alt-92 – blogIT

On a regular Windows 7 install, Action Center in Control Panel notifies the user in case settings are not set to defaults or if maintenance settings are not set  – for instance, if you’ve configured Windows Update to prompt for install (and not automatically install available updates on shutdown), or Windows Backup.

Notifications are presented by means of the little Action Center flag in the systray, and a popup window:

You can disable these messages normally in the Action Center either by clicking the links provided or by changing the Action Center settings on the left.

On most Corporate networks however, Control Panel entries are either limited to user specific settings or even blocked altogether, in which case Action Center is not available but the notification will still bug you about the settings  – like when you’re using SCCM for instance to install updates.

That’s not a bad thing per se, as Antivirus products also use the Action Center to notify you in case something is wrong.
Simply hiding the Action Center flag may not be the solution, that’s like sticking your head in the sand saying neenerneenerneener and waiting for that freighttrain to hit you head-on.

In that case, Group Policy Preference allows you to enter presets and disable the abovementioned prompts.
I’ve used Process Monitor to filter on the exact registry entries used to configure the settings.

Then, create a GP preference and snapshot* the disabled items.
*These are REG_BINARY keys, the valuefield is too short to enter the values manually.

For reference, these are the exact keys and binary values used.

Windows Update:

Windows Backup:
 

Once applied to your User OU, these settings ensure the Action Center will still prompt for any other mishaps but ignore Windows Update or Backup.

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Most VMware Workstation users prefer not to enable the Host Only and NAT adapters, but for some scenarios you want to be able to do so.
Unfortunately, as soon as you enable  those adapters, they’re detected as unidentified networks (worst-case) or as a separate public/private network connection in the Network and Sharing Center.

And as soon as that happens, Windows (Advanced) Firewall kicks into Public mode effectively locking your box down. Which is A Good Thing  – mostly, just not always what you want.

VMware KB article 1004813  also describes possible solutions to fix this. Aside from disabling the NICs (hey, we wanted to use those, remember?)  or changing the NICs over to Private Network (which you would have to do every reboot), you can configure the VMware adapters as so called Endpoint Devices per the procedure listed.
More information on the Endpoint device configuration is available on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201634.aspx
Reverting to the normal behaviour is as easy as flipping the DWORD to 0 or deleting the entry.

There is also a useful side effect to the *NdisDeviceType  setting:
Remote Desktop connections will keep working even with enabled virtual NICs, whereas by default Remote Desktop (TS) binds itself to all available network connections.

Which means I can finally RD into my desktop machine from my laptop with Host-Only and NAT adapters enabled to run a proper multi-machine, multi-network test.
Yay

[edit]

Link to KB article fixed 

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Windows 7 features include attaching and detaching Virtual Harddrive files (.VHD) via Disk Management.
This allows you to mount and dismount your Complete PC Backup .vhd file to restore a single item from backup or prestage a Virtual PC/Server diskfile, or even your HyperV disks.

Vista does not have this feature, but there is a workaround available. Installing the VHDMount utility from Virtual Server 2005R2 SP1 lets you use the VHD storage driver and the vhdmount utility.

1. Download the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 setup from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/downloads.aspx .
2. Run setup and choose Custom Setup type:

   
   

3. Verify the default selection for VHD Mount is marked:

   

   Click Next to install and finish the setup.

   

4. You can use the command line vhdmount utility to attach a .VHD file, or alternatively, use these registry entries to create a context menu for the four actions.

   01
   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   02
    
   03
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD]
   04
   @="Virtual Machine Hard Drive Image"
   05
    
   06
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\DefaultIcon]
   07
   @="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual PC\\Virtual PC.exe,-327"
   08
    
   09
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell]
   10
   @="Mount"
   11
    
   12
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Commit]
   13
    
   14
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Commit\command]
   15
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /c \"%1\""
   16
    
   17
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Discard]
   18
    
   19
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Discard\command]
   20
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /d \"%1\""
   21
    
   22
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Dismount]
   23
    
   24
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Dismount\command]
   25
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /u /d \"%1\""
   26
    
   27
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Mount]
   28
    
   29
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Virtual.Machine.HD\shell\Mount\command]
   30
   @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Virtual Server\\Vhdmount\\vhdmount.exe\" /p \"%1\""

   The result is a context menu on right-clicking a .VHD file like this.

   

   Mounting your disk file is now as easy as a right-click away, and the VHD will show up as a new disk in Explorer.

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