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Vmware

When I use Windows virtual machines, sometimes the system beep gets annoying to my neighbors.

When I use Linux virtual machines, it goes through my laptop’s PC Speaker, which makes me have a heart attack, and annoys my neighbor.

Find your Vmware preferences file

Windows: Application Data\VMware\preferences.ini

Linux: ~/vmware/preferences (you could possibly do it in the system wide config as well)

Add this line:

mks.noBeep = TRUE

All beeps should be gone.

Windows itself

If for some reason you use some other Virtualization product that does not allow you to disable beeps, just create a Group Policy on your test domain (you could do it local as well). Configure any non critical service in the GPO to be DISABLED. (I use the print spooler).

Once that is done, browse to the sysvol, find the GPO’s folder, and edit the security policy text file. Replace the name of the service you disabled with “beep”.

The reason we have to do that is because you don’t see the beep service in the list of the GPO editor. But this effectively disables the beep service that Windows uses, well, to beep ! I deploy this on test domains where I “beep” often.

I wrote this a while ago for my wiki. I don’t use the wiki anymore as I don’t have nearly enough info and time to post good in depth technical articles. I find that the blog is a good place for shorter “tips” like this. Note that this was written before Group Policy Preference Extensions were distributed by MS, and that until everyone uses Preference extensions, this is still useful!

Force regional settings and keyboard language

From BinaryFactory

Contents

• 1 Purpose of this article
• 2 Why do this?
• 3 Solution
• 4 How to do it
  • 4.1 What is setlocale
  • 4.2 Extract setlocale.exe
    • 4.2.1 Make a script
    • 4.2.2 Apply the script

Purpose of this article

Centrally manage the keyboard language settings and/or the regional settings of your client computers or terminal servers/Citrix servers.

Why do this?

It seems Microsoft does not think that forcing a default Regional Setting or keyboard language policy is useful. However, many applications rely on the local date or number format, and using different settings on different client computers can cause a lot of problems. For Keyboard settings, it might be very useful to force a default for a group of users who have a locked down access to terminal server. You would think there is a way to do with with Group Policies, but as of Windows 2003 R2, there isn’t.

Solution

Use setlocale

How to do it

First, download this: setlocale

What is setlocale

Setlocale is a great command line application that does exactly what we need. I have uploaded it to this web site. However, I don’t know the license terms for it. The zip file I found contains a readme with no information about the author or the license. If you are the original author and want me to take it offline or link to your web site, please let me know. I tried to find the original author with no luck, but whoever you are: Thanks a lot.

Extract setlocale.exe

Extract setlocale.exe to a share that is readable by everyone. The location of your login scripts is usually a good spot.

Make a script

In the share where you usually put your login scripts, create a new one. Or if you already have a script applied to the users concerned by this, edit it. \\path\to\setlocale.exe 12345678 12345678

The first number represents the regional language you want to use, and the second one, the keyboard. For a complete list, refer to the readme in the zip file of setlocale.

Apply the script

Apply the script to the concerned users, group or O.U. Assigning login scripts is beyond the scope of this article.

Ever get sick of the beeping of your VMs?
Working quietly, logging on to a vm…

BEEEEEP! YOUR PASSWORD HAS EXPIRED SO I FELT LIKE WAKING UP EVERYONE IN THE OFFICE!

Well, if your test lab is in a domain, there is a good permanent fix for you.

Now, the next section is useful to know if you want to know where service configuration in a GPO is stored. If it’s not interesting for you, just go to the “Shortcut” section at the end.

Create a new group policy. Call it DISABLE_THE_BEEPS.

Edit it.

Under Computer configuration, in Windows settings\security settings, open System services.

The service we want to control is called Beep. What…it’s not in there?
God does not want me to live free from these annoying beeps? Will I have to open up my laptop case and rip the PC Speaker apart?

No no no..a simple GPO trick will do it!

Edit Any service in the GPO (If your GPO is linked to an OU with computers, try not to pick a critical service, just in case). I usually take the Print Spooler.
Go in its propertiers, and set the startup mode to Disabled. Click OK.

In GPMC, go to the details page of the DISABLE_THE_BEEPS GPO. Note the Unique ID of the GPO.
Browse to \\yourdomain\SYSVOL\yourdomain\Policies\{unique id}\Machine\Microsoft\Windows NT\SecEdit .
Right click the GptTmpl.inf file and open it with notepad.

The last line should be “Spooler”,4,”"

Replace Spooler by Beep. Save the inf.

You can now review the GPO settings..

Now just make sure the GPO is getting applied to your VMs, and GONE ARE THE BEEPS!

Shortcut:

Create a GPO, browse to it in Sysvol, open the security settings inf, add this at the end of the file:
“Beep”,4,”"

Apply it on servers.

Video

Disabling the Beeps through GPO..

When hardening Windows servers through security templates or Group Policies, it is important to give the proper permissions to services. You might want to grant a helpdesk group the rights to stop, start and pause a service while not being able to change the parameters on the server, and most of all, without being a local admin of that server.

To do that, you create a new Group Policy, and under Computer configuration, you find the System Services section. Then you select your spooler service, you set its startup mode to automatic, and you specify the rights.

Now, the problem is that the default rights the GPMC console shows you is NOT aligned with the actual defaults of Windows !

Here you can see on the left, what GPMC is proposing. On the right, Default Windows 2003 settings.

Now, it is probably a very good thing to remove Power Users. The print spooler might be perfectly fine with what GPMC wants you to use + your own customizations.

However, it is very important to make sure that any service that depends on this service is able to read! For example, if only administrators can read the service, and you have a Fax server that depends on the Print Spooler , it will not be able to start unless the service account it uses is part of Administrators!

Just a thing to keep in mind when hardening a lot of services, or when troubleshooting service startup problems..