Disable Adobe Reader Updates

If you need to disable Adobe Reader from automatically updating or asking to be updated on Windows you can do so by creating a REG_DWORD registry key named bUpdater.

Here is the location to create the key;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\10.0\FeatureLockDown

Notice the \10.0\ in the above address.   Replace this with the version you are trying to configure.
Inside the above address create this key;
REG_DWORD   bUpdater   0x00000000

Setting this value will disable the updater and remove the "Check for updates" option in the help menu.

Here is the reference from Adobe's website.

I used the following PowerShell script to search for all FeatureLockDown keys and disable the Updater regardless of the version of Adobe Reader that is installed.

"Disabling Adobe Acrobat Reader Updates."
$featureLockDownKeys = Get-ChildItem -Path HKLM:/SOFTWARE/Policies/Adobe -Recurse | Where-Object -Property Name -Match "FeatureLockDown$"

foreach ($fldk in $featureLockDownKeys)
{
New-ItemProperty -Path $fldk.PSPath -Name "bUpdater" -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
New-ItemProperty -Path $fldk.PSPath -Name "iDisablePromptForUpgrade" -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
}

SharePoint Server 2013 Installation Error

While installing SharePoint Server 2013 you may encounter an installation error.
The installation will seem to go well.   The prerequisites will install with no problem.   Then during the setup you will see the usual progress dialog box.

Near the end of the installation the error text "Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 encountered an error during setup." will be displayed.

Searching the setup log files will not reveal much.

The cause of the error is a dependency for SharePoint Server 2013 to run on a machine with more than one processor.

Shutdown the virtual machine and bump the number of virtual processors up to anything more than one.

Now the installation will complete successfully.

Create a bootable USB dirve for an existing WinPE wim file

I use this procedure to create a bootable USB disk for a WinPE image I use at work for setting up physical machines.

1. Follow the steps on Technet to create the folder structure required;
   Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on a USB Flash Disk
2. Copy your wim file into the \Boot\Sources folder and rename it to boot.wim.

Although the Technet link is for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, it works fine with the Windows 8 ADK.