Michael Niehaus' Windows and Office deployment ramblings
MDT 2012 Update 1: DaRT 8 support
In MDT 2012 RTW that released back in April, we included support for DaRT 7, making it easy to add...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/26/2012
MDT 2012 Update 1: ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 CTP support
The MDT 2012 Update 1 release is primarily intended to add support for deploying Windows 8 and...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/26/2012
MDT 2012 Update 1: PowerShell 3.0 support
In MDT 2012 RTW, we supported PowerShell 2.0 in a task sequence, which worked well for what was...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/23/2012
MDT 2012 Update 1: Always applying images with ImageX
Another change you might notice in MDT 2012 Update 1 is that Lite Touch deployments never use...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/21/2012
MDT 2012 Update 1: Dealing with in-use files when capturing user state
A thread on the MDTOSD mailing list hosted by https://www.myitforum.com website was talking about how...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/01/2012
Encoding sensitive information in CustomSettings.ini and Bootstrap.ini
One of the questions I received after presenting a session at TechEd Europe was about encoding any...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/27/2012
Troubleshooting MDT 2012 Monitoring
I mentioned a while back that I wanted to do a blog post talking about how to troubleshoot the new...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/10/2012
Trying to install ConfigMgr 2012 RTM? Make sure you have the right SQL…
Now that Configuration Manager 2012 RTM is available, people will certainly start installing it,...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/26/2012
Inside a Task Sequence
I’ve done a few sessions now where I demonstrated how to put some hooks into a task sequence...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/20/2012
Have you tried the Application Approval Workflow solution accelerator?
System Center 2012 Configure Manager includes an application catalog web site, which allows end...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/30/2012
MDT 2012 New Feature: Monitoring
I was going to do a blog posting talking about how to troubleshoot issues with the new monitoring...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/09/2012
MDT 2012 New Feature: Item Sorting
For those of you who have already installed MDT 2012 RC1, you might notice that there is a new...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/08/2012
Trying to install ConfigMgr 2012 RC2? Make sure you have the right SQL…
Now that Configuration Manager 2012 RC2 is available, people will certainly start updating their...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/18/2012
Customizing Wizards with MDT 2012
Many of you have customized the MDT 2010 wizards, and I expect that will be fairly common with MDT...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/07/2012
Creating the ConfigMgr “System Management” Container with PowerShell
One of the steps in the Configuration Manager installation process is to manually create the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/05/2012
MDT 2012 New Feature: Gather improvements
Sometimes it’s the little things that most people fail to notice that need some attention. In...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 12/02/2011
MDT 2012 New Feature: DaRT integration
In MDT 2012 Beta 2, a new feature has been added: the ability to integrate the Microsoft Diagnostics...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 11/27/2011
SCCM Guru webcast coming up soon
As part of the BDNA “SCCM Guru” webcast series, I will be presenting on November 17th from 11:00am...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 11/10/2011
Windows Thin PC: Another flavor of Windows 7
As I discovered in recent TechEd presentations in Australia and New Zealand, not too many people are...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 09/08/2011
Hyper-V on Windows 8 Client!
Be sure to read the great new posting on the “Building Windows 8” blog:...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 09/07/2011
Migrating application settings with USMT 4.0: Sample #2
So maybe migrating Angry Birds high scores and settings isn’t terribly useful to you....
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 08/24/2011
Migrating application settings with USMT 4.0: Sample #1
Out of the box, USMT 4.0 migrates settings for Windows, Office, and various other applications...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 08/24/2011
Migrating offline files (CSC) using USMT 4.0
One of the questions that came up after my TechEd New Zealand session on USMT 4.0 was whether USMT...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 08/24/2011
Troubleshooting the User State Migration Tool 4.0
I gave a presentation today at the TechEd New Zealand conference on “Customizing the User...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 08/24/2011
Deploying Office 2010 with Configuration Manager 2012 Beta 2
The new application model in Configuration Manager 2012 will require administrators to study up on...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 08/13/2011
MDT 2012 Beta 1: Cross-Platform Deployment
Those of you who deploy both x86 and x64 versions of Windows 7 using MDT 2010 Lite Touch probably...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/10/2011
MDT 2012 Beta 1: UEFI Support
One of the new features that has been added to Lite Touch Installation in MDT 2012 Beta 1 is support...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/10/2011
ConfigMgr 2007 Driver Management Revisited (Again)
After MMS 2010, I had posted a series of blog postings talking about different mechanisms for...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/10/2011
MDT 2010 and Windows AIK Supplement Revisited
In my previous post titled Issue with MDT 2010 Update 1 and Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/08/2011
Creating a fully-patched image using MDT 2010 Lite Touch
I’ve always been a fan of the thinnest image possible. Taking that to an extreme, that means...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/16/2011
Got orphaned collections in ConfigMgr?
This one goes back several years to when I was routinely writing code that used the ConfigMgr SDK...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/21/2011
Issue with MDT 2010 Update 1 and Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 Supplement
With the release of the Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 supplement (see...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/12/2011
New program for US-based partners
If you are a Microsoft partner in the US interested in helping customers deploy the latest version...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/10/2011
User Group Meetings and MMS 2011
I’ll be in Texas this week for two user group meetings, first in Houston (HASMUG) and then in Austin...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/07/2011
Windows AIK for Windows 7 SP1 Released
Some of you probably noticed a new download showed up today: The Windows® Automated Installation...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 02/16/2011
USMT 4.0 Support for Office 2010
A new hotfix for USMT 4.0 was released today to support migrating Office 2010 settings. (It includes...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 02/02/2011
MDT doesn’t recognize your WIM file? Well, ImageX didn’t either.
I’ve talked to a few people that have mentioned that when they import a new operating system into...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 11/09/2010
ConfigMgr Driver Management: A New Development
As part of the “ConfigMgr Driver Management: The Novel” blog postings (see...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 10/15/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Fix to make ConvertBooleanToString available again
In MDT 2008, we had various functions in the ZTIUtility.vbs script that could be used in...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/27/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Fix to re-enable System Restore in ConfigMgr task sequence
Some people noticed that during an OS deployment task sequence, performed either by MDT 2008 Lite...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/27/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Fixed Slow Driver Injection in Lite Touch
During Lite Touch deployments, the task sequence runs ZTIDrivers.wsf, which needs to figure out what...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/21/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Added Support for ConfigMgr R3 Prestaged Media
In MDT 2010 (and earlier versions), we provided some task sequence templates to perform what we...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/21/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Fixes to ConfigMgr State Migration Point Scenarios
When using MDT task sequence templates for ConfigMgr, we expect to keep user state locally if you...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/20/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Fixes to ConfigMgr Task Sequence Template Error Handling
In MDT 2010, we restructured the ConfigMgr task sequence templates so that they had a common...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/19/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Task Sequences Changed
MDT 2010 also includes a variety of task sequence templates. When you upgrade from MDT 2010 to...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/19/2010
MDT 2010 Update 1: Scripts Changed
Since MDT 2010 Update 1 was released, I’ve been intending to write a series of blog postings talking...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/18/2010
Quick notes about MDT 2010 Update 1, released today!
For those of you who didn’t notice the posting on our team blog talking about today’s release of MDT...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 07/07/2010
Selection profiles with the Lite Touch deployment wizard
I’ve talked with several people who have wanted to filter the list of items that are displayed in...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/10/2010
Just a few days until TechEd North America
I’ll be in New Orleans from June 6th through June 10th to attend and speak at TechEd North...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/31/2010
In the Phoenix area?
I’ll be presenting at the AZ Systems Management User Group’s meeting being held at the Microsoft...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/16/2010