In short I needed to use the variable %~dp0 before the items on the distribution point share. For example I changed “\\SCCM\packages\MozillaFirefox\Firefox Setup 3.6.3.exe” in the script to “%~dp0\Firefox Setup 3.6.3.exe.” I tested it with a test script that echoed out the commands instead of running them, and the paths were correct.

The myITforum article goes into further detail about the other uses of this variable. It’s actually a modification of the %0, %1, %2 convention of dos batch files for referencing command-line arguments. %0 references the script itself, including the full drive and path, %1 is the first argument, and %2 is the second, and so on. The “~d” modifier before the number 0 resolves the variable to the drive letter only and “~p” would resolve it to the path only. Combining the two into  “~dp” resolves it into drive and the path, or in this case the full UNC path. More information can be found by typing “FOR /?” from a command prompt.

I found several PowerShell examples on the web for interacting with Microsoft DNS servers, and took a bit from each to come up with this script. It takes the shared printer name and publishes that as the DNS name. This does cause a problem if you have spaces in a share name, but our environment doesn’t, so I didn’t program for that issue.

Here’s the script:

Function Add-ARecord
{
Write-Host -ForegroundColor DarkCyan “Importing Printer information”
# Imports all printers from Print Server
$printers = (get-WmiObject -class $Class -computername $printSvr)
$Arecord = [WmiClass]“\\$dnsSvr\root\MicrosoftDNS:MicrosoftDNS_AType”
$class = 1
$ttl = 3600 # Time-To-Live in seconds

$printers | ForEach-Object{
Get the name of the Shared Printer
$name = $_.ShareName
# Get IP information from TCP/IP port
$address = $_.portname.Replace(“IP_”, “”) # output variables for testing
#write-host -ForegroundColor Yellow $server, $zone, $name, $class, $ttl, $address

# create DNS A Records
$Arecord.CreateInstanceFromPropertydata($server, $zone, $name, $class, $ttl, $address)
}
}

$Class = “win32_printer” # WMI class for printers
# Change to suit your environment
$printSvr = “printsvr” # Print server
$dnsSvr = “dnssvr” # DNS Server
$zone = “dnszone” # DNS Zone

Add-ARecord

[edit] A couple people left comments that this didn’t work for them, and I was unable to get it to work for me again. I swear it worked the day I needed it. If anyone can tell me why it doesn’t work now, I’d appreciate it.

]]> http://www.yakk0.org/2010/03/08/powershell-add-printers-to-dns/feed/ 2 http://www.yakk0.org/2009/12/07/blocking-ie6/ http://www.yakk0.org/2009/12/07/blocking-ie6/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:02:26 +0000 Jeremy http://www.yakk0.org/?p=249 Let’s get this out of the way first…I think that IE6 is a horrible browser.

Now that that’s done, the sad truth is that many of us have to deal with IE6 on a daily basis. The school district I work for still has one quarter of the computers running Windows 2000. They have been updating the hardware, but for political reasons were unable to update the operating system for a few years. When I started last January they were halfway through a migration to Vista and had skipped XP entirely. However, there is still 1/4 of the district to go so we’re supporting IE6 for another 7 months or so.

Today I was covering the helpdesk phone and a user called in unable to get to the website for another school district in the area. That district was running a WordPress plugin that completely prevents IE6 from accessing the site. This is what my user saw:

In my opinion, the administrators for a public school district’s website have the obligation to make the site as accessible as possible. The browser preferences of the site admins should not be allowed to prevent access to the site. If it was a decision by the district administration and not the IT administration, it’s even more stupid. It wouldn’t have bothered me if there was still a way for the older browser to access the site, but they completely block it preventing access by people that have no control over their browser version.

This is obviously where I differ from a coworker…

him: “Just add the service account to Domain Admins”

me: “Why would I want to do that?”

In the end I remembered I can delegate just the permissions needed to unlock our student accounts to that service account and it works fine.

Why use a hammer when you only need a tiny screwdriver?

Here’s the steps:

1. Create a new folder with shortcuts to the applications you can’t pin.
2. Right click taskbar and unlock it.
3. Right click the taskbar again, select toolbars, then select “New toolbar.”
4. Browse to the folder you created, and click “select folder."