Windows Autopilot is pretty great… when it works. But the last few months there has been more issues with the Windows Autopilot service than I have fingers to count with, so here is a post on setting up a backup plan for enrolling devices automatically into Intune during deployment, without Autopilot. The Plan The Autopilot […]
For those of you that likes to install ConfigMgr automatically, please note that starting in ConfigMgr 2203, you must also specify two of the keys in the SABranchOptions section: SAActive and CurrentBranch. If you fail to do so, the setup will fail with the following error: ERROR: Error reading branch status. SAActive and CurrentBranch needs […]
Per request, here are the links we shared during our camping sessions at MMS 2022 in Minneapolis. Camping sessions at MMS are private sessions you can book for 15-20 minutes with Microsoft or your favorite speakers and MVPs. Thank you everyone that joined our sessions / Johan and Andrew The Links AAD/Autopilot CleanupJos Lieben – […]
Here is a step-by-step quick guide on building the perfect Windows 11 21H2 reference image using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 8456.
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 […]
Here is a step-by-step quick guide on building the perfect Windows 10 21H2 reference image using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 8456.
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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
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 […]
During our Microsoft Intune trainings this year, one of the most frequently asked questions has been on how to force a reinstall / rerun / redeploy – whatever you like to call it – of an application deployed to Windows 10 or Windows 11 PCs. Well first of all, the correct Intune term is not […]
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 […]
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) […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 (stored in the Windows.old folder). 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 […]
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 […]
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, […]