Do you manage multiple KODI boxes? For family or a few in your house. Annoying and of my own making I manage them for all my family. The biggest problem is if their is a update usually a ADDON will stop working. If your streaming or just simply updating this becomes a massive pain. 

I usually try to setup KODI using s specific theme so I can walk each family member through navigation etc if they have problems. 

Want them all the same? And updated from a single source here is how. 

KODI and SYNCTHING your centralized solution.

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STEP 1: 
Download the SCP driver packaged here. You can get it elsewhere I don't really care where. The link is from my one drive. 

STEP 2: 
Under program files, least this is where I placed mine, you can place the extracted folder anywhere. 
I create a folder called PS3  c:\Program Files\PS3 

Place the extracted zip file in that folder - the default extracted name is "SCPServer"

STEP 3: 
Before proceeding plug in your PS3 into the USB port on your computer. This is needed to install the device drivers for it.

​Go into the "BIN" sub folder and you will see several files and exe's like so.

First EXE you want to run is "SCPDriver.exe"

STEP 4:  Once you open SCPDriver click on install (NOTE click forced install if everything doesn't install). You should get a UAC popup or "Trust Applicatio" pop up. Say yes to everything and continue.  It should show both USB driver and few other packages installed.  Most important it should include the bluetooth driver in the install. 

STEP 5: FINAL step when you remove the PS3 from USB it should auto sync with your bluetooth. Please note this converts your bluetooth into a dedicated connection, other blue tooth devices will no longer work. You must then uninstall using the application again to remove drivers. Hope this helps. Happy gaming. 

It beings here asking for the IP address or hostname of the remote computer, you can even use "localhost" if you want to test it on your local system.

Next it gather some WMIC info on the machine your removing it from, current user, make, model, serial number etc. This helps you keep track and know you are running it on the correct machine. You can still exit at this point before it runs the uninstall command. 

After it gets the WMIC product installation ID for "Symantec Endpoint Protection" it runs the MSIEXEC with the install string to uninstall the software. Once complete it does another WMIC get to see if the product is still listed as installed, then prompts you to try again if it still shows as installed or exit. 

I have included a download link here

Any questions please feel free to contact me. 

My first attempt at setting up a migration from exchange 2003 to office 365.
Once you get your account setup within Office 365, you begin the migration portion. 

I followed this guide which help quite a bit. 

MIGRATE FROM EXCHANGE TO OFFICE 365 
I ran into a few hiccups that caused some issues. 
First being that most mailboxes during the BATCH (You run this to sync exchange with office 365)
failed, would not sync. 

Using Microsoft support - for the migration I used the local administrator account which had its own exchange mailbox and was local domain admin. Microsoft explained this is why mailboxes are failing and had me choose a domain user with domain admin and exchange admin privileges. My test user account I added to both domain and exchange full access privileges. 
We deleted the batch and started a new one using my "Test User"

Again the batch failed even with the change to "Test User" even with Microsoft tech support on this I found the issue on my own. Some older mailboxes contained white space in their Alias in AD. I went through and cleaned up the mailboxes, trashed the BATCH job on office 365 and started over. 

This time the batch move more mailboxes then the first time around but still several that were important failed. Using Microsoft support yet again. We connected to the 2003 exchange server and started checking user accounts on the ones that failed. 

ADSI EDIT - we connected to the server and dived into the users. Under public delegates and BK delegates, we found disabled users - once we removed them and restarted the batch it moved further users over.  

In the end I had to do some manual moving of users email as couple users would not move, Microsoft unfortunately washed there hands of it and I had to move on as the migration was taking way too long. 

Currently I manually moving sub folders within the inbox of the old exchange mailbox. 
The rest went well and I am glad to be off the old exchange server, however I found the support from Microsoft lacking in knowledge as they tried to figure out why the migrations were failing.

The one mailbox I wanted to move without issues was of course the owners mailbox. In the end I had to move 140 sub folders in his old inbox. This took better part of a hour which could be better served setting up the remaining users. 

The process of creating a windows 8 default profile has become slightly more complex. Initially I haven't been able to do this successfully without create a XML to load start menu and assigning group policy to complete it. I found this how to and applied it to my companies windows 8.1 corporate image. 
It works and allows me to create a default profile for the computer. 

Here is the link directly to it. 



Introduction:

This a manual approach to creating one's own default profile useful for imaging/syspreping, when CopyProfile True is not working as desired alongside Audit mode.

Alternatively: Changing the default profile in Windows 7 registry is still viable, but again some cases where it should be working and does not.

This is a brute force method, I know it isn't exactly best practices, but was highly successful once I got the hang of it and since it retains 90~99% of my settings for each new user I find it insanely more beneficial.

Note: If Syspreping, CopyProfile=False.


Steps (13 total)1
Customizing the Image
Install all the software you will be using, browsers, Notepad++, 7-Zip, WinAmp, etc. etc.


2
Creating an Admin account to use as blank slate.
Logon to an non-used admin user. Not built-in Admin, preferably not your logon or the company's local admin logon. So, essentially create a blank Admin profile to work with.

When naming it, avoid the words Temp,Temporary, or Panther. I suggest something catchy like Jaguar. I will use Jaguar for the remainder of the guide.

Few things to note, if Java and similar software is installed, they often place JARs/binaries in each users account. It is quite annoying and can take up to 180~300MB of space per user. These are safe to delete for this procedure.

You can clean out your temp profile.




3
Log onto this new account.
Logon said Profile.

While logged in, configure all the software to your hearts content, including Start Menu, Taskbar, etc. When you are absolutely sure you are finished, you will need to log out. Be sure to clear out temporary internet files (take a visit to %appdata%).

And delete any annoying shortcuts in the Public Start-Menu and Taskbar you don't want reappearing again.

Every account has two layers to the Start-Menu and Taskbar, one is the personal one, the other is public. Windows utilizes both when populating.


4
Log back into your previous Administrator account.
Once logged out of "Jaguar" you will want to log in as another Administrator account.

Navigate to the C:\Users folder.


5
Identify the account you want to be the new default profile.
Identify the account that has been configured, in this case, "Jaguar".

Now, what you want to do is copy it, and to the same location. This will create Jaguar - Copy.

This is a "file ownership" and "OS protection/security bypass" trick that is necessary for the next step.


6
Making it non-"Read Only"
Once you have a complete copy, you want to right-click and go to properties.

Here you will want to un-check Read-Only. Click apply to all sub-directories and files as well, then click apply.


7
Adjusting permissions for users to access the copy of the profile.
Once read-only has been un-applied, you will want to go to Security tab and ensure non-Admins have access to said folder (since you are doing all work as Admin, you aren't running into access denied.)

I suggest on a Domain to use "Domain Authenticated Users" or just generally add "Everyone" the built-in group with Full Control.


8
Showing, Renaming, and Hiding the Default Profile
You want to show all hidden folders (we are still in C:\Users) and you will now see the Default profile folder.

You want to rename this bad boy to "Default.OLD" or Original just in case you break something in the coming step.

Rename "Jaguar - Copy" to "Default" folder.

You now want to right click the new Default folder, and you want to go back to properties. You want to make this folder Hidden, so check it hit apply, and when prompted, just say you want the "apply changes to just this folder" (not the sub-directories/files).


9
Making it a real Default Profile
Now here comes the tricky part.

The Default folder has a special file called NTUSER.DAT.

It is a binary hive of the user's registry information.

Now this is all user specific and it matches everything the original Default user profile (and more!) but there is one small issue. Everywhere it should say %username%, it now says "Jaguar". We have to fix this. We need to load the Hive via registry editor.

Open up Regedit as Admin.


10
Loading the Hive to Regedit
Now that Regedit is open, make sure all branches are closed and select HKEY_USERS. Once you have selected it, click File, Load Hive.

Navigate to C:\Users\Default (the new one we just made hidden) and open NTUSER.DAT. It will ask you what do you want to name the import it as. Name it something completely unique but not the username! So name it something like Lighthouse, instead of Jaguar.


11
Making Changes, Quickly
Navigating through Regedit for this stuff will be a pain in the ass and prone to mistakes. We do it much easier.

Once Jaguar user has been loaded as Lighthouse into Regedit, you will see it under HKEY_Users.

Here you will want to right click the top level "Lighthouse" and Export. Save to wherever you can remember it will be at, Desktop or what not, as Jaguar.reg.


12
Editing Jaguar.reg, Importing the Changes
Leaving regedit open, minimize it, and open up the Jaguar.reg in either Notepad or Notepad++.

You will want to do a find and replace of Jaguar with %username%. You then want to save it.

You then want to "double click" it to import it back to Registry with changes made.

If you are Windows 8, you may have to UAC completely disabled or import through an Administrator elevated Command Prompt (Reg import "\DirectoryToJaguarReg\Jaguar.REG").


13
Finalizing the Default Profile
Maximize Regedit and select Jaguar top level.

You then want to go to File, and you now want to Unload hive.

This will load everything back into NTUSER.DAT.

Now you are ready to try and use your new Default profile. (You can test it out before capturing the image, by logging in as a new user that has never logged in before.)

I suggest you do, you don't want to break Default profile, or nobody will be able to login correctly or everyone will only have temporary profiles.

Even if you break the profile, you can always log into the first two admins (yours and Jaguar) since the profiles only need Default profile to work at first login.