How to find a machine serial number from command prompt using WMI

wmic bios get serialnumber

wmic /NODE:<computername> csproduct list full

or use PowerShell:

Get-WmiObject win32_bios

To discover HP Proliant Product Number:

Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem | Select-Object OEMStringArray

CertUtil: -deleterow command FAILED

Recently moved my root enterprise CA from Server 2008 to Server 2012 and was no longer able to delete pending request or expired certificates with using the -deleterow parameter. The error I was getting:

C:\>certutil -v -deleterow 08/05/2013 Request
CertUtil: -deleterow command FAILED: 0x80070057 (WIN32: 87)
CertUtil: The parameter is incorrect.

After 12 hours of pulling my hair out and verifying ever aspect of the migration I did, it turned out (although not mentioned at all in the certutil command help, e.g. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732443.aspx#BKMK_deleterow) I had to spell the month rather than use numbers:

C:\>certutil -deleterow Aug/05/2013 Request
Rows deleted: 34
CertUtil: -deleterow command completed successfully.

Muppets at MS, why oh why do you do this to us !?!?!?

Set default input language for all users in Win7

Source: http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/202556-set-default-input-language-for-all-users-in-win7

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Keyboard Layout\Preload
3. Double click on 1 and change the number to your local layout (you could get this by looking at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout\Preload1). Click OK
4. You may also change HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\International\Locale to this value however it is not mandatory to do so.
5. Close the registry editor
6. Logoff and then on again

BSOD - Error message occurs after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

WMI reference by Microsoft

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394572%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Win DNS - Delete PTR record with all capitals

As per:

http://www.jetmore.org/john/blog/2012/09/deleting-ptr-records-containing-upper-case-characters-in-microsoft-dns/

use the following command to delete PTR record for 10.10.10.1 for instance:

dnscmd 10.10.10.33 /RecordDelete 10.10.in-addr.arpa. 1.10 PTR

Deleting pending or failed certificate requests

As per:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2010/08/31/the-case-of-the-enormous-ca-database.aspx

For example, if you want to delete all failed and pending requests submitted by the 19/December/2012, the command is:

certutil -deleterow 12/19/2012 Request