Category Archives: Deployment

Windows 10: Deployment and management lab kit

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Andrew Barnes

I’m currently updating my Microsoft certifications with the exam 70-697 Configuring Windows Devices and have done a lot of hands on lab training recently. I’ve downloaded the whopping 30Gb Windows 10 deployment and management lab kit for my testlab and felt … Continue reading →

Posted in Certified Training, Deployment, MDT 2013, SCCM, Testlab, Windows 10 | Tagged MDT, SCCM, Testlab, Training, Windows 10 | Leave a comment

Managing DSC Resources in PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Andrew Barnes

PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) Resources are an evolved type of function usually created by experienced PowerShell coders. Resources are at the very core of DSC and contain the code required to perform the actual configuration tasks in your deployments. My first post was … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, Desired State Configuration, DSC, PowerShell | Tagged Deployment, Desired State Configuration, Devops, DSC, PowerShell | 3 Comments

PowerShell: Inside Desired State Configuration (DSC) – Get,Set and Test

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Andrew Barnes

Today, I’m going inside DSC to demonstrate DSC’s indempotance nature and also the Get, Set and Test functions. Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, Desired State Configuration, DSC, PowerShell, Scripting | Tagged Desired State Configuration, PowerShell | Leave a comment

Hotfix rollup released for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

Big news in deployment right now. Microsoft has release a hotfix rollup is for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. So it’s kinda like Service Pack 1 and a half. There are 4 flavours 2008R2 Itanium/x64 and … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, Windows 7 | Tagged Deployment, microsoft kb, microsoft update, Packages, Windows 7 | 9 Comments

MDT: Refreshing computers with Static IP Addresses

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

No DHCP? No Problem In this scenario, you have a computer with static IP Address assignments that you wish to maintain during a REFRESH. There’s a Task Sequence step called Capture Network Settings. This runs the script ZTINICConfig.wsf that can … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, MDT 2010, MDT 2012 | Tagged IP Address, Lite Touch, MDT 2010, MDT 2012, task sequence | 16 Comments

MDT: Automating Static IP during Bare metal boot

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

No DHCP? No Problem In this scenario, the requirement is to boot a lite touch boot image with a static IP address, where is no DHCP available. You can use a custom answer file (unattend.xml) to configure your static IP settings … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, MDT 2010, MDT 2012 | Tagged IP Address, Lite Touch, MDT 2010, MDT 2012 | 2 Comments

MDT 2012: Skipping Deployment Wizard Panes

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

This is an updated version of the skipping deployment wizard pages table. This is one of the most popular articles on Scriptimus Ex Machina as it covers most of what is required to automate Lite Touch deployments. Readers use it as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, MDT 2012 | Tagged bootstrap.ini, customsettings.ini, Lite Touch, MDT 2012 | 10 Comments

MDT 2012: DomainOUs List

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

There’s a feature in MDT that displays a dropdown list of Domain OU’s in the Lite Touch deployment wizard. There are 2 ways to set it up. First, you can create a list of OU’s in the customsettings.ini by using … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, MDT 2010, MDT 2012 | Tagged Lite Touch, MDT | 10 Comments

MDT 2012: Missing network drivers during LTI boot

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

I was contacted last week by a former colleague who is just getting into MDT. He was missing drivers on one model and received this common error page during his boot sequence. Naturally, I had loads of resources to share but … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, MDT 2010, MDT 2012 | Tagged Drivers, Lite Touch, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, WinPE | 19 Comments

Test Lab: Base Configuration – Hydration Kit: Custom Default settings

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Andrew Barnes

When using the Test Lab:Base Configuration Hydration Kit, you may want to use your own custom domain and server names. After all, it’s your testlab and you might spend a considerable amount of time working there. It makes sense to … Continue reading →

Posted in Deployment, MDT 2012, Testlab | Tagged customsettings.ini, Hydration Kit, MDT Media, Testlab | 8 Comments