Customize SCCM 2007 Admin console
8:29 pm in ConfigMgr 2007, SCCM 2007, SMS by The WMI guy
Hi all,
Let’s have a show of hands, how many of you like/love the new Configmgr 2007 aka SCCM 2007 admin console? You can lower your hands again now. But I can only assume that a lot of you waved enthusiastically, because the new console is a wonderful thing.
Let’s have a quick overview of the new things I really like about the new console:
- Search folders; Search folders are a great way to organize different objects (Packages, Advertisements, Update repository, boot Images, Computer associations, Os images, Os install packages, Task sequences, drivers, driver packages, Software Metering, Reports, Configuration Baselines, Configuration Items, Queries, Mobile Device mgmt\Configuration packages). This is going to make life a lot easier for people that try and keep their admin console organized.
- Search bar; if your one of those people that does not really believe in keeping things organized but rather search through a pile of objects than you can do that to.
- Sort actually works reliably; You can now sort on any field in the console, and will really sort it
- Drag & Drop; To help you in keeping things organized you can now drag & drop your items in the relevant folder, which beats the old Move folder items wizard, that I never found to be very intuitive.
- Folders replicate down; Folders are replicated down the hierarchy, so if you do organize your items, they will still be in the same folders.
- Homepages; Homepages give you a quick overview of the status of a certain feature if you select the root hive of that feature.
- The direct membership wizard in collections finally defaults to system resources.
Now, one thing I don’t like about the new console is that most of the wizards now come with a welcome page, and there is no button to disable this. I am all in favor of some decent hospitality, but I don’t need to be welcomed over and over again. One of the most important features of the Sccm 2007 admin console though is the fact that is fully customizable and extendable. The Configmgr 2007 SDK that is currently in beta, has some great info on howto extend the Admin console with new functionality.
The console is also customizable because it stores a lot of its configuration in xml files. What I did was I took advantage of this fact, and edited all xml files that had the word wizard in their filename, and subsequently searched through those to find the wizards that had a Welcome page. I then opened them up one by one and deleted the Welcome page from the wizards XML-File. The files that I adjusted are:
clientpushinstallationwizard.xml
copybootimagepackageswizard.xml
copydevicepackageswizard.xml
copydriverpackageswizard.xml
copyosimagepackageswizard.xml
copypackageswizard.xml
copysoftwareupdatespackageswizard.xml
databaseconnectionwizard.xml
deletecollectionwizard.xml
deleteprogramwizard.xml
delsecsitewizard.xml
devicedistributesoftwarewizard.xml
directrulewizard.xml
distributesoftwarewizard.xml
distributionpointswizard.xml
exportobjectswizard.xml
importobjectswizard.xml
osd_bootimagemanagedistributionpointswizard.xml
osd_managedistributionpointswizard.xml
osd_newdistributionpointswizard.xml
osd_osinstallpackagescopywizard.xml
repairsitewizard.xml
The files were then copied in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Forms folder. Make sure you close the SCCM 2007 console before you copy these files.
Warning – MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A BACKUP OF THE ORIGINAL XML FILES. The AUTHOR will not be held responsible for any issues that may occur as a result of using these steps to modify the Configmgr admin console!!!
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Enjoy, and as usual you can find me in the Microsoft.public.sms.* newsgroups!
Everyone is an expert at something”
Kim Oppalfens – Sms Expert for lack of any other expertise
Windows Server System MVP – SMS