Starting with Windows Server 2019 someone at Microsoft apparently thought it was a great idea to make the various application-windows borderless, making it really hard to see the windows. Below is an example of two File Explorer windows overlapping, the arrow pointing to the top border of the window in front. The Fix via PowerShell […]

Continue reading >

Here is a step-by-step quick guide on building the perfect Windows 10 v1809 reference image using MDT 8450, Windows ADK 10 v1809, and WinPE Addon for Windows ADK 10 v1809. If you are looking for a Windows 7 version of this guide, check this post: https://deploymentresearch.com/521/Back-to-Basics-Building-a-Windows-7-SP1-Reference-Image-using-MDT-2013-Update-2 

Continue reading >

Here is a collection of resources I found useful when learning about setting up, and troubleshooting, Windows Autopilot Hybrid Join. First, why you may want not to 🙂 Deliver us from Hybridhttps://call4cloud.nl/2021/03/deliver-us-from-hybrid Second, resources for setup and troubleshooting Configure Autopilot Hybrid Azure-AD and ADDS Domain Joinhttps://www.thelazyadministrator.com/2020/01/16/configure-autopilot-hybrid-azure-ad-and-adds-domain-join/ Trying out Windows Autopilot User-Driven Hybrid Azure AD Join […]

Continue reading >

Earlier today I stumbled across that the SQL Server 2019 Evaluation Media just refused to download its installer files. When launching the SQL2019-SSEI-Eval.exe file, it immediately failed with the error: Oops… A required file could not be downloaded. This could mean the version of the installer is no longer supported. Please download again from the […]

Continue reading >

Last week I stumbled across a good deal on Amazon for a batch of refurbished Dell OptiPlex 7050 Micro machines. The machine was from the i7 SKU, and they came with 32 GB RAM and a nice Samsung EVO NVMe SSD. My thought was them being a great edition to my existing fleet of 7040's, […]

Continue reading >

A friendly tip when searching smsts.log files is to search for the following string: Or simply search for the action name, like in the below case: Download BIOS Package

Continue reading >

Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft added two tools that allows for installing and updating drivers online, meaning in the running Windows operating system. The tools are pnputil.exe and pnpunattend.exe. Here is a quick guide on how they work. TL;DR While pnputil.exe offers more features, it sometimes fails (hangs) when updating a larger set of drivers […]

Continue reading >

During our Microsoft Intune trainings this year, one of the most frequently asked questions has been on how to force a reinstall of an application deployed to Windows 10 or Windows 11 PCs. Well first of all, the correct Intune term is not deployed, it is assigned, since apparently using the same terminology across different […]

Continue reading >

While most of my daily consulting work is around automating everything around Systems Management and OSD, there is a good old tool that still works remarkably well if you have a single device that you need to update BIOS and TPM on, and don't want to hunt down the vendor tool and find the latest […]

Continue reading >

Below you find links from Dell, HP, and Lenovo models that are tested for Windows 10. Extra thanks to Mike Terrill for sending me the HP and Dell links. Note #1: Just because they are tested it may not mean they are still supported by the vendor, or haven't passed their End of Life (EOL) […]

Continue reading >

Every now and then you need to refresh a machine into a known state, and the MDT Lite Touch Computer Refresh scenario does just that. The default behavior of that scenario is using USMT to capture user data and settings, but what if you simply want the refresh to happen without the USMT backup and […]

Continue reading >

This kit builds a complete ConfigMgr Current Branch 2111 infrastructure running on Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019. This kit is tested on both Hyper-V and VMware virtual platforms, but should work fine on other virtualization platforms like Virtual Box, KVM etc.

Continue reading >

Here is a quick guide for moving (or merging) the ConfigMgr Content Library from one drive / volume to another using the Content Library Transfer tool (ContentLibraryTransfer.exe). Starting with ConfigMgr 1806, the Content Library Transfer Tool is included with the ConfigMgr installation. Prior to ConfigMgr 1806 you would have to download the ConfigMgr Toolkit to […]

Continue reading >

Recent versions of Windows 10, and Windows 11, have a default 10-day Limit to go back to previous version of Windows after an upgrade. The setting can be confirmed by running a simple dism command: Extend the 10-Day Limit Changing the setting can also be done with dism, the command line switch for that is […]

Continue reading >

I happen to like HP computers quite a bit, and the HP computers that happen to support HP Sure Recover are extra shiny. These machines, primarily models from 2018 and newer, have an extra flash drive on those machines that you can modify with your own payload. This extra flash drive, named embedded multi-media card […]

Continue reading >

Earlier this week I stumbled across an interesting thing with ConfigMgr 2107 clients (might be applicable to other versions too). I had a set of clients configured to use a default gateway, set via DHCP. But that router was turned off, so they could not access it. For the moment I did not worry about, […]

Continue reading >

Stumbled across an issue yesterday and figured it would be worth mentioning. In one of our ConfigMgr 2107 environments (possible the same for older versions), client push would fail with the following error: Download Update: A recoverable error has occurred. A retry attempt will be made. Error: 0x80200010, Description There are currently no active network […]

Continue reading >

If you tried to integrate MDT with a new installs of ConfigMgr 2103 or later you probably learned that the MDT console extension won't show by default, even after running the Configure ConfigMgr Integration wizard. This is because of a security change Microsoft did for console extensions. To allow for the MDT extensions, open your […]

Continue reading >

TL;DR To use MDT Lite Touch for Windows 11 upgrades you need to add the /eula accept parameter to setup. That's easily done by using the WindowsUpgradeAdditionalOptions task sequence variable in MDT. Continue to read for more details… Background If you try to use MDT Lite Touch to upgrade a Windows 10 machine to Windows […]

Continue reading >

Here is a quick example for using PowerShell to make changes in offline registry in a ConfigMgr task sequence. If using a different deployment solution simply replace the logic to locate the offline image.

Continue reading >