Earlier today the MDT 2013 preview was released on Microsoft Connect. So what's really new in this release?
First of all, Ronni Pedersen blogged about some of the changes during TechEd in New Orleans. You find his full blog post here: http://www.ronnipedersen.com/2013/06/microsoft-deployment-toolkit-2013-overview.
Shorthand from Ronni's blog is that MDT 2013 preview adds support for the following:
- Windows 8.1 preview
- Windows Server 2012 R2 preview
- Configuration Manager 2012 R2 preview
- Windows ADK 8.1 preview
Also from the same blog, the MDT 2013 preview also drops support for
- Windows XP
- Windows Server 2003
- Windows 2008 (not R2)
- ConfigMgr 2007
- ConfigMgr 2012 SP1
- Windows AIK
- Windows ADK 8.0
In addition to the above:
So what has really changed between MDT 2012 Update 1 and the MDT 2013 preview? Well, some testing revealed the following:
New build version (not very surprisingly):
Bug fixes:
Microsoft fixed a known bug regarding UEFI partitioning in the ConfigMgr 2012 task sequence. Additional fixes for Lite Touch UEFI deployments was added as well.
Bugs not fixed:
The other task sequence template bugs for ConfigMgr (broken replace scenario, blank admin password, and incorrect drive letter) are still not fixed in this release. Hopefully they will be fixed in the final release (or I will have to update my blog posts J ).
MDT Database changes:
Increased the Applications field from 50 characters to 256 characters.
Unattend.xml template changes:
Removed false which caused an issue with IE 10 (and above), and added in true and false
Roles and Features
Added roles and feature support for Windows 8.1 preview and Windows Server 2012 R2 preview.
GPO Packs removed (temporarily)
The GPO Packs are removed (temporarily), should be back for final release.
BGInfo support in WinPE remove (temporarily)
As with the GPO Packs, should be back for the final release.
PowerShell 4.0 support
Added detection for PowerShell 4.0 when running PowerShell scripts from the task sequence
Monitoring logging still "broken"
If you use monitoring, and have a C:\Temp folder on your deployment server, it will fill up the C: drive in no time and crash the server. See this article for a fix.
/ Johan