How to remotely deploy a language pack to a Windows 2003 Server

Posted on November 6th, 2008

If you want to remotely deploy a language pack to a Windows 2003 server it is important to do a bit of research first.

First you will need the language Group ID which can be found here: Configuring and Using International Features of Windows

You will also need the:

SystemLocale

UserLocale

InputLocale

I couldhn’t find a neat list of all of these and discovered from a variety of searches for the language pack I needed. However, they were all the same!

Creation of regopts.txt file

The information above can be used to create the regopts.txt file (in this case for Japanese)

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=7
SystemLocale=0411
UserLocale=0411
InputLocale=0411:e0010411

Silent install of language pack

rundll32.exe shell32,Control_RunDLL intl.cpl,,/f:”d:\temp\regopts.txt”

Change the Install paths

The silent install relies on the source files for the Windows CD being correct, otherwise it will find a missing file and prompt. So to pre-populate these fileds first change the following registry locations:

objWshShell.RegWrite “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath”, “\\server\sourcefiles”, “REG_SZ”
objWshShell.RegWrite “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ServicePackSourcePath”, “\\server\sourcefiles”, “REG_SZ”
objWshShell.RegWrite “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SourcePath”, “\\server\sourcefiles\i386″, “REG_SZ”

*Note, the last entry requires the \i386 bit.

Order

Change install locations

silent install script

reboot

Links:

A good guide can be found here: MSFN

Tags: deploy, language pack, remotely
Filed under Windows 2003 | 1 Comment »

How to display the language bar for some users on a Citrix server

Posted on November 6th, 2008

The language bar is the small icon that appears near the systray and displays a 2 character code for your language, for example EN for English. When maximized it also appears as a ribbon at the top of the screen as shown:

Normally on a Citrix server you would want to hide this and there are many resources on the internet to help you do this, but the two main ways are:

How to disable the language bar

Enable the group policy entry: (hides quick launch aswell)

• User configuration | Administrative templates | Start Menu & Taskbar | Do not display custom toolbars in the taskbar ENABLED

or

Apply the following registry settings to the users via logon scripts:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar\ShowStatus [REG_DWORD]
• 00000003

How to enable for some users

The group policy setting must be disabled, i.e. to allow the display of custom toolbars on the taskbar.

• User configuration | Administrative templates | Start Menu & Taskbar | Do not display custom toolbars in the taskbar DISABLED

However, this will then display the language bar for all users which is not what is required.

To hide from all users, but allow for some, apply the following scripts at logon via logon scripts:

(in this case using KIX)

;Disable Language bar for all users by default

? “Disable language bar for all users by default”

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar”, “ShowStatus”, “00000003″, “REG_DWORD”)

IF INGROUP (“domain\Language Bar users”)

? “Adding Language Bar support”

? “”

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar”, “ShowStatus”, “00000004″, “REG_DWORD”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar”, “Transparency”, “000000ff”, “REG_DWORD”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar”, “Label”, “00000001″, “REG_DWORD”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\LangBar”, “ExtraIconsOnMinimized”, “00000000″, “REG_DWORD”)

? “Adding Additional Language support, in this case japanese”

? “”

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload”, “1″, “e0010411″, “REG_SZ”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload”, “2″, “00000809″, “REG_SZ”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\Assemblies\0×00000411\{34745C63-B2F0-4784-8B67-5E12C8701A31}”, “Default”, “{B3209488-CB34-4017-8E13-10CFCA2519FE}”, “REG_SZ”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\Assemblies\0×00000411\{34745C63-B2F0-4784-8B67-5E12C8701A31}”,”KeyboardLayout”, “00000000″, “REG_DWORD”)

$WriteReg = WRITEVALUE(“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CTF\Assemblies\0×00000411\{34745C63-B2F0-4784-8B67-5E12C8701A31}”, “Profile”,”{DAF93FA4-C39D-4AD8-BE61-16A1DFA3A1DA}”, “REG_SZ”)

ENDIF

This will enable the language bar icon for members of this group and display an additional language option (in this case it adds Japanese)

Tags: disable, enable, japanese, language bar, Scripts/Reg
Filed under Windows 2003 | No Comments »

Resultant Set of Policy/gpresult: access denied error message

Posted on October 16th, 2008

When running a Resultant Set of Policy from the Group policy management Console (GPMC) the following error is displayed:

Also, the following ‘access denied’ error appears when running gpresult.exe from a command prompt on the server:

Running on other servers seems okay, but on these specific servers there is a problem.

Resolution

This can be resolved by doing the following:

cmd
c:
cd\windows\system32

regsvr32 /n /I userenv.dll

cd\windows\system32\wbem
mofcomp scersop.mof

gpupdate /force

Tested as working on Windows 2003 x64 Enterprise Edition. (and it doesn’t even need a reboot)

Tags: access denied, error, gpmc, gpresult, rsop, wmi
Filed under Scripts/Reg, Windows 2003 | 4 Comments »

Slow logons at ‘applying registry policy’ stage on a Windows 2003 Citrix Server

Posted on September 24th, 2008

Problem

When a user logs onto a Citrix server, it can take up to 10 minutes at ‘applying registry policy’ during the logon process.

Background

The server specification was as follows:

• Windows 2003 R2 x64 Standard Edition
• Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 HFRP02.

The server was member of an Windows 2003 Active Directory domain with many DC’s spread amongst different sites. It was in an Active Directory ‘sites and services’ site group along with many other Citrix servers and configured for 3 DC’s split over 2 physical locations.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AD Site, apply group policy, applying group policy, applying registry policy, dfs, group policy, OpLocksDisabled, opportunistic locking, registry.pol, SetRegistryValue, slow, slow login, slow logon, sysvol, UserEnvDebugLevel
Filed under Windows 2003 | 3 Comments »

How many Processor cores are supported by Windows 2003 Standard Edition

Posted on September 16th, 2008

Windows 2003 Standard Edition vs Enterprise Edition

In the past there were some limitations emposed on Windows 2003 Standard Edition which in some situations would mean that you would need to spend a bit more money and buy the Enterprise version instead. One of these limitations was memory and specifically related to the PAE environment (as detailed here).

However, I was asked the question about processors. Will Windows 2003 Standard Edition support 2 Quad core processors (8 cores in total)?

After much digging I have found the following resources to say that Standard Edition will support this:

• Microsoft Forum: post
• Microsoft document: Software for Multicore and Hyperthreaded Processors

Summary

Yes, Windows 2003 Standard Edition will support upto 4 physical processors, whether the processors in the system are single-core, hyperthreaded, or multicore.

Tags: core, edition, enterprise, how many, multicore, processor, quad, standard, supported, Windows 2003
Filed under Windows 2003 | No Comments »