Unable to setup Default Printer, error message: 0X00000709

In my environments, in few cases, I had the strange problem with installing and defining a default printer. The situation was, that I was perfectly able to install a printer, but I received a strange error: Unable to setup Default Printer, error message: 0X00000709. My first action was trying to set one of the other printers as a default one, but the error persisted. Then I tried to analyze why and I had a strange result. The nature of the problem was in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows. The error is that it is not possible to change the value of the key Device.
The solution of this problem is to make possible changing the value of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows registry key (in my case it was Read only for all the listed accounts). After I changed the permissions to modify, I was able to define the default printer.

Hope, that I helps someone..

About malware…

Frequently someone asks me for an advice which antivirus use, how to protect from the “viruses” and similar things. For this reason, I have decided to say some words about this on my blog.
A good antivirus software it is not all you need, above all, you need to control yourself. You have to avoid browsing on some not good internet pages, you have to avoid to install all software that you think “maybe will be useful”, in other words, work with computer responsibly and think of what can happen in advice.
Finally, think about all devices, that you have. It is not good to say “it is only tablet or phone”. This type of thinking has as a result a 614% grow of malware on Android devices in a year!
Also for the computer think what is going on. Now there is a Trojan malware where you have to answer on a survey!
And on “The Question” which antivirus software is good, I always avoid the response. The reason is simple: everyone of us has personal preferences and thinking. As a result of this, it is impossible to give the perfectly correct answer, but you can find Antivirus software tests here. This can give you a good view to find the right software..

Replacing OS image in MDT 2012

Days ago I had a problem on one of MDT”s. There were installed OS images for some Windows 7 systems without SP1. Because I use the ImagePatcher PowerShell script to offline update all images, and there is no way to install SP1 with offline updating, I tried to delete the images and update new ones directly from DVD.
In that moment I had a problem with task sequences, because they lose OS images to install.
This problem can be solved very easy, with few clicks. You must open the desire task sequence and go to the tab Task sequence. You can find there the task “Install operating system”. In this task you have just to browse the right system you want to install.

 

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Upgrade from MDT 2010 to MDT 2012

Now is available a new version of MDT and of course there are new functionalities and new options. For this reason it is normal to upgrade it. There is no support to direct upgrade, but is very easy to upgrade it.
For the first thing, you have to uninstall the old version. You can uninstall it with default options, but be careful with deployment shares. You will need them in the future.
The second thing is a normal installation of MDT 2012. Then you have to start it. There you will see (or you will be able to import) all deployment shares, but they are not yet functional. They need to be upgraded.
Right click to any share and select the option upgrade. The share will be now present normally to the MDT and you will probably think that everything is OK, but if you try to use it, you will have problems. This is because you are still using the old boot image and this is the last step you have to do. You must rebuild all boot images and change them in WDS and other boot devices. I suggest, that in this step you select “Completely regenerate image”. You must have in mind that the version of MDT is changed and there are possible a lot of differences in the boot images.
That’s all. Make it a good use..

Disable screen saver, enabled with group policy (Windows 7)

Of course, at the beginning, you must exclude the computer from the region where the policy is applied. If the policy is still active at the computer, you cannot change any setting applied with GP.
After GP is disabled, you must change few values in the registry:

  • 1. The registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem
    • ScreenSaverActive for Enable (1) or Disable (0) screen saver
    • ScreenSaverIsSecure for Enable (1) or Disable (0) password protected screen saver
    • ScreenSaveTimeOut for number of seconds that the screen saver will be going on
  • 2. The registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop – I suggest to view and set up the same values also here (keys are very similar), but this is not a group policy setting; it is a normal windows setting.

Remark 1: I found in some cases also an another registry key to be modified: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePolicesMicrosoftWindowsControl PanelDesktop. Please look also at this point..