Category: Windows

Deleting print jobs in Error on print server

Published on in PowerShell, Terminal server, Windows, Windows Server by Elvis

I had a problem in an environment where all users print thru one print server. The printer was worst one and we always had problems to delete some jobs in error. The users were also unable to print when the printer had a job in error. So, we wanted to automate that procedure to keep printers alive as much as possible.
In this case, we found two different but similar solutions, both in PowerShell.
The first is to delete jobs in non-working hours (true the night). We used the script:

get-printer | where {$_.PrinterStatus -ne “Normal”} | get-printjob |Remove-PrintJob

This script deletes all jobs on all printers where the status of the printer is not normal. This are pros and contras:

  • It runs thru the night, so the printer could be offline for whole day,
  • All jobs on the printer are lost. We preferred to do it in this way, as we didn’t know what kind of jobs were in the queue. It could a confidential information and is better to lose the job as leave those papers in the printer,
  • It has minimum impact to the print server.

The second option is running a similar script every few minutes:

get-printer | Get-PrintJob | where {$_.JobStatus -match “Error”} | Remove-PrintJob

This script has those pros and contras:

  • It could be run every few minutes and printers are really many time online,
  • It has more impact on the print server as the previous, but the impact is still minimum. There is not real difference in server usage.

After consulting with the customer, the best choice was the second version, running every 5 minutes. Now we have printers really with better uptime and the server is running practically on the same performance. Be careful that you run this script with an account who has permissions to delete print jobs (Print Administrator) and it will work. Anyway, if it is possible is always better to find the cause of errors and repair it. It is not always possible, but try to do it, before you use the script.
Still I am convinced that the best way to solve this type of issues is assign the second option directly to an error. When the printer is going to error, it is acknowledged as Error 372; Source: PrintService. You have just to assign a task to this error..

How to change network profile with PowerShell

Published on in PowerShell, Windows, Windows Server by Elvis

Many times, my customers tell me that their network don’t not work well. They have problems with access to shares, they are not able to connect via RDP to some servers and so on.
The cause of this problem is in 90% of cases a wrong network profile. This can happen if you change router, network cards or other network equipment. A small distraction when you select the network type can have big consequences by blocking many services. All of these problems have the origin in default Windows settings, as the default network profile is Public. This setting is correct because it is the optimal solution when you connect to some untrusted networks (hotels, airports…) and if we think that we travel a lot, this situation is more frequent that connecting to a new home network.
There are also many posts how to change network profile on the net. Some are better than others are, but I want to solve this problem using PowerShell. In this way it works on clients and servers, it can be done always in the same mode and you can change a profile whenever you want. It is just one command:

Get-NetConnectionProfile | Set-NetConnectionProfile –NetworkCategory Private

Network categories you can use are Private or Public. You cannot set profile to Domain.

More on Set-NetConnectionProfile can be found here..

Many free tools for administrators

Published on in Essentials Server, Exchange Server, Management, SharePoint, Terminal server, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server by Elvis

For any administrator, who want to use any kind of free tools to have better access or monitor some functionalities in Windows environments, here we have a list of many free tools. Just look which is usable for you and use it:
https://4sysops.com/best-free-windows-admin-tools/
And please, test it in test environment prior you use it in production. Many times tolls are not exactly the same as you expect..

Remote enable RDS (not thru remote registry)

Published on in Windows, Windows Server by Elvis

If you want to open the remote desktop connectivity on a remote computer, you have few options. There is one that is very easy to find on posts – change the registry key: hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server, key fDenyTSConnections to value 0. The second option is to propagate the same registry key with group policy (maybe this is the best choice).
However, what to do if you need to connect to the remote computer in this moment and there is no possibility to connect to the remote registry (remote registry service is disabled)? You can use a simple trick to execute commands on remote computer. The easiest way is psexec (you can download it here) and execute two commands:

  • psexec \\remotemachine reg add “hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server” /f /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0
  • psexec \\remotemachine netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”remote desktop” new enable=yes

This will enable the Firewall rule and change a registry key also in a situation where all other trying would fail. Be careful with firewall profiles. If you want to open RDP only for domain or private profile, you have to modify the command line properly..