Sunday, April 21, 2013

Windows 2008 server hangs at “Applying user settings”


source: http://adminramble.com/windows-2008-server-hangs-applying-user-settings-services-working/

The solution to this is very simple:

  1. Either wait for you server to eventually finish the logon process or reboot it in the safe mode with F8
  2. Open registry editor with regedit
  3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP and create the following Multi-string value: DependOnService
  4. Double click the entry, enter CRYPTSVC in the Value Data field and click OK
  5. Reboot your server to Normal mode
You can also solve the problem with the Hotfix available from Microsoft.
NOTE: the KB article states that this happens on Windows Vista and Server 2008 with Service Pack 2, but in my case I had Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1.

source: http://adminramble.com/windows-2008-server-hangs-applying-user-settings-services-working/

Server 2008 R2 - Stage 3 of 3, Preparing to configure Windows, do not turn off your computer

Source: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=83272

What is the longest time you've ever had to wait for Server 2008 or 2008 R2 to finish "Preparing to configure Windows. . . "? At this point it got stuck for well over and hour and a 1/2 so I had to force shut it down. Boot into safe mode which apparently did something enough to make it boot up into Safe Mode (With and Without Networking). But whenever I try to tell it to boot normally, I get that forever drawn out "Preparing to configure Windows. . . " BS screen. I've attempted to remove the Update Cache folder as I've read in multiple posts, but that did nothing.

I'm at a point where I can either wait and hope that this message isn't BSing me, or I can take a more proactive approach. Anyone here have a solution to getting 2008 R2 to revert really quick back to before the updates attempted to install, or has waiting a long time paid off?

I've also seen notes regarding "Pending.xml" Opening this file showed at the top that it had "Revert" = Yes, but I've yet to see any progress on start up, thanks to Microsofts lack of informational "progress bars", which don't even exist anymore. I've read some places stating to delete it... others saying it would be a huge mistake to do that since your system wouldn't be able to revert changes on half installed updates. My "Pending.xml" is at 14-15MB, which seems quite big for a file of that type /shrug.

/Sigh, why can't Microsoft just get their damn updates in orders

Source: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=83272













Answer






Source: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=83272

OK... Very presumptuous of you to post this not knowing the situation fully. How about the customer didn't want to spend the cash to purchase updated backup software, or even want me to come in to do anything as of the last 6 months to save money? Yet I've managed on my own time to make manual Acronis backups once a week. Its not my first option to try restoring an image to a system, as that has nasty side effects sometimes too, its a last resort. Hmmm, funny because all customers want a full time tech, but they don't want to pay for one.

Anyhow, I fixed the issue. Was able to get it to boot into Safe Mode. Removed the SoftwareDistribution folder under C:/Windows (it rebuilds itself on the next update process). I read enough to know DO NOT remove or rename the "Pending.xml" file. Although this might get you back into loading into windows, apparently it leaves your entire server install dead in the water for all future updates, no way to patch it and you have to backup/rebuild from scratch.

After removing the "SoftwareDistribution" folder, I was able to disable Avast from the services, which allowed windows to boot normally to the point where it could revert the broken updates.

You know it really bothers the heck out of me for you to jump the gun Ryu. Since when has the first reaction of ANYONE on TR been to berate a member asking for assistance, regardless of their situation. You should be ashamed to be a moderator/admin and talking down to a member who simply asked for help by the one group they trust for some help


Source: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=83272

Friday, April 19, 2013

Terminal Server slow when printing documents - bloated print spooler registry hive

source: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/42f8e930-c50b-4166-88f4-4832ea9e2f13/


  • 0 Points
     
    Alan/Patrick,
    Hi, sorry, went away on leave for a while so didn’t respond.
    Alan – our case was REG:112081612189183.
    For someone who has been dealing with MS support for about 20 years, this was the most disappointing of any support call I’ve ever had raised – to have the call shut down, without a perfmon trace, process explorer analysis, or hang dump analysis (of spooler) – and simply blame “3<sup>rd</sup> party drivers” without any proof – is utterly deplorable.
    Anyway, for anyone’s benefit who has similar problems – trying to do direct printing from RDS – I’ve managed to get a solution working. 
    Here are the details;
    • A nightly print spooler clean-up script that;
      • Stops the spooler
      • Deletes the entire key under “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider”
      • Re-creates the key (empty) and sets the value "RemovePrintersAtLogoff"=dword:00000000
        • Note, this was vital.  MS support had recommended we set this to 1, along with some other keys (InactiveGuidPrinterAge,  InactiveGuidPrinterTrim) with specific values.  If we used these MS support recommended values, our RDS serer would not enumerate printers for more than 3-4 hours before requiring a restart of the spooler.
      • Restart the spooler
      • Map a printer (just to make sure it works)
    • Clean up the USERS\.DEFAULT\Printers key on all existing servers
      • There was heaps of crap here, the default user NTUSER.DAT was over 800MB in size
    • Modify the security on the registry, using GPO to deny SYSTEM write access as below, to stop the crap writing here again;
      • USERS\.DEFAULT\Printers
        • Deny Set value
        • Deny Create Subkey
    • Run NGREGOPT on all servers to compress the DEFAULT and SOFTWARE hives back down.
      • Even though we had deleted the crap from “Client Side Rendering Print Provider” and the DEFAULT user hive, the registry files were still large of course, and needed to be compressed to reduce paged pool usage.
      • Note, make sure no users are on the server when this is run !
    With the nightly spooler ‘refresh’ and the registry security changes, we are no longer seeing any problems.  In addition the paged pool has gone down from 5GB to 1GB – which I believe was related to the registry bloat that had occurred previously.  Cleaning up the keys and using NGREGOPT has fixed this.
    In addition, I am running a spooler check script every 30 minutes on each of the 13 servers.  This script checks how long it takes to enumerate the printers for the specific test user.  If it takes more than 20 seconds, we get an alert.
    Since I have made the changes above, we no longer have any printing problems… touch wood.. even using HPD 5.4 for most printers, and other (RICHO) 3<sup>rd</sup> party drivers.
    If anyone wants the scripts (the spooler refresh or the check script) let me know on david.frith<at>glfconsulting.com.au
    ta
  • Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:20 AM
    Avatar of Blackforce Dale
    (Partner)
    0 Points
     
    Has anyone tried this hotfix?
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2778831
  • Wednesday, January 30, 2013 11:41 AM
    Avatar of David Frith
    0 Points
     
    Dale - wow, that sounds like the hotfix we are after
    about time Microsoft !
    Gee, makes me even more angry that our support call was closed on us by Microsoft blaming 3rd party drivers ...
    It will be on our farm within 2 weeks, and I'll try removing the nightly registry clean up - but looking at the article, it sounds 99% sure to solve the problem


source: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverprint/thread/42f8e930-c50b-4166-88f4-4832ea9e2f13/

Check the size of the Registry ad hives

source: http://superuser.com/questions/374270/determine-size-of-registry

%windir%\System32\config and %USERPROFILE%\NTUSER.DAT. The config folder will be hidden, but contains all the registry hives, EXCEPT for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER, which is the NTUSER.DAT file

source: http://superuser.com/questions/374270/determine-size-of-registry