Michael Niehaus' Windows and Office deployment ramblings
MDT 2010 New Feature #7: Boot image creation optimized
With MDT 2008, there were two actions in Deployment Workbench: “Update” and “Update (files...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/27/2009
MDT 2010 New Feature #6: Drag and drop
In a previous posting, I talked about arranging items into folders. To help with that...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/27/2009
MDT 2010 New Feature #5: Support for multiple deployment shares
With MDT 2008, you could have one distribution share, which corresponded to a lab deployment...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/27/2009
MDT 2010 New Feature #4: Folders everywhere
In MDT 2008, you could define driver groups and package groups as a way of logically organizing the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/27/2009
MDT 2010 New Feature #3: Suspend and resume a Lite Touch task sequence
MDT 2010 includes a new script called LTISuspend.wsf that isn’t actually part of any of the task...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/26/2009
MDT 2010 New Feature #2: Gathering virtualization details
Because organizations are increasingly using at least some virtual machines, it’s useful to be able...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/26/2009
MDT 2010 New Feature #1: Logging directly to the network
This is the first in what will probably end up being a long series of posts talking about new...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/26/2009
MDT 2010 Beta 2 – Yes, it’s finally available
If you haven’t already seen the official announcement at...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/26/2009
MDT 2008 Update 1 does not support ConfigMgr SP2 Beta
Those of you who have tried have probably already encountered this, but it’s good to state it...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/24/2009
More ConfigMgr hotfixes for Windows Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 support
There are two new hotfixes to add Windows Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 to the supported platform...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/19/2009
ConfigMgr hotfixes available to support Windows Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 OS deployment
As some of you have already discovered, ConfigMgr (RTM and SP1) is unable to capture an image of a...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 06/12/2009
Piles and piles of Dell drivers
For those of you who attended my driver management sessions at MMS 2009 and TechEd 2009 US, you know...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/26/2009
Freaky sight: IE 6 running on Windows 7
I installed the Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode betas on my laptop running Windows 7 RC. If you...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/26/2009
Live from TechEd: Talking about Windows 7 and Deployment
This week at TechEd, Tim Mintner, Rhonda Layfield, Mikael Nystrom, Johan Arwidmark, Jeremy Chapman,...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/15/2009
More ConfigMgr and SQL Server 2008 issues
There was a fix released back in September that got ConfigMgr 2007 working with SQL Server 2008,...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/15/2009
Manipulating the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit database using PowerShell
A couple of weeks ago at the Microsoft Management Summit conference in Las Vegas, I demonstrated...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/14/2009
ConfigMgr hotfix for driver issues when using SQL Server 2008
A new KB article, https://support.microsoft.com/kb/955262, was posted recently with a fix for issues...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 05/14/2009
Adding members to a ConfigMgr collection using PowerShell v2 CTP3
After you have created a collection, you need to be able to populate it with either direct...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/10/2009
Creating a ConfigMgr collection using PowerShell v2 CTP3
I’ve been working with the ConfigMgr (and previously, the SMS) provider for years, using the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/09/2009
Fun with ConfigMgr 2007 and PowerShell
I needed some PowerShell practice this evening, so I did some experimentation to figure out how to...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/07/2009
MDT 2010 Partner Webcast Recording Available
If you missed the partner webcast last week that reviewed some of the changes coming in MDT 2010...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 04/01/2009
MDT 2010 Partner Webcast tomorrow, March 26th
I’ll be presenting a webcast tomorrow to the broad Microsoft partner community, talking about how...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 03/25/2009
Windows Vista Resource Kit book is available for free
In case you’ve missed all the other blog entries about it, Microsoft Press has made available the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 02/22/2009
Windows 7 SKUs
A lot of fuss has been made about the number of available Windows 7 SKUs. Read the full...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 02/15/2009
Having problems importing a driver into ConfigMgr?
There have been a few drivers recently that people have been unable to import into ConfigMgr. ...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 02/06/2009
More Windows Live Toolbar features
I missed some other features that you’ll see after logging in with a Live ID (the far right of the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/22/2009
Latest Windows Live Toolbar
I’ve never been a fan of browser toolbar add-ons, but somehow my home machines always end up full of...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/20/2009
Windows 7 Deployment Changes
Patrick Azzarello (program manager in the Windows Core Operating System Division) just posted a blog...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/20/2009
Windows 7 Features IT pros will like
There are lots of new features in Windows 7, but here are a few that are more “IT pro”-ish: Burning...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/12/2009
Download Windows 7 now…
…so that the internet can recover by Monday morning when everyone wants to do real work again. ...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/10/2009
And now MDT 2010 Beta 1 is available too
See...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/09/2009
Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 beta is available for download
See...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/09/2009
Want to get rid of Windows XP or Server 2003 PnP dialogs?
Somewhere along the line I missed this KB article: Hotfix adds new functionality to suppress Plug...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/07/2009
Social networking – so many options…
I started off a long time ago with a LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mniehaus),...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/07/2009
Windows 7 Beta announced today
It’s hard to miss the news: Steve Ballmer announced today that Windows 7 Beta is available today for...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 01/07/2009
Got money left in the budget? Send it to Microsoft.
I'll take contributions if you like, but I was really talking about Microsoft's upcoming events. You...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 12/10/2008
ConfigMgr "Install Software Updates" task failing when building a reference machine?
If you are seeing issues with the "Install Sofware Updates" task in a ConfigMgr task sequence that...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 12/09/2008
Internet Explorer 8 compatibility will be even easier
I've really like Internet Explorer 8. But there are still lots of sites that don't behave well,...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 12/04/2008
Two more certifications, including one on MDT 2008
I mentioned in my MCSA is now MCITP- Server Administrator post that I needed to take exam 70-647 to...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 12/03/2008
The computer is too powerful, need to slow it down to run Windows PE 2.x.
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/953700 is one of the more interesting KB articles I've read in a...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 11/06/2008
Want to save some time when deploying Windows Vista?
Some people have complained that they don't want to wait while Windows Vista runs the hardware...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 11/06/2008
Windows 7 unveiled today
It really does exist, and today we admitted it at the Professional Developer's Conference in Los...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 10/28/2008
TechEd U.S. 2009 is earlier this year
The dates were posted to the TechEd website,...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 10/23/2008
MCSA is now "MCITP: Server Administrator"
Remember a few years ago when it was a big deal if you had a Microsoft certification? Microsoft...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 10/15/2008
"Allow this program to be installed from the Install Software task sequence without being advertised"
If you are trying to install multiple software packages using a ConfigMgr task sequence "Install...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 10/02/2008
Scripts updated in MDT 2008 Update 1
A few people have asked about the script updates that were made in MDT 2008 Update 1. Here's the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 10/01/2008
One More Certification Exam
I was finally shamed into it by several of the MyITForum guys: I took the 70-401 certification exam,...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 09/25/2008
Dynamic application detection with Lite Touch
I've given a variety of presentations at past TechEd and MMS events (as well as our own internal...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 09/25/2008
Last-minute reminder: Windows Vista performance webcast Wednesday morning (PST)
Anyone interested in a webcast on Windows Vista performance? Mark Russinovich is hosting a...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 09/23/2008
TechEd EMEA IT Professionals 2008 coming up soon
The name is slightly changed this year (no more "IT Forum" in the name, to align better with the...
Author: Michael Niehaus Date: 09/23/2008