This guide will run through how to remotely turn on and activate TPM in the BIOS on a Dell PC using the Dell Client Configuration ToolKit

Setup

First we need to install the Dell Client Configuration Toolkit (CCTK) on the target system.

To do this:

1. Log onto the target system via RDP
2. Grab the CCTK MSI file
3. Install the CCTK onto the target system

Making Configuration Changes

On the target system:

1. Log onto the target system via RDP
2. Open up a Command Prompt
3. Navigate to: C:\Program Files\Dell\CCTK\
   1. If you’re running 32-bit OS, go into X86 folder
   2. If you’re running 64-bit OS go into X86_64 folder
   3. From here, run the relevant command…
   4. To enable and activate TPM on the target system:
      1. cctk –tpm=on
      2. cctk –tpmactivation=activate
   5. Reboot, and TPM will be enabled

Bootnote

This process was tested and confirmed working on a Dell Latitude E6410 running Windows 7 32-bit. Let us know in the comments if it works for you too!

More Resources

There’s a page from Dell which covers more background here: http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Client+Configuration+Toolkit

If you need to Deploy the Outlook Social Connector via GPSI, you’ll need to get your hands on the MSI files.

To do so, follow these instructions…

1. Download the OSC file from Microsoft
2. Run the following command from a command prompt: outlooksocialconnector-x86-en-us.exe /extract:C:\osc\
3. This will extract the msi files to c:\osc\
4. You can then use the MSI file to deploy OSC!

If you want to integrate the MSP Patch files are well, just do this:

Then you’ll be deploying the MSI fully patched

Earlier today, I was trying  to set up a Remote Verification Server on NetApp SnapManager for Exchange 6.0, but came across this error when the remote verification server tried to mount the snapshot:

[SnapDrive Error]:VDS volume object for the LUN s/n ‘<serial>’ has not been found

The error shows up in the Report that SME generates when it runs a snapshot/backup job.

To get around this error, install the latest (apparently not-quite-released-yet) SnapDrive on to your Verification Server. You can get it here: http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/software/snapdrive_win/6.2P1/

This problem appears to happen on Server 2008 R2 servers, and I can confirm that installing the download above fixed the issues for me.

For the record, this is our configuration:

Exchange 2007 SP2 running on a Server 2008 SP2 box, with a Server 2008 R2 box set up for Remote Verification

The full thread discussing this is here: http://communities.netapp.com/message/24568?tstart=-1

How to get Windows Media Center to play MKV files on Windows 7

So I just bought an Acer Revo 3610 so that we can watch MKV files without converting them to MP4 and putting them on the Xbox/faffing around with 4GB file limits etc. The Revo is a brilliant box: cheap, tiny, near-silent and plays 1080p video with no dropped frames. I got mine from Amazon, if you’re curious. They had the best price at the time

Anyway, back to Windows Media Center. Out of the box, WMC doesn’t recognise MKV files. To get this to work:

1. Download and install Divx 7.
You only need the Codec bits, not the player/converter. This will setup MKV integration into WMC.

2. Download and install AC3 Filter
This will process AC3 audio if your MKV files has AC3 sound (a lot do, so it’s worth installing, otherwise you won’t get any sound)

3. Reboot your PC
4. Log back in, and open up WMC.
5. Ta-daa, you can now view (and hear!) MKV files

Don’t you just hate it when treats damage your corporate servers

Spotted on the DrayTek website