Making IT Happen
This guide assumes that you use Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT build 8443) or Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) capturing Windows 10. You capture a task sequence, and the capture computer does not have Internet access. When the task sequence is running and the computer is checking for updates (pre-application installation), the installation freezes for … Read more
We recently had put together a SCCM Build and Capture task sequence to update our images up to Windows 10 version 1709. We copied the install.wim from the sources folder of the Windows 10 v1709 ISO and added this as our operating system capture image. We took our existing task sequence (which has lots of … Read more
If you have started a task sequence in Configuration Manager and you hit a problem, the last thing you want to do is to have to go through the reboot process back into Windows PE. So, if you want to just restart the task sequence without rebooting, carry out the following steps: Press F8 to … Read more
If you are a regular user of downloaded CAB driver packs then you are probably using something like 7-Zip to extract them. Well there is an alternative way of extracting the CAB file using a basic Windows tool. Download your CAB file and make note of the file location. Then open a command prompt and … Read more
To inject Windows Updates into custom-built images that you are using in your Configuration Manager OSD environment, you may find that keeping them up to date is a real problem. If you are happy with the image itself and do not want to make any changes to it, why should you need to rebuild and … Read more
If you are looking for HP driver packs then you can use the HP Driver Pack Matrix below: Notebooks & Tablets Windows 10 64-bit Windows 8.1 64-bit HP Elite x2 1012 G1 Tablet HP Elite x2 1012 G1 Tablet with Travel Keyboard sp77863.exe (Updated: 2016-10-07) – HP EliteBook 1030 G1 Notebook PC sp77666.exe (Updated: 2016-10-07) – … Read more
So today we built a new custom Windows 10 image on a virtual machine and created our new SCCM capture media from the very latest version and every single time we ran the capture it failed at the Sysprep step. Infuriated by this as we have done captures hundreds of times, we started the annoying method … Read more
We have been looking into getting our OSD process to automatically change the computer name to what we want it to be for a while now but never really had much luck with it. Reading various forums and blogs, many people have said to use WSNAME and many others saying use scripts, all of which … Read more
You may have seen our previous post about adding a local user to a machine during SCCM OSD using a “Run Command Line”. Well in this guide we will show you how to add a local user into the Administrators Group on the local machine. This means that you can add a local user and … Read more
If you want to add a local machine user to your deployed machine during your SCCM OSD process then you can do this using a standard “Run Command Line” step. Guide So, you need to add a “Run Command Line” step in your task sequence towards the end, after the Windows deployment and after the … Read more
If you are using SCCM for your operating system deployments across different countries, then you may want to set the time zone within the task sequence. To do this, you can take advantage of the built in Windows tool call tzutil.exe. In this example we will set the time zone for a computer deployment based … Read more
If you have recently upgraded your SCCM to version 1511, you will have had to have upgraded your ADK to the Windows 10 version. However, did you first note down your customisation and network card drivers that you had in your boot image? If not, you will now find that those tabs are missing. So, … Read more
If you are using System Center Configuration Manager for Operating System Deployment (OSD) then you may come across an error like this even after a successful PXE boot:
We recently came across an issue where our Configuration Manager Operating System Deployments (OSD) were failing at the activating Windows step. Having spent far too much time looking into why it was doing this, we eventually found out that it was our proxy servers that were blocking access it the Microsoft activation servers.
We today ran into an issue where our SCCM OSD PXE boot was not working. It was coming up with a very confusing message stating: “A required device isn’t connected or cannot be accessed” This led us to start looking at the hard drive and the drivers, however, the solution was completely different. The problem … Read more
If you want to restart SCCM OSD Task Sequence from within Windows PE without having to reboot the machine and start the PXE boot sequence again, you can quickly press F8 to bring up a command prompt and enter the following command: x:\sms\bin\i386\TsmBootstrap.exe /env:WinPE /configpath:x:\smsdata This will then restart the task sequence process for you … Read more
If you have a new model of computer and you have PXE booted it and you do not get a network connection or IP address, then this is because the network card driver for that model is not available either within Windows PE or the boot image you have used to PXE boot the machine. … Read more
We have recently been doing some big OSD projects and with testing for such big projects comes the point where some of your testing will fail, so to find out why a test sequence fails, the first thing you should look at is your log files. However, ConfigMgr makes this an annoying process as the … Read more
You may have noticed that if you get an error when deploying an image using OSD in Configuration Manager the machine will display that error for 15 minutes and then reboot the machine. If you are running an image at lunch break or even overnight, this is obviously not even time to get the log … Read more
We are pleased to announce the release of our new small tool for Configuration Manager – DP PXEBoot Speed Up. This is a very simple and basic tool that allows you to make changes to your Configuration Manager Distribution Points registry settings to speed up the PXE booting process. For a long time now you … Read more
With the recent release of Dell’s new laptop ranges, Configuration Manager OSD professionals face new challenges. We recently had issues with some of Dell’s new laptops not picking up the network after PXE boot even though we had gone through the normal process of adding the network card drivers to the boot image and ensuring … Read more
A free utility to get the WMI information from a computer. This is a great tool for SCCM administrators.
If you are using Configuration Manager 2012 for Operating System Deployment (OSD) – which is one of the main functions of the system so we will assume that you are – then you may want to monitor the process of your task sequences. To do this, you should go into your Configuration Manager Console and … Read more
If you have custom build images that you are using in your SCCM OSD environment, you may find that keeping them up to date is a real problem. However, there is a way of running Windows Updates against your custom WIM files offline and then simply redistributing your WIM file. Below is a guide on how to carry this … Read more
I have been asked to provide a solution to a situation where during SCCM OSD, they want to run Windows Updates across multiple sites worldwide using the local WSUS replica servers. So as an example, the main Headquarters office is in New York with the main WSUS server and then in Rome there is another … Read more
