcache in the script, it would have ended up being T:\ccmcache\ccmcache.

Building the Application

Create a new application, and set ChangeCacheSettings.cmd as the program in your deployment type. Set your detection method as follows:

• Setting Type: Registry
• Hive: HKLM
• Key: Software\CustomSetttings
• Value: ConfigMgr-Cache-Config

There are other ways to set your detection method. You could use a dummy text file, or a number of other options. This one was just easy for me to do.

Lastly, I added return code "1" as a success, as that is what is returned. By default, it's not included in the return codes.

Deploy to your collection as required, and you're set!

Task sequence fails with 0x80004005 - error while retrieving policy

One of our technicians was getting this error on two Dell OptiPlex 980's. WinPE would boot, he would click Next, then instead of getting the task sequence selection window, it would bomb out with the error above.

I found many possible solutions, and some were pretty extreme (deleting the MP and re-adding it, rebuilding packages, etc.). I'm glad I didn't try the most extreme solution first. As always, start simple!

I found this article which suggested it might be a date/time issue. We checked the BIOS, and the date/time was way off. After setting it to the correct date & time, the task sequence window came up and he imaged with no issue!

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 not installing during OSD

I was trying to deploy .NET 4.5 during my OSD task sequence, as another app required it. At first, it seemed like the other app was the issue, as it would take the full 120 minutes of time to run, then wouldn't install. I hit F8, ran CMTrace, then opened the AppEnforce.log file and noticed this error:

Unmatched exit code (16389) is considered an execution failure.

It sure is! I had bundled this as an application, and the program was running "NDP451-KB2858728-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe" /q /norestart. This should work. It did not. In fact, besides the error, it ran this step pretty fast. The .NET 4.5 framework tends to take a long time to install, so this was definitely not right.

Buried deep in this TechNet article is a response that suggested bundling .NET 4.5 as a package instead. So I did, and created a program inside with the same command line (minus the quotes), and it installed properly! The application that required it also installed properly.

Having trouble deploying an app? Try it as a software package instead and see what happens!

EDIT: See comment section for an alternative to this using Application instead of Package.