How to connect to another Reliability monitor on a remote Windows 7 client?

One of the best features of Windows Vista was the Reliability Monitor. Those of you who have taken one of my Vista or Server 2008 R1 class know that I refer to it as the “The Lie Detector.” We all know that our users are less than honest when the call for tech support. The question of “What do you install” is usually answered with “Nothing.” As Network Administrators, we know the truth. 80% of all problems on our networks or client computers are caused by our users. With the Reliability monitor in Vista, we could connect to the user’s computer, without their knowledge, and look at what has been done to that machine. In Windows 7, it is not so easy.

You can centrally monitor the Reliability Monitor on your Windows 7 client through Microsoft System Center Operations Monitor. This is a far cry from the Vista version that was an MMC plug in that you could use to connect to other clients. Reliability monitor data is also exposed to Window Management Interface (WMI) and is accessible using PowerShell. Below is a link that provides some examples of how to collect this data.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535685.aspx

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Sticky Key problem between Windows Server 2012 and LogMeIn

This week I instructed my first class using Windows Server 2012 accessed via LogMeIn and discovered a Sticky Key problem every time you press the Shift key. Here is my solution to resolve this. First off, in the Preferences of LogMeIn for the connection to the Windows Server, click General . Change the Keyboard and mouse priority to Host side user and click Apply at the bottom. On the Windows 2012 server, open the Control Panel – Ease of Access – Change how your keyboard works . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys . Click Set up Sticky Keys . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times . Click OK twice. If you are using Windows Server 2012 as a Hyper-V host, you will need to redo the Easy of Use settings on each guest operating system in order to avoid the Sticky Key Problem. Updated Information: March 20, 2013 If you continue to have problems, Uncheck Turn on Filter Keys .

Where did a User’s Account Get Locked Out?

Updated: May 15, 2015 When this article was originally published, two extra carriage returns were add causing the code to malfunction. The code below is correct. My client for this week’s PowerShell class had a really interesting question. They needed to know where an account is being locked out at. OK, interesting. Apparently users hop around clients and forget to log off, leading to eventual lock out of their accounts. The accounts can be unlocked, but are then relocked after Active Directory replication. This problem is solved in two parts. The first one is to modify the event auditing on the network. The second part is resolved with PowerShell. The first part involves creating a group policy that will encompass your Domain Controllers. In this GPO, make these changes. Expand Computer Configuration \ Policies \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Advanced Audit Policy Configuration \ Audit Policies \ Account Management Double click User Account Management C...

How to run GPResult on a remote client with PowerShell

In the past, to run the GPResult command, you would need to either physically visit this client, have the user do it, or use and RDP connection. In all cases, this will disrupt the user. First, you need PowerShell remoting enabled on the target machine. You can do this via Group Policy . Open PowerShell and type this command. Invoke-Command –ScriptBlock {GPResult /r} –ComputerName <ComputerName> Replace <ComputerName> with the name of the target. Remember, the target needs to be online and accessible to you.

Jason Yoder, MCT

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