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Enabling the Terminal Server feature on Windows Server limits the display of Desktop Wallpapers. This is done to prevent excessive bandwith consumption. In some situations however, you would like to configure a wallpaper to display, for example, your company logo.

Group Policies allow you to set an Active Desktop wallpaper. An Active Desktop wallpaper, unfortunately is heavy on system resources, less secure because it can run web content, and has a higher probability of failures.

Setting a simple, static, Bitmap image as a wallpaper can be done using a centrally managed, custom Administrative Template that is part of a Group Policy Object (GPO). In Windows Server 2003 an Administrative Template takes the form of an .adm file. Below are the contents of such a file.

Installation Progress Management Tools - Complete/Basic Status Failed

Complete with failures

Recently I was asked to find out what the best Android-based smartphone is you can buy under 400 euro. I decided to share my findings for anyone who might be asking a similar question and/or have a similar budget.

Since I don't recommend purchasing a new phone with outdated software (older generations and lots of budget phones still ship with Android 2.x) I limited my search to Android 4.x only.

	Samsung Galaxy S III Mini	Sony Xperia S	Sony Xperia P	LG Optimus 4X HD	HTC One S
CPU	1GHz (Dual)	1,5GHz (Dual)	1GHz (Dual)	1,5 (Quad)	1,5 (Dual)
RAM	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB
Storage	8GB	32GB	16GB	16GB	16GB
Screen res.	480x800	1280x720 (720p)	960x540	1280x720 (720p)	960x540
Screen size	4”	4,3”	4”	4,7”	4,3”
Android	4.1	4.0	4.0	4.0	4.0
Camera res.	5M	12.1M	8M	8M	8M
Video res.	640x480 (VGA)	1920x1080 (1080p)	1920x1080 (1080p)	1920x1080 (1080p)	1920x1080 (1080p)
Weight	110g	144g	120g	133g	120g
Battery	?h/500h	7h/450h	6h/450h	7h/576h	-
Price	€ 320,-	€ 325,-	€ 275,-	€ 350,-	€ 375,-
NFC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SD slot	Micro SD	No	No	Micro SD	No
Reviews	-	Good 1	Good 2	Good 3	Good 4

As of december 2012, based on these specifications, I'd recommend the Sony Xperia S or, the LG Optimus 4X HD.


¹ http://tweakers.net/reviews/2501/sony-xperia-s-geduld-is-een-schone-zaak.html
² http://tweakers.net/reviews/2581/sony-xperia-p-witte-magie.html
³ http://tweakers.net/reviews/2645/lg-optimus-4x-hd-de-minst-dure-quadcore.html
⁴ http://tweakers.net/reviews/2561/11/htc-one-s-als-de-gesmeerde-bliksem-conclusie-niet-eenzaam-aan-de-top.html

Symptoms:

• Synchronization takes forever.
• Synchronization status will periodically reset to a lower percentage.
• Zune keeps creating and deleting .tmp files in the directories configured for synchronization.
• Files are listed under "Not added to collection".
• When you click the yellow icon with the exclamation mark an error message will appear stating "Sync not possible". Error code: C00D11CD (80004005).

Cause:
Some kind of corruption of your metadata store.

Solution:
Rename ZuneStore.sdf to ZuneStore_old.sdf.
This file is located under C:\Users\<your username>\Local\Microsoft\Zune\.

Please note: "AppData" is a hidden folder to which you can navigate by explicitely entering it in the address bar. If you wish to browse/traverse to this location you need to enable "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" under the "View" tab of "Folder Options" in your "Control Panel".

Warning:
Zune will recreate the mentioned file, but you will lose "Collections" and other stuff you've defined using Zune. Always create a back-up of your files beforehand.

For the installation and configuration of RES Workspace Manager on clients you wish to manage, it is important to know that there is no separate agent to be installed or deployed. In order to install Workspace Manager Composer, the "agent" of RES Workspace Manager, you simply run the same setup as when you did installing the console and creating the environment.

Non-administrators will, however, have no privileges to run the console or make any changes to the configuration. By correctly configuring RES you can granularly select which shortcuts and applications are available to your users. Also, for user sessions to be managed by Workspace Manager you finally need to set Workspace Composer to run after login or as a shell replacement. This latter part will be discussed at the end of this post.

This article will show how to configure a Multilingual User Interface (MUI) language on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 by means of configuring a GPO or using RES Workspace Manager.

First make sure you've installed the appropriate language pack(s) on the Operating system. See this post for instructions how to do so. Once you've installed the language, your users can select it from the "Region and Language" section in the "Control Panel", as long as you haven't disabled access to that part of the Control Panel. In an Enterprise scenario however, it is commonly required to push such settings towards certain (groups of) users. Below are two methods of doing so.

Windows Enterprise Administrators use a variety of tools to control user preferences: Group Policy Objects, Logon Scripts, Registry Keys, and Folder Redirection. These methods are used to force certain settings or limit the amount of the profile that's need to be read and stored during logon and logoff respectively.

Problems will occur with managability, profile corruption, logon time duration, last-write-wins over multiple sessions, and incompatibility of settings across multiple platforms.

There are a couple of applications that can help you do this more efficiently. RES Workspace Manager 2012 is such an application. You can download it here. The Express Edition is free and can be converted to Bronse, Silver, or Gold Editions, which are more fully featured, at a later time.

The application uses a central Data Store, a Management Console and client agents. The installation is pretty straightforward. The only pitfalls are mainly related to database access.

Installing Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Language Packs on a Windows Server OS can be useful when you allow end users to log in on those system. This is the case in, for example, Citrix XenApp Servers or Remote Desktop Servers (formerly Terminal Servers).

This way administrators will have the benefit of eventlog descriptions in English which are easier to troubleshoot and run internet searches on, and quicker access to updates, but users will still be able to use an interface in their native language.

For this you need to find a Language Pack in .cab format. You can download an ISO containing every Language Pack available from Microsoft: Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Multilingual User Interface Language Packs (7601.17514.101119-1850_x64fre_server_langpacks_1-GRMSXLP1_DVD.iso)

Be carefull to download the correct ISO compatible with your OS and Service Pack level, otherwise you'll get an error message: "Language pack is incompatible with this version of Windows".

In the end these were the steps I took to get to a working result:

1. Create recovery media using the preinstalled Toshiba Software (2 DVD's).
2. Replace the hard drive with new one (an SSD in my case). Video instructions
3. Boot to the first recovery DVD.
4. Start the Toshiba Recovery Wizard.*
5. Follow the mini-setup.
6. Remove all unnecessary Toshiba software manually.

* Don't go into the advanced system and choose to restore a "factory default image" from there. It will just give you an error message saying there's a recovery partition missing.

Please note that Toshiba does not support the replacement of the hard drive. Adding memory is just fine, but if you mess with their bloatware and hidden restore partitions you're on your own. Of course you can simply shelve your original HDD and put it back should it be necessary. No warranty void stickers are damaged during the above process.

It's still worth it. Gotta love this boot time:

Welcome to this blog I started. Often when I'm troubleshooting IT technical problems I search the internet for possible solutions. At times I find useful information on forums, blogs, or knowledge bases. Unfortunately the information I find is often only a breadcrumb on the path to a real solution. Sometimes all you find is people shouting "me too!" after the description of a problem. At other times the information is there, but your symptoms don't quite match up, or the information is unstructured or unclear.

Next time when I put some broken pieces together, and I have some extra time, I'll do my part and post my findings here. If you find your way here through search engines, social media or links on forums, that's great and I hope it's been useful.