Using Modern Driver Management with MDT Lite Touch

While MDT is no longer being updated, and does not officially support Windows 11, it's still a great deployment solution and you can in fact deploy any Windows Client and Windows Server OS with it, including Windows 11.

The recommend method to inject drivers during deployment using MDT is called Total Control, which means you have one driver set per OS Family and Computer Model. In this post you learn to set up Modern Driver Management for MDT Lite Touch to create these sets in MDT Lite Touch.

Update September 2, 2023: Got an update from Maurice Daly. Dell recently reverted back to using download. instead of dl. in the URL for downloads. GitHub has been updated and Dell downloads should work now. Delete the OEMLinks.xml from the settings folder if not ConfigMgr (SCCM).

Background

The Modern Driver Management solution from Maurice Daly and Nickolaj Andersen is primarily used for ConfigMgr OSD, but it also has support for importing drivers to MDT Lite Touch deployment shares.

Installation and Configuration

Installing the Modern Driver Management solution is easy. Simply download the Driver Automation Tool.msi from https://github.com/maurice-daly/DriverAutomationTool and install it on your MDT server with the default settings.

Note #1: Sometimes Maurice releases updated version without a new MSI installer. Like for example for the 7.2.2 version. Updated versions are found in the Current Branch folder, and to update, simply replace the DriverAutomationTool.exe in the installation folder with the new version. By default the Driver Automation Tool is installed in the C:\Program Files\MSEndpointMgr\Driver Automation Tool folder.

Note #2: For HP, Dell or Microsoft drivers you don't to install anything else, but if you want to support Lenovo models, you also need to install a required .NET component (Visual Studio 2015 Isolated Shell) from this link: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/isolated-shell. You have to login with either a Microsoft account or a GitHub account to download the setup file.

After installing the Driver Automation Tool (DAT), there are some basic settings you need to change for the MDT integration. In this example, my MDT deployment share was in the E:\MDTProduction folder, and MDT was installed to its default location in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

1. Using File Explorer, create a folder for the driver downloads, for example E:\Drivers. Then, in the Driver Automation Tool, in the Common Settings tab, type in, or browse to the folder you created.

2. In the Make & Model Selection tab, in Deployment Platform, select MDT. This will enable the MDT Settings tab, which is visible, but its settings are disabled by default.

3. In the MDT Settings tab, click the three dots, and browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Bin, then click Import PS Module.

4. You should now see your deployment share(s) in the lower pane, select your deployment share, and in the Folder Structure drop down list, select how you want the drivers structured. I prefer the OperatingSystemDir\Make\Model option.

5. Exit the tool, and in the C:\Program Files\MSEndpointMgr\Driver Automation Tool\Settings folder, make a backup of the DATSettings.xml file. Should the tool crash (which happens), and you lose any settings, you can just restore that file.

Using the Driver Automation Tool

In this section you find a few samples on how to download drivers for the different vendors.

Add Drivers for HP models

To add drivers for HP models, in the Make & Model Selection tab, select the operating system you want drivers for, including the version, like Windows 10 22H2. Then select the HP manufacturer and click Find Models.

Note: HP are labeling their drivers to which operating system version they support.

Then select one or more models, and select Start Download | Extract | Import. In this example I selected a ZBook Firefly model and an Elite Mini 800 desktop model.

After the Start Download | Extract | Import process is completed, you should see the drivers in the Deployment Workbench.

Add Drivers for Dell models

To add drivers for Dell models, in the Make & Model Selection tab, select the operating system (only) you want drivers for, like Windows 10. Then select the Dell manufacturer and click Find Models.

Note #1: Unlike HP, Dell does not label their drivers to which operating system version they support, only the main OS (Windows 10 / Windows 11). So, you'll basically have to test that in your own environment.

Note #2. A few times the tool failed to extract the Dell packages, so I had to do that manually, and then import the drivers. This seem to be an MDT Lite Touch only issue, when using the tool for ConfigMgr, I haven't seen these issues.

Then select one or more models, and select Start Download | Extract | Import. In this example I selected a Latitude 5320 model and a Latitude 3120 model.

After the Start Download | Extract | Import process is completed, you should see the drivers in the Deployment Workbench.

Add Drivers for Lenovo models

To add drivers for Lenovo models, in the Make & Model Selection tab, select the operating system (only) you want drivers for, like Windows 10. Then select the Lenovo manufacturer and click Find Models.

Note #1: Lenovo, label their drivers to which operating system version they support (for example, Windows 10 22H2), as well as the main OS (Windows 10 / Windows 11). I recommend going for the exact version if possible.

Then select one or more models, and select Start Download | Extract | Import. In this example I selected a ThinkPad X1 Carbon model and a ThinkCentre M70S model.

Add Drivers for Microsoft models

To add drivers for Microsoft models, in the Make & Model Selection tab, select the operating system and version you want drivers for, like Windows 10 21H2. Then select the manufacturer and click Find Models.

Note: Microsoft are labeling their drivers to which operating system version they support, but the latest Windows 10 version listed is currently 21H2 (not 22H2).

Then select one or more models, and select Start Download | Extract | Import. In this example I selected a Surface Laptop 5 model and a Surface Pro 9 model.

After the Start Download | Extract | Import process is completed, you should see the drivers in the Deployment Workbench.