Tag: Deployment
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SCCM Package and Program Return Codes and Reboot Behaviour
Overview This post describes the ways that SCCM handles reboots for a Package & Program deployment. The behaviour depends on the Program configuration, deployment method, and return code. For example, a Package will perform differently when deployed in a Task Sequence than when it is deployed directly to a collection. This post will explain the…
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Script to Detect if Running from SCCM Task Sequence and Avoid False Positives
Overview This post shows how a script can detect if it is running from inside an SCCM Task Sequence in a way that avoids false positives. The Problem At times it’s useful for a script to detect if it is running from an SCCM Task Sequence so it can alter its behaviour accordingly. The most…
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GImageX v2.2.0 Released for Windows 10
Overview GImageX v2.2.0 has been released. GImageX is a freeware GUI for working with imaging WIM files providing an alternative to DISM. It can be used to capture, apply, mount, export, split and delete WIM files. GImageX is provided as a 32-bit and 64-bit native application that can be run even in WinPE. GImageX uses the…
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WinPE Version List
Overview This post contains a WinPE version list including the WinPE version, the Windows version, and the numeric Windows version string that it was built from. It covers all versions of WinPE from the initial Windows XP versions to the latest Windows 10 versions. Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE or WinPE) is a lightweight version…
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Automating Office 365 Click-to-Run First Use Without Group Policy
Overview This post shows how to automate the numerous “first-run” dialogs that are shown when a user runs an Office 2013 or Office 365 application for the first time. With a standard local installation of Office 2013 this can be done in two ways. Firstly, by using Group Policy (the recommended way). Secondly, by using…
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Mass Redistribute Packages in ConfigMgr 2012
Overview Recently I came across an issue with System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) 2012 where a large number of packages and applications had failed to be distributed to a new Distribution Point (DP). There were many thousands of packages in the environment and a few hundred were showing in the error state in the console.…
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Detect an SSD Disk Using a Script
Overview A common request when creating automated desktop builds or custom maintenance tools is the ability detect if the main system drive is an SSD disk or not. This information can be used to configure a system in a particular way. For example, to run (or not run) certain maintenance tasks or to optimally configure…
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GImageX v2.1.0 Released for Windows 8.1
GImageX v2.1.0 has been released. GImageX is a graphical user interface for the ImageX tool from the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK). ImageX is used to capture and apply WIM images for Windows deployments. GImageX uses the supported Microsoft WIMGAPI API for working with WIM files. Previous versions of GImageX were compiled for the…
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Using Custom XML and Config Files with USMT and ConfigMgr
Overview Using USMT In System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM / ConfigMgr) when performing an Operating System Deployment (OSD) can be a bit of a chore. The built in Task Sequence actions available for capturing and restoring user state only allow you to perform a very basic migration. Most of the time USMT requires quite a…
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Create a USMT Package in ConfigMgr
Overview In System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM / ConfigMgr) when performing an Operating System Deployment (OSD) there is usually some form of user data and settings migration. This is often performed using the Microsoft User State Migration Toolkit (USMT). The first step in using USMT is to create the USMT tool ConfigMgr package. This post…
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Create a Windows 7 BitLocker Partition in ConfigMgr
Overview In System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM / ConfigMgr) something I’ve done a few times is to create a BitLocker partition for Windows 7 during an Operating System Deployment (OSD) Task Sequence. I’ve seen the method used here a few times before but I wanted to document it for myself so that I can use…
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ConfigMgr 2012 SQL Database Collation
Overview I just tried to update my ‘default’ installation of System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM / ConfigMgr) 2012 RC1 to RC2. I got a failure at the pre-req check stage stating that my SQL 2008 R2 database was using the wrong collation type and that installation couldn’t continue. It turns out that the default collation…
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MDT and ConfigMgr Build Drivers for Windows 7
Overview When doing Windows 7 builds in either MDT 2010 or ConfigMgr 2007 you have to download and install a selection of drivers that are to be installed in your images. Some drivers are used for the WinPE boot image so that the boot image can access the local harddisk (a boot critical driver) and…
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Setting a UK Keyboard in ConfigMgr 2007 OSD
Overview In the UK, we actually get the US version of Windows 7 and Office 2010, so whenever I do any build engineering in either MDT or ConfigMgr one of the first things I need to customize are the regional settings. In particular the keyboard layout and location. There are many ways to achieve this…
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ConfigMgr 2007 OSD Folder Structure
Overview When configuring ConfigMgr 2007 Operating System Deployment (OSD) there are an endless number of applications, operating system images, operating system install files, drivers, source files, package files, temp files. Everytime I set it up I end up with a different structure so this blog post presents an example ConfigMgr 2007 OSD folder structure that…
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App-V Recipe: AutoIt v3
Overview This blog post will show you how to sequence AutoIt using App-V 4.6 SP1 (the latest version at the time of writing). Now, AutoIt is probably the easiest application to sequence in the world and doesn’t really need a blog post describing how to do it. However, I intend to write some more posts…
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Windows 7 Aero Theme Not Enabled After Deployment
Overview An issue I saw a number of times at customers was that the Windows 7 Aero theme was not enabled after deployment. I saw this numerous times in early workshops and pilots for customers and completely forgot about it until I saw the question asked again a few weeks ago. So here is a…