Using PowerShell to make changes in Offline Registry

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.

# Figure out if we can use the task sequence object
try {
		$TSEnv = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment -ErrorAction Stop
}
catch [System.Exception] {
	Write-Warning -Message "Unable to create Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment object, aborting..."
    Break
}

$LogPath = $TSEnv.Value("_SMSTSLogPath") 
$Logfile = "$LogPath\DisableWindowsUpdates.log"

# Delete any existing logfile if it exists
If (Test-Path $Logfile){Remove-Item $Logfile -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Confirm:$false}

Function Write-Log{
	param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
    [string]$Message
   )

   $TimeGenerated = $(Get-Date -UFormat "%D %T")
   $Line = "$TimeGenerated : $Message"
   Add-Content -Value $Line -Path $LogFile -Encoding Ascii

}

# Load the offline registry hive from the OS volume
$OSDTargetSystemDrive = $TSEnv.Value("OSDTargetSystemDrive")
$HivePath = "$OSDTargetSystemDrive\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE"
Write-Log -Message "About to load registry hive: $HivePath "
reg load "HKLM\NewOS" $HivePath 
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

# Updating offline registry to disable Windows updates
Write-Log -Message "Updating registry to disable Windows updates"
$RegistryKey = "HKLM:\NewOS\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU" 
Write-Log -Message "Creating registry key: $RegistryKey"
$Result = New-Item -Path $RegistryKey -ItemType Directory -Force
$Result.Handle.Close()

$RegistryValue = "NoAutoUpdate"
$RegistryValueType = "DWord"
$RegistryValueData = 1
    # 0 = Updates Enabled
    # 1 = Updates Disabled
Write-Log -Message "Creating registry value: $RegistryValue, value type: $RegistryValueType, value data: $RegistryValueData"
$Result = New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryKey -Name $RegistryValue -PropertyType $RegistryValueType -Value $RegistryValueData -Force


# Cleanup (to prevent access denied issue unloading the registry hive)
Remove-Variable Result
Get-Variable Registry* | Remove-Variable
[gc]::collect()
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

# Unload the registry hive
Write-Log -Message "Unloading the registry hive"
Set-Location X:\
reg unload "HKLM\NewOS"