Windows 7: April 2016 Convenience Pack

How to integrate all post SP1 updates to your Win 7 SP1 media. Great time saver!

http://www.fosund.com/slipstream-the-convenience-rollup-update-april-2016-with-windows-7-enterprise-x64/

Windows 7: How to allow users to install printers if they are not Administrators

Problem: If users are not Local Administrators they cannot install Printer (and other) drivers to their machines.

Resolution:

There are two main approaches:

1. Pre-stage drivers for users using ConfigMgr or PNPUTIL as described here: http://blog.coretech.dk/mip/personal-note-no-5-make-driver-available-for-none-admin-user/ and here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772036.aspx

2. Or allow installation of a specific hardware class for limited users as described here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725772(v=ws.10).aspx

3. Use GPO as described here: http://techibee.com/group-policies/allow-normaldomain-users-to-add-network-printers-in-windows-7/457 . Just in case the link will be dead – it is under Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates – Printers – Point and Print Restriction

Windows 7: Internet Connection detection

Problem: If you use a proxy to connect to Internet you may see an annoying exclamation point on your Network connection icon in Task bar.

Basically it says you do not have Internet connection. 

The matter in fact Windows 7 tries to

1. Resolve FQDN of www.msftncsi.com. It should be resolved into 131.107.255.255

2. sends HTTP request to get a plain text file at URL: http://www.msftncsi.com/ncsi.txt

This technique is called Network Connectivity Status Indicator(NCSI) service and was introduced in Vista. It is described here.

Wireshark shows that NCSI goes directly to MS site (bypassing proxy) even though proxy is properly set in Internet Explorer.

Resolution: Kyle pointed to an NETSH command to force NCSI use proxy:

netsh winhttp set proxy <your_proxy:port>

you can verify settings using

netsh winhttp show proxy

After that on Wireshark trace you see traffic from NCSI goes to proxy and preperly replied. Indication in task bar is ok.