Push Notifications on Windows Server 2012: PushNotificationChannelManager.CreatePushNotificationChannelForApplicationAsync() fails

I created an application that uses Raw Push Notifications – it works fine on Windows 8 but when running it on Windows Server 2012 it fails with an error that it could not register the push channel.

The error occurs at the function PushNotificationChannelManager.CreatePushNotificationChannelForApplicationAsync()

After trying to add some features to the Server I finally managed to get it to work. This is a preliminary list of features that are installed on my server – I am sure that not all of them are required but I can’t do the testing at the moment.

Features installed on my server to enable Push Notifications:

• .NET Framework 3.5 Features (all features)
• .NET 4.5 Features
• ASP.NET 4.5
• Ink and Handwriting Services
• Media Foundation
• Message Queuing (all features)
• Quality Windows Audio Video Experience
• User Interfaces and Infrastructure (all features)
• Web Server (IIS) (all features)
• Windows Process Activation Service (all features)
• Windows Power Shell (all features except Power Shell Web Access)
• WoW64 Support

XP Professional for Embedded Devices – Cannot change PID with MUI pack applied

Symptoms

If you have XP Professional Embedded with an MUI package – e.g. German installed and applied and you try to change the Product Key via the Telephone activation window (msoobe /a) the windows will just hang after you click “Change Product Key”.

Cause

The MUI pack files miss an important function in the javascript oobeutil.js. This file is located in the MUI pack directory under C:WINDOWSsystem32oobeMUIxxxx where xxxx stands for the language ID (e.g. 0407 for German).

Workaround

1. To solve this issue open the oobeutil.js file in the oobe root folder (C:WINDOWSsystem32oobe) and copy the function StorePID () to your clipboard.
2. Open the oobeutil.js in the MUI subfolder (C:WINDOWSsystem32oobeMUIxxxx) and paste the function to the end of the file.
3. Save the file

Alternatively you can also copy the whole file to the MUI subdirectory.