Tag: automation

How To Make An Automagic Windows 10 Boot Camp Install .pkg

I spent a long time trying to automate a dual-boot deployment of macOS and Windows 10.  The reason being is that it’s very useful to only buy a single piece of hardware (Apple) and have it run Windows and macOS (and maybe Linux, too).  But getting two completely different operating systems to deploy to a single piece of hardware in an automated fashion is a challenge.

This post describes how I went about creating a sysprep’d Windows image in a .pkg format, so it could be easily run on a Mac or deployed through something like JAMF. Continue reading “How To Make An Automagic Windows 10 Boot Camp Install .pkg”

Run PJL Commands From A Shell Script

I love learning obscure and under-utilized things in the tech world; PJL commands fit that bill.  You can use PJL commands to get and set printer preferences.  This includes getting the page count, setting the serial number, and changing the LCD display message.

I was recently tasked with evaluating our printer usage to determine if we could save money by removing low-usage printers.  Like many companies, the majority of our printers were HPs, and we were on a tight budget, so something like Papercut was out of the question.  I also wasn’t about to go around to each printer and print out the usage report, nor did I want to enter the Web interface of every printer to manually get this information. Continue reading “Run PJL Commands From A Shell Script”

Customize WinPE With Wallpaper and Custom Startup Script

WinPE is a useful tool for booting a computer and laying down a new operating system.  In this post, I’ll show you how to make WinPE a little more useful by automatically running a custom script at startup. Continue reading “Customize WinPE With Wallpaper and Custom Startup Script”

Merge PDFs Natively With A Right-Click In OS X

UPDATE: If you installed this script today (2016-08-15), you may need to update it.  I added a line in the script that should prevent duplicate pages from being appended.

There are plenty of apps that help you merge PDFs into a single file, but if you want something faster with a “native” feel, you can set up an OS X service to quickly merge selected PDFs simply by right-clicking them. Continue reading “Merge PDFs Natively With A Right-Click In OS X”

Batch Download All Of GarageBand’s Loops, Jingles, And Sound Effects

GarageBand has a lot of cool loops and sound effects.  If you are a systems administrator, you might be tasked with deploying these sounds and loops so you don’t need to download it onto each computer when GarageBand opens up.  Or maybe you just want to have these effects for your own personal movies or songs. Continue reading “Batch Download All Of GarageBand’s Loops, Jingles, And Sound Effects”

I Made My Own Script To Fill Out Tedious PDF Forms For Me

I often need to fill out a PDF form for requesting medical records.  I have typically done this using Preview since I can use it to digitally sign the form.  But requesting new records after every appointment started becoming tedious–even when doing it digitally.  I also did not want to wait for years and then request the records all at once (because it’s easier to handle large things like this via attrition rather than in bulk).  So I made a script that would fill out PDF forms for me using the information I specified. Continue reading “I Made My Own Script To Fill Out Tedious PDF Forms For Me”

How To Image A Computer With Windows 10 Using dism

If you want to image a lot of computers with a clean Windows 10 image, Microsoft  has lots of built-in tools to help do this, but it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed with their documentation.  To alleviate that headache, I will explain step-by-step how to:

  • create and use an Unattended.xml file that will:
    • skip the initial setup screens
    • create a local admin account
    • activate Windows with a product key
    • (optionally) configure other Window settings
  • capture a deployable Windows 10 .wim file using sysprep
  • deploy the image to multiple computers using the dism command line tool and WinPE
  • (optionally) add drivers to the .wim file

Continue reading “How To Image A Computer With Windows 10 Using dism”

Automatically Change .om to .com To Prevent Malware

Malcontents are sneaky.  In their latest ploy, they are counting on you misspelling “.com” so they can send you to one of their fake domains.  So instead of going to netflix.com, you end up at netflix.om–a phony site determined to infect you with malware.  If you are not paying attention, you might not realize you are on the wrong domain. Continue reading “Automatically Change .om to .com To Prevent Malware”

Convert DOCX to PDF Natively With A Right-Click

Microsoft Office for OS X is usually very sluggish and slow.  This is one reason I don’t like working with DOCs or DOCXs in OS X.  Yes, you can easily view the document using QuickLook (pressing the Space bar while the file is highlighted), but if you actually want to open the file and manipulate it, you need to either buy Office, or get an open source alternative.

Download a pre-built workflow (or create your own by following the steps below).

Continue reading “Convert DOCX to PDF Natively With A Right-Click”

Quickly Download Or Install Common Apps Without Going To The Website

While helping friends and family with their computers, I often need to download an app they don’t have or update it to the latest version–something I don’t really want to spend my time doing.  This is definitely a first-world annoyance for me, but I always have fun making the computer do my laborious tasks for me, which frees up more time to do the things I enjoy. Continue reading “Quickly Download Or Install Common Apps Without Going To The Website”