While this feature can be enabled manually (or scripted) with the PowerShell 2.0 cmdlet Enable-PSRemoting, I would recommend using Group Policy whenever possible. This guide will show you how this can be accomplished for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and above. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, running Enable-PSRemoting in a PowerShell startup script would be the best approach.

Windows PowerShell 2.0 and WinRM 2.0 shipped with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. To take advantage of Windows PowerShell Remoting, both of these are required on the downlevel operating systems Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Both Windows PowerShell 2.0 and WinRM 2.0 are available for download here, as part of the Windows Management Framework (Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0).

Group Policy Configuration

Open the Group Policy Management Console from a domain-joined Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 computer.

Create or use an existing Group Policy Object, open it, and navigate to Computer Configuration->Policies->Administrative templates->Windows Components

Here you will find the available Group Policy settings for Windows PowerShell, WinRM and Windows Remote Shell:

To enable PowerShell Remoting, the only setting we need to configure are found under “WinRM Service”, named “Allow automatic configuration of listeners”:

Enable this policy, and configure the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to listen on. To configure WinRM to listen on all addresses, simply use *.

No other settings need to be configured, however, I`ve provided screenshots of the other settings so you can see what`s available:

There is one more thing to configure though; the Windows Firewall.

You need to create a new Inbound Rule under Computer Configuration->Policies->Windows Settings->Windows Firewall with Advanced Security->Windows Firewall with Advanced Security->Inbound Rules:

The WinRM port numbers are predefined as “Windows Remote Management”:

With WinRM 2.0, the default http listener port changed from TCP 80 to TCP 5985. The old port number are a part of the predefined scope for compatibility reasons, and may be excluded if you don`t have any legacy WinRM 1.1 listeners.

When the rule are created, you may choose to make further restrictions, i.e. to only allow the IP addresses of your management subnet, or perhaps some specific user groups:

Now that the firewall rule are configured, we are done with the minimal configuration to enable PowerShell Remoting using Group Policy.

On a computer affected by the newly configured Group Policy Object, run gpupdate and see if the settings were applied:

As you can see, the listener indicates “Source*”GPO”, meaning it was configured from a Group Policy Object.

When the GPO have been applied to all the affected computers you are ready to test the configuration.

Here is a sample usage of PowerShell Remoting combined with the Active Directory-module for Windows PowerShell:

The example are saving all computer objects in the Domain Controller Organization Unit in a variable. Then, a foreach-loop are invoking a scriptblock, returning the status of the Netlogon-service on all of the Domain Controllers.

Summary

We`ve now had a look on how to enable and configure PowerShell Remoting using Group Policy.
There are an incredible number of opportunities opening up with the new Remoting feature in Windows PowerShell 2.0. For a complete walkthrough on how you can use this new feature, I would like to recommend the excellent Administrator’s Guide to Windows PowerShell Remoting written by Dr. Tobias Weltner, Aleksandar Nikolic and Richard Giles.

The module are available here, on the TechNet Script Center Gallery.

Installation and usage

Modules in Windows PowerShell can be “installed” in two ways:

1) Save the module as a psm1-file, and store it in a folder with the same name as the psm1-file. Copy this folder, using i.e. xcopy or Copy-Item, to a desired PowerShell module-folder (see available module paths using $env:PSModulePath)

2) Import the module by calling the psm1-file directly.

The first option are preferred for production use.

Next, import the module using Import-Module:

 
(Option 1)

(Option 2)

The module consist of one function as shown here:

The help text are available with Get-Help:

For example usage, add –Examples to the Get-Help cmdlet:

Basic error checking for valid parameters are included:

The Set-PinnedApplication function supports the en-us and nb-no locales as-is, but you can easily add support for more locales.

Feel free to let me know in the comment section below if you got any feedback.

A virtual machine has two important directories, the VM root and the snapshot root. The VM root is where we store the virtual machine configuration file (XML) and the saved state files (.BIN and .VSV). The snapshot root is where we store the config and saved state files for each snapshot of a virtual machine.

Virtual hard disks (.VHDs) are stored where ever the user specifies when creating the virtual machine (or when creating a new virtual hard disk).

What has changed in Hyper-V between Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is the placement of .AVHD files (these are the differencing disks created for each snapshot). In Windows Server 2008 the .AVHD is always created in the snapshot root location, which by default are located at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Snapshots. This caused a lot of people problems – as they would run out of space on the partition where the snapshot root folder was. In Windows Server 2008 R2 the .AVHD file is always created in the same location as its parent virtual hard disk.

This means that with R2 .AVHD files will always appear beside their respective .VHD files. The one exception to this is if you bring across a Windows Server 2008 virtual machine with .AVHDs already in the snapshot root. In this case new .AVHDs will be created beside their parent .AVHDs (in the snapshot root).

Microsoft TechNet Resources

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008
Hyper-V R2 in Windows Server 2008 R2

Administrasjon av Active Directory med Windows PowerShell

Hva er nytt i Microsoft Exchange 2010

Konfigurer Single Sign-On mot Remote Desktop Services

What is a SPN mapping?

A Service Principal Name (SPN) mapping allows a service running on an Active Directory computer to be associated with a domain account that are responsible for the management of the service. This allows the use of mutual Kerberos authentication, and an account defined in a SPN mapping are able to request Kerberos tickets on the requesting user`s behalf. Examples of services that uses Kerberos and SPN mappings include SQL Servers, web servers, LDAP servers, Exchange servers and so on.

Validation of SPN mappings

A SPN mapping must be unique within an Active Directory domain, and duplicate mappings will result in problems for the involved services.

While the command line tool setspn.exe, which are used for managing SPN mappings also can be used for queries, I wanted to use Windows PowerShell to accomplish this. I`ve put together a script module with two functions:
Resolve-SPN – Resolves the provided SPN mapping
Resolve-AllDuplicateDomainSPNs – Resolves all SPN mappings in the domain and reports duplicate mappings

The script module are available on the TechNet Script Center Gallery, click here for the direct link.

Save the script module as a psm1-file in the following directory: %userprofile%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\SPNValidation
 
You need to manually create the 3 subfolders under %userprofile%\Documents if they doesn`t exist.

When done, start Windows PowerShell and type the following command:

You should now see the SPNValidation module.
Import the module with the Import-Module cmdlet:

Resolve-AllDuplicateDomainSPNs can be executed without any parameters:

Resolve-SPN has one mandatory parameter: –SPN
Example usage:

Note that the PowerShell Active Directory module for Windows
Server 2008 R2 are required, because the Get-ADObject cmdlet are used in one of the script module`s functions.
The PowerShell Active Directory module are also available in Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7.

Using Group Policy Preferences is a very flexible way to deploy printer connections. This is also very manageable in smaller environments. What if you got hundreds, or even thousands of printer connections you need to deploy? Do you want to sit down and make several thousands of mouse clicks to accomplish the task? There are better alternatives!

Based on SDM Software`s Group Policy Automation Engine, I`ve created a script module to handle this. The script module are available from this link.

Save the script module as a psm1-file in the following directory: %userprofile%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\GPPreferencesPrinters
You need to manually create the 3 subfolders under %userprofile%\Documents if they doesn`t exist.

When done, start Windows PowerShell and type the following command:

You should now see the GPPreferencesPrinters module.
Import the module with the Import-Module cmdlet:

As you can see there are two functions in addition to SDM Software`s cmdlet: Add-GPPreferencesPrinter and Get-GPPreferencesPrinter.

Example 1:

Example 2:

If you got the printers listed in an Excel spreadsheet, save the document in csv-format:

The csv-file may be used like this to import the printer connections:

Additional functions and parameters will later be added to the script module, i.e. Remove-GPPreferencesPrinter and Item-Level Targeting. Note that example usage for Item-Level Targeting are provided in the Group Policy Automation Engine User Manual.

Step-by-step

1) Download the script from here. Save it to a UNC-path accessible for all users.

2) Adjust the custom variables:

3) From an Outlook client, create a signature based on your company template:

4) Copy the signature files from %appdata%\Microsoft\Signatures to the UNC-path specified in the SigSource-variable in the script:

5) Open both Company Name.rtf and Company Name.htm in Microsoft Office Word and insert the following bookmarks:

Mark each word, e.g. “EmailAddress”, go to “Insert”, press the “Bookmark”-button and name the bookmark “EmailAddress”. It`s important that the names of the bookmarks are “DisplayName”, “Title”, “TelephoneNumber” and “EmailAddress”.
This is because these bookmarks are replaced by the information retrieved from Active Directory for the logged-on user.

6) When appropriately tested, deploy the script to end users. This may be accomplished by e.g. Group Policy:

Additional information

Sample signature created using Set-OutlookSignature.ps1:

Active Directory object for sample user:

Settings are stored in HKCU in the registry:

A few notes:
-Existing signatures are preserved
-Users are allowed to make customizations to their signatures until a new version are deployed. Then the exisiting company-signature will be overwritten.

Single sign-on is an authentication method that allows users with a domain account to log on once to a client computer by using a password, and then gain access to remote servers without being asked for their credentials again. See more details here for Windows Server 2008 and here for Windows Server 2008 R2.

On the client-side SSO are currently available for Windows XP with SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Configure SSO on the server-side

To configure SSO on the server-side (Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services or Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services), set the option “Security layer” to either “Negotiate” or “SSL (TLS 1.0)”:

Best practice would be to configure this in a common GPO for all Remote Desktop Services servers in the domain:

This setting resides under Computer Configuration->Policies->Administrative templates->Windows Components->Terminal Services->Terminal Server->Security.

Configure SSO on the client-side

Using a common GPO would also be the best practice to deploy the client settings needed for SSO to work.
The “Allow Delegating Default Credentials” resides under Computer Configuration->Policies->System->Credentials Delegation:

Enable “Allow Delegating Default Credentials”, press the “Show”-button and either specify the domain pre-fixed with * to allow delegation to all servers in the domain, or specify specific servers:

Next, create a RDP-file and deploy this file to the client computers.
Before deploying the file, open it in a text editor, e.g. Notepad, and add the following line: enablecredsspsupport:i:1
This will enable SSO for the RDP-file.

I would also recommend to sign the RDP-file with a Code Signing certificate. This can be accomplished using the utility rdpsign.exe:

Sample signing:

When a RDP-file are signed, the following will be added to the bottom of the file:

signature:s:AQABAAEAAADBCgAAMIIKvQ……..

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 clients, the configuration would now be completed when the RDP-file are deployed.

For Windows XP clients the following would be necessary in addition to the steps above:
-Service Pack 3 needs to be installed
-At least version 6.0 of the Remote Desktop Client
-Turn on the CredSSP Security Provider

The steps to turn on the CredSSP Security Provider are described in this kb-article.

I would recommend deploying these registry settings using Group Policy Preferences:

Also the RDP-file may be deployed in the same way:

I`ve covered the usage of Group Policy Preferences in a previous post.

Also, SSO can be combined with Remote Desktop Services Web Access. The Remote Desktop Services Team has posted an excellent post describing how to set up SSO in RDS Web Access.

Based on this function, and the printui.dll the task was easy to accomplish. I`ve published a sample script to PoshCode.org, available from here.

You may also want to check out “PrintUI.DLL User’s Guide and Reference“.

Tested with Windows PowerShell v 1.0/2.0 and Windows XP/Vista/7.

As an alternative, you may also want to check out this blog post on mapping printers using Group Policy.

I would now like to show how printer connections can be deployed using Group Policy. Today we have 2 possible solutions for natively deploy printers using Group Policy without the need for any scripting:

1) Group Policy Preferences – available in Windows Server 2008 and later

2) Print Management – available in Windows Server 2003 R2 and later

Using Group Policy Preferences to deploy printers are described in an earlier blog post, available here. Therefore, I won`t explain any further details regarding this.

I will focus on the Print Management which has a powerful “Deploy with Group Policy” feature.

Configure printer deployment on

print servers

To use the “Deploy with Group Policy” feature, you need to install the “Print Management Component” feature from “Add/Remove Windows Components” in Windows Server 2003 R2. In Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 you need to install the “Print Server”-role from the “Add Roles Wizard”.

When installed, you`ll find “Print Management” under “Administrative tools” on the Start menu:

The following screenshots are taken from Windows Server 2008 R2.

When you open the Print Management Console you will see an overview of Custom Filters, Print Server and Deployed Printers:

You may add additional filters and print servers to the console, which you can read more about in the links in the bottom of this post. For now, we`ll focus on the printer deployment part.

Right-click the printer you want to deploy, and select “Deploy with Group Policy”:

Select “Browse” to choose a Group Policy Object where the printer connection will be deployed. Select “per user” and/or “per machine” and press “Add”. Then click “OK”:

You should now receive a message stating that the deployment operation was successful. Click “OK”:

The printer will now be deployed to client computers.

Behind the scenes

To understand how the print deployment feature works, we`ll activate the “Advanced Features” option on the “View”-menu in “Active Directory Users and Computers”:

Open the “Group Policy Management Console”, go to the Group Policy Object you deployed the printer to, and select “Details”:

Note the “Unique ID” (GUID).

Back in ADUC, expand “System” and then “Policies”:

This is where the actual Group Policy Objects in Active Directory are stored, in addition to \\domain.local\sysvol\policies.

Find and expand the Group Policy Object you deployed the printer to. You will now see “PushedPrinterConnections” under the “Machine” and “User” nodes:

When looking at “PushedPrinterConnections” under the “User” node, we see an entry of type “msPrint-ConnectionPolicy”:

When we go into “Properties” on the “msPrint-ConnectionPolicy” and go to “Attribute Editor”, we can see that this represents the printer connection we added:

Deployment to client computers

Client computers running Windows Vista and later have native support for the new printer connection policies, and will work “out-of-the-box” when printer connections are added to a Group Policy.

Client computers running Windows 2000 and Windows XP doesn`t support the the new printer connection policies natively. To resolve this, there are a utility called “pushprinterconnections.exe” which must be added to a logonscript in Group Policy. This utility will check the computer and user Group Policy Objects and add any printer connections defined.

This utility have 1 parameter: –log. This is useful when troubleshooting problems, and I would recommend you to use this parameter. As you can see, the utility should not be run manually from the command line:

Here is an example of the utility added to a logon-script in a Group Policy Object:

The log-files are named “ppcUser.log” and “ppcComputer.log”. These are located in the %temp% directory:

Here is an example output of the logfile:

In Windows 2000 and Windows XP, no other feedback than these log-files are provided.

In Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 and later, the following feedback are shown during logon:

In addition, any failures are logged to the “Application”-log with Source “SpoolerSpoolss”.

Special considerations

Windows 2000 supports only “per machine” deployments when using the pushprinterconnections.exe utility.

The pushprinterconnections.exe utility won`t catch “per user” connection policies when using “User Group Policy loopback processing”. You must link the GPO containing the “per user” connection policies to an Organizational Unit where the users reside.

Use ACL`s  on the printer objects on the print servers to publish the printers based on group membership. By using this approach, all printer connections may be defined in the same Group Policy Object.

My recommendations

As I said in the introduction to this post, printer connections have traditionally been deployed to users with scripting. Since there are native ways to accomplish this using Group Policy, this would be my recommendation.

Considerations for using the “Deploy with Group Policy” feature in the print server role:

-the print administrator would have an overview over all printers which are deployed with the Print Management Group Policy feature in the Print Management console
-printers can be administered in an individual GPO like GP Preferences with the Print Management console. To do so, open Group Policy Editor, expand Computer Configuration/User Configuration->Policies->Windows Settings->Deployed Printers
-it requires that pushprinterconnections.exe are run on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 clients
-it is available with Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 R2 and later (backwards compatible to Windows 2000 Professional/2000 Server)
-it requires Windows Server 2003 Client Access Licenses (CALs)

Considerations for using Group Policy Preferences:

-it can handle more different printer types (local, TCP/IP, and shared instead of only “shared”)
-it has several additional options (deleting all existing connections, setting default printer, etc.)
-it can save a lot of GPOs because you can have many printer objects in one GPO and use “Item Level Targeting” to address each printer individually (e.g. clients in a specific IP-range, per group or even per user)
-it is easy to automate the process of adding printer objects to a GPO using Windows PowerShell, since the GP Preferences settings are store in XML-files
-it requires that Group Policy Client Side Extenstions are deployed on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 clients
-it is available with Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 and later (backwards compatible to Windows XP/2003 Server)
-it requires Windows Server 2008 Client Access Licenses (CALs)

Resource links

Step-by-Step Guide for Print Management
(Applies To: Windows Server 2003 R2)

Print Management Step-by-Step Guide
Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Print Management
(Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista)

Deploy the PushPrinterConnections.exe Utility