Earlier this week I got an email from a fellow deployment geek, where he wanted to know how he could enable the local Administrator account on his Windows To Go stick (Windows 8.1 Enterprise). He had created the reference image in MDT 2013 (as you always should), but after running through the Windows To Go […]
Some times you want to execute a script after the MDT Task Sequence is completed, for example to cleanup any setup leftovers or to configure a user for autologon (something that MDT by default prevents). This script will clean out any leftover C:\MININT or C:\_SMSTaskSequence folders, enable (optional) autologon with another user account, and then […]
Earlier this week I run into an issue tying to modify a SQL Server 2012 backup plan for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1. Creating the backup plan had worked just fine, but trying to modify it failed. Modifying the SQL Backup plan for ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 CU3 (version 11.0.3349). The failure When selecting Modify on the backup […]
This week I had the great fortune of hanging out with fellow MVP Dave Kawula and OSD guru Emile Cabot during the #OSDWeek in Calgary. Yesterday we installed and configured the 1E PXE Lite software that allows normal Windows clients act as PXE servers for ConfigMgr 2012. Though it worked perfectly well, I thought the […]
Earlier today I got an email from a fellow deployment geek struggling with getting a VBScript application wrapper for MDT to work. He wanted to install the app, but only of the machine was joined to the domain. Now, if you review the ZTIDomainJoin.wsf script, you find a ready-made function to do just that, the […]
Why not indulge yourself with a Hands-On-Lab training on MDT and/or ConfigMgr. On our training page you find up-to-date links to trainings from word-class training providers like TrueSec. The trainings are presented by some of the best MDT and ConfigMgr gurus in the world. Me presenting a deployment session in Stockholm earlier this year. 🙂 […]
In this post you learn to upgrade an existing ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 and MDT 2012 Update 1 environment to ConfigMgr 2012 R2 and MDT 2013. Known issues Before diving into the guide, please note that you need to install the KB2905002 hotfix if you want to do OSD in ConfigMgr 2012 R2. The hotfix solves […]
There are many posts in the forums about Windows XP support in ConfigMgr 2012 R2. Windows XP SP3 is still a supported as a ConfigMgr 2012 R2 client, and both ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 CU3 and ConfigMgr 2012 R2 can deploy everything from Windows XP to Windows 8.1 However, to deploy Windows XP SP3 with either […]
Getting the right server configuration for your ConfigMgr environment is far from an exact science, but with a few simply tests you can at least get an idea if you’re dead wrong, or still on track… As you probably know, ConfigMgr requires a lot more CPU and memory than ConfigMgr 2007 ever did, but the key bottleneck is most often Disk I/O.
On October 17, 2013 the Windows ADK 8.1 was re-released. Update #1 October 21, 2013: Record speed update from the Windows documentation team, see the Windows ADK service updates section here : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh825613.aspx Update #2 October 21, 2013:Â Michael Niehaus also wrote a post today: http://blogs.technet.com/b/mniehaus/archive/2013/10/21/the-adk-for-windows-8-1-has-been-updated.aspx I could not find any announcement about the release, […]
NOTE: This Hydration kit has been updated, you probably want to use this one instead:The Hydration Kit for System Center 2012 R2 is available for downloadhttps://deploymentresearch.com/Research/tabid/62/EntryId/149/The-Hydration-Kit-for-System-Center-2012-R2-is-available-for-download.aspx Here is a download that builds a complete Configuration Manager 2012 R2 infrastructure, running on Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2012 SP1, in either Hyper-V or VMware. […]
In MDT Lite Touch, there are two types of drivers to worry about when deploying Windows. There are drivers for Windows PE (the boot image) and there are drivers for the Windows Operating System that you deploy. Driver management for the boot image is pretty straight , but driver management for the Operating Systems that […]
Earlier this afternoon I got a question in my YouTube channel, where a fellow deployment geek wanted to know if it was possible to create a WinPE image that had support for both x86 and x64 boot images. E.g. a dual-boot boot image (my own wording). My first thought was to respond and say: No […]
Article originally posted on https://deployvista.com, my previous blog. First If your goal is to very quickly have a nice fully automated Windows 7 setup, including drivers, application etc. – This article is not for you. If that's your goal, you should download the free Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and use that as your deployment solution. […]
Here is a script that helps you find drivers in ConfigMgr 2012 that are not associated with a driver package. Very useful if you need to some house cleaning in the drive repository. Credit goes to Kaido Järvemets for awesome logic in the script!
On the final day of IT/Dev Connections in Las Vegas we have a superior workshop on ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 / R2. It’s a full day, technical content, tips and tricks, presented by me (Johan Arwidmark) and Kent Agerlund. IT/Dev Connections The conference is running from September 30 – October 4. To register, point your favorite […]
Earlier today a ConfigMgr Admin reached out for help regarding their reports in ConfigMgr 2012 SP1. They could run the reports fine from within the ConfigMgr console, but when they tried to view them in the web browser, they got the error: "The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send." Investigation […]
There are many techniques available to find drivers and certify a new hardware model. Here follows the method I normally use. As an example I'm certifying the good old ThinkPad T420 from Lenovo for Windows 7, but you can follow this method for any Lenovo model or Windows operating system. The overview steps are the […]
Here is a stored procedure you can use to generate computer names in MDT 2012/2013, with or without ConfigMgr 2012. Download the sample files The stored procedure assumes that you have installed the MDT 2012/2013 database, and works like this: If they computer name is in the database already (known), it will assign that name […]
Here is a quick PowerShell example that shows you how to create a deployment share using PowerShell. For those of you that are MDT savvy, you know that MDT has a View Script button option that allow you to see what PowerShell commands that MDT executes. Unfortunately, MDT sometimes lies to you, and the workbench […]