23rd October 2008Speed up your Microsoft Virtual PC environment
Playing around with OS deployment (and teaching MS MOC courses) I often use virtual environments such as Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Server. Now more often that not I find myself pulling out what little hair I have left, in sheer frustrated over the speed with witch VPC/server runs… I mean trying to run [...]
Category: Virtual PC | Comment
22nd October 2008Setting up the Custom Media Hook (pre TS action)
If you want to run a script before the actual TS start, well even before the boot CD looks to SCCM for policies to run, you could add a Custom Media Hook. The Media Hook will run a script defined in an INI file and not enter TS mode before it has finished.. This [...]
Category: Boot Media | 13 Comments
22nd October 2008Easy way to install depending on Chassis Type (laptop, Desktop or Server)
Lets say you have a application you only want to install on laptops, like f.ex. VPN or battery SW. Well now how do you get around this?? I use the MDT variable IsLaptop as an option on my Task Sequence step. 1. add the MDT Gather step somewhere after the image has been deployed [...]
Category: Config Mgr | Comment
8th October 2008Capture from VPC keeps rebooting when deployed.
I normally like to capture my reference images from a virtual machine as it eliminates a lot of the driver issues you have if you capture an Actual machine. I did sometimes run into problems capturing XP images though. The build and capture posses would work fine, but once I deployed the image (with [...]
Category: Config Mgr | Comment
7th October 2008Using WDS for legacy RIS images, SCCM boot Images, and PSP (SCCM PXE Service Point)
Setting up WDS 1. If WDS is already installed go to step 4 2. Make sure you are running Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later 3. Go to "add or remove programs" and open "add/Remove windows components". Scroll to the bottom of the wizard and check of "windows deployment services" and hit NEXT (Make [...]
Category: Boot Media | 2 Comments
19th August 2008Working with different languages in Windows XP
Deploying XP with different languages can sometimes be a real challenge. Not that it’s that difficult to make the different settings in sysprep.inf or unattend.txt but you still need to make sure the correct files are present during installation, and depending on how you do this, a number of things can go wrong. First [...]
Category: Language | 1 Comment
15th August 2008SAS storage drivers in WinPE 1.5 (2005)
So, I don’t know if there are any one out there who still playing around with BDD/MDT and SMS? if not your are the lucky ones… Myself I still have customers who are running that setup… Basically it runs fine, but there is always the issue with updating WinPE with NIC and Storage drivers… [...]
Category: WinPE | Comment
13th August 2008SCCM versions
As you properly know there are some significant differences in the way SCCM/OSD works before SP1 and after SP1. One being the OS target drive during the WinPE phase (D or E instead of C), and also weather or not you have to "press OK to accept that OS deployment is about to start, [...]
Category: Config Mgr | Comment
11th August 2008Wrong PC name after deployment
A while ago, I noticed that the PC name specified during the "Import Computer Name" part of SCCM didn’t stick trough out the entire deployment process.. The strange thing was that this wasn’t the case for all my task sequences. What I then noticed was that the name (when it changed) always took the [...]
Category: Config Mgr | Comment
5th August 2008easy way to change PC name during Deployment
I know there are many ways to handle PC naming during deployment, like prestaging, variables, userexit scripts, etc. But a very simple way is to just have the PC prompt you for a Name during The TaskSequece. I wrote a small script that in conjunction wit the fabulous ZTIUtillity.vbs script from MDT does just [...]
Category: Config Mgr | Comment
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