sysctr
Deploy Windows 10 Preview with SCCM 2012 R2 (Unsupported)
Johan Arwidmark and Niall Brady have posted guides on deploying Windows 10 Preview injecting the Windows 10 version of Dism during the task sequence.
Adding custom programs to the Set Default Programs UI
Hi, today I wanted the CMTrace tool to be recognised in the Set Default Programs control panel applet. There is a bit of information on the net but it's confusing.
In the registry you can set the program, launch arguments, file types and icon. This can be used for any app by modifying the reg file.
Once added you may like to use DISM.exe to extract your chosen defaults and import during your task sequence.
Modular Task Sequence groups - Just an idea
Maik Koster has created a really good tool that monitors/ keeps backup of task sequence changes
expanding from this it may be possible to mark groups of your task sequences as modules. So say when a task sequence changes the script would then record the xml changes of that module group and replace in all task sequences where it is used. It would be perfect for the apply driver steps.
I haven't really worked it all out as I don't have many task sequences for it to be super useful and it would be a bit to hacky. I hope Microsoft can implement modules and version control in the next release of ConfigMgr.
Add a Right Click Copy Folder or File path menu option in Windows Explorer
SCCM ConfigMgr doesn't like quotes around paths when adding packages or Wims, etc so the secret shh shift + right click copy as path isn't that handy.
Here's a reg file to add a special right click option for ConfigMgr
Take advantage of OEM Settings to display OSD state!
I have 2 scenarios that allows techs to determine the computers state. When the task sequence fails or when a Lab computer hasn't been added to a lab group. It's easy to enable the oembackground and rename a jpg picture. Group policy reg can disable the background picture.
For the first scenario you enable 'Continue on Error' for the very first group and have a catcher group at the end of the task sequence that runs only if TSVariable '_SMSTSLastActionSucceeded' = False. MDT Task sequences are setup like this by default. It is best if the captured wim you are deploying already has the background file in it for scenarios where it fails due to not having any network access.
In the catcher group you will need 3 steps:
1. Copy jpg: Run command line with disable 64-bit file system redirection using a package with the jpg file (Not needed if jpg is in the captured wim):
cmd.exe /c xcopy Fail-Wallpaper.jpg C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\Backgrounds /i /y
2. Rename jpg: Run command line with disable 64-bit file system redirection
cmd /c ren C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\Backgrounds\Fail-WallpaperMU1.jpg backgroundDefault.jpg
3. Enable OEMWallpaper: Run command line with disable 64-bit file system redirection
cmd /c reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background /v OEMBackground /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f /reg:64
I can expand and provide scripts on how I determine whether the computer is part of a lab ou/group based on name and ad object. Let me know!
Edit: This entry is for Windows 7, In Windows 8.1 you should do similiar but use the lockscreen - See the post on Windows 8.1 setting lockscreen and wallpaper for more information
SCCM USB Boot disk creator
I made a little program that sets up usb drives to be bootable into OSD winpe. I made it because we are getting devices without dvd drives that can't pxe boot and our techs don't have access to create bootable usb's from the console as they need the dp cert and password.
You generate a boot iso from the console, then copy the cd contents to the source folder where the program resides.
Program and my bad source code (if anyone wants to improve it) https://send.estate/s?e=8d189f24f1c9ada[1]
Pre-Reqs:
Dot Net 3.5
A bootable iso generated from the SCCM Console
Instructions:
Copy all files from the bootable iso to the source folder that resides with the exe.
Distribute as you wish.
BDEDrive size
It helps to set a bit more space for this partition if you add more components to the boot wim, I chose to use 1GB. SCCM uses the drive with the most space that isn't encrypted to copy the boot wim down. We had issues in operating system deployment if the boot wim needed to be downloaded, the task sequence would fail as there wasn't enough space to store the boot wim.
Set Computer Model OEM Information during task sequence.
Make your SOE a little bit fancy
To set the Computer Model information during OSD you just need to add a run command line step
Powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command $model = Get-WmiObject win32_computersystem model;Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionOEMInformation -Name Model -Value $model.model
Other Settings you can put in HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionOEMInformation
Logo - Pathtologo.bmp
Manufacturer
SupportPhone
SupportURL
OSD Black screen of death.
After using a new captured image (Win 7 x64) certain machines were not completing OSD and ending up at a black screen with just a mouse cursor.
Dell T1700, E6440, E7240, M4800. This was after the May patching, the only update that has been reported to play up (well with flash?) was KB2926765. We removed this patch from the base and the problem no longer occured. It's possible that it affects machines with the nic I217-LM, but probably a revision as it did not happen on the 9020.
Update: I think it is to do with driver injection and i7 cpu's. We still had some issues after this with drivers not installing correctly on i7's. Using the x64 boot wim resolved this.
Would love to hear if anyone else encounters this.
Powershell script to clean up IIS's log file mess
Management Point's rely heavily on IIS and IIS loves to log a lot which will fill up your hard drive. Here's a script that deletes logs older than 14 days. Location and amount of days can be changed easily.
We have ours scheduled to run monthly on site systems using IIS.