The Intel NUC devices have turned out to be a great machine for a small but efficient Hyper-V host. The challenge is that Intel doesn't get that, and in fact block their network adapter device drivers for Windows Server 2012 R2 (with some exceptions). In this post you learn how to fix this properly: When […]
While in-place upgrades are nice, there are quite a few scenarios when you need to use the old-school deployment scenarios (new computer, refresh computer and replace compute).
Earlier today I migrated my production machine to Windows 10 build 9926, and also recorded the entire process (video available here). On this blog post I will write about my day-to-day findings of using the new platform. January 26 Note #1: Camtasia Studio 8.3 went from 4 – 5 crashes a day, to 4 – […]
Like the MDT 2013 Lite Touch post from yesterday, here is the same info but for ConfigMgr 2012 R2. In this post you find step-by-step guidance on how to deploy the Windows 10 Enterprise x64 build 9926, including driver injection support, with ConfigMgr 2012 R2 (integrated with MDT 2013 of course). Step-by-step guide First, this […]
Turns out that Sysprep is broken in Windows 10 Build 9926, but there is a workaround. When trying to run Sysprep on a virtual machine with Windows 10 build 9926 installed you may be greeted with the following error message: A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine. Background info This only happens […]
Still the development of MDT 2013 is hopelessly behind the technical preview releases of Windows. Until that happens you can still apply some custom hacks to the current version. In Windows 10 Build 9926 you still need to add updated DISM files to the boot image (until the Windows 10 ADK is released), and due […]
Earlier today I got a question on how to nest sections in CustomSettings.ini to create a computer name. Here is how! Note: For the record, I don't recommend generating complex computer names based on site,laptop etc. Keep the computer names to a syntax PC+sequence or something like that (example PC00075). Easy to read, easy to […]
Last week I was debugging a task sequence that failed with errors 80070002 and 80190191 when it was trying to download the first package used by the task sequence. The first package the task sequence tried do download was the MDT 2013 package, use by the “Use Toolkit Package” action in the task sequence. There are typically three reasons for these errors to happen:
Duplicating, or copying task sequences within the same deployment share in MDT Lite Touch works is quite different compared with doing the same with ConfigMgr (SCCM). When you copy a task sequence in ConfigMgr, you get a true duplicate. When you copy a task sequence in MDT Lite Touch within the same deployment share, using […]
Every now and then you need to give a set of lab VMs access to Internet but still keep them on a separate, isolated network. In this scenario, instead of relying on the physical host platform (Hyper-V / VMware), you use a virtual machine with multiple network adapters to do the routing. One benefit of […]
Earlier this year I blogged about the automatic maintenance task in Windows Server 2012 R2 being EVIL, today it's time for .NET Runtime Optimization Service spiking the CPU on one of my domain controllers after installing updates. Also happens when using the (quite new) November 2014 media for Windows Server 2012 R2 that includes several […]
Had a great chat today with my good old "friend" Google Analytics 🙂 Top 10 blog posts Out of my 71 blog posts during 2014 (well 72 with this one), the following made it into top 10: #1 – The Hydration Kit for System Center 2012 R2 is available for download https://deploymentresearch.com/Research/tabid/62/EntryId/149/The-Hydration-Kit-for-System-Center-2012-R2-is-available-for-download.aspx #2 – Automatic […]
I was surprised to see that the good old domain administrator reset password trick from Windows Server 2008 still works in Windows Server 2012 R2. Thanks to Martijn Brant for reminding me of this. Note: If using Windows Server Technical Preview Build 9841 you have to replace sethc.exe instead, and launch it via Ease of […]
Twas the night before Christmas, in the year 2014, Project Plex finally begun. For years I have been using a Windows 7 box with Media Center as my main Media PC. It had 6 TB of storage, mainly ISO's (DVD and Blu-ray), and I had it connected to my Samsung 55" TV. This Christmas it […]
The Windows 8.1 ISOs are not what they used to be, for example depending on when you download the Windows 8.1 Enterprise with Update from MSDN you get different content. When downloading it today (Dec 21, 2014) the file included the November 2014 updates. Here is a plain deployment, with no extra updates installed. Note: […]
This is the third Microsoft MVP category shift in my career, first I was a Setup & Deployment MVP, then a Enterprise Client Management MVP, and now I'm a System Center Cloud & Datacenter Management (SCCDM) MVP. If I get re-awarded next year it will mark my 11th year as a Microsoft MVP which is […]
Earlier this morning I was troubleshooting a failing build and capture of a Windows 10 build 9879 image using MDT 2013. What happened was that when the sysprep action run, the task sequence immediately rebooted, causing the following crash on reboot (Error code: 0xc0000428 ): Sysprep rebooting on it's own, even when told not to, […]
Two of the Windows 10 sessions from TechEd Europe 2014 with Michael Niehaus are finally posted. Windows 10: Deployment http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2014/WIN-B338 Windows 10: Management http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Europe/2014/WIN-B334 / Johan
When trying to mount the Windows 10 Enterprise x64 build 9879 ISO in File Explorer, you may get the following error: Couldn't Mount File, Sorry, there was a problem mounting the file. Workaround This is a known issue when the sparse file attribute (P) is set on the file (9879.0.141103-1722.FBL_RELEASE_CLIENTENTERPRISE_VOL_X64FRE_en-us.ISO). To make it work, simply […]
I'm very proud to announce the most advanced OSD book yet, available on November 20, 2014. This is Stealing with Pride – Volume 1! Written by me and Maik Koster, this is the ultimate source for the working IT Pro who wants to customize and develop deployment solutions based on MDT 2013 and/or ConfigMgr 2012 […]