GPO Software Installation Failing - UserEnv errors

I have scoured the Internet on a fix to this one so there are a number of things I came across to make sure my clients were getting their computer configuration GPO settings, particularly software installation working.

This is a common problem, so here are a number of potential fixes...

1) Spanning Tree Protocol - on the switches this can slow down the network card getting to a connected state as it negotiates speed and connection, some cards reset as they do this which creates a port reset on the switch etc etc. in a loop which means the OS is up before the network stack and whistles straight past the computer settings phase of startup.

2) DisableDHCPMediaSense - this again relates to starting of the network state, interesting work around from Microsoft....turn it off! But it may fix some client PCs.

3) GpNetworkStartTimeoutPolicyValue - Yet again another race condition between the OS and NIC, this setting allows upping the number until it works so gives a lot of leeway.

4) iPass Protocol - Turning this protocol off on the network connection resolved my issue. This protocol 'piggy-backs' on the network connection looking for ways to authenticate for iPass connectivity on foreign networks when roaming. You are more likely to need this on the wireless than the the wired connection so disabling it isnt too much of a nightmare scenario.

Apache Office 2007 MIME

Apache doesn't know what the new Office file formats are, to it they are just Zip files with some XML files inside....that's because that is exactly what they are.

So if you have some links to docx pptx or xlsx files on your Apache server and they are getting opened incorrectly into Winzip or 7Zip then its time to educate Apache. Crack open the http.conf file and add the following line of code to the 'AddType' section (it should already have a couple of entries to do with .gz and .z files):

AddType application/vnd.openxmlformats .docx .pptx .xlsx

Restart the Apache services and away you go.