When Windows 11 was first released I published some resources for creating collections in ConfigMgr containing workstations in their various "update readiness" states, such as whether they are capable for upgrade, if they are blocked by the common blockers like CPU family or by a safeguard hold, for example. Here I am publishing the same … Continue reading Create Compatibility Collections in ConfigMgr for Windows 11 22H2
Category: OS Deployment
DIY Windows Provisioning – a Solution Example
Some time ago I created a custom solution to provision Windows workstations and in this blog I wanted to share how that solution works. This is not a community solution but simply an example of what can be possible with a little creativity and technical know-how! I work for an American company with a global … Continue reading DIY Windows Provisioning – a Solution Example
Calculating the Offline Time for a Windows 10 Upgrade
For my Windows 10 feature update installation process, I like to gather lots of statistics around the upgrade itself as well as the devices they are running on so we can later report on these. These stats can be useful for identifying areas of potential improvement in the upgrade process. One stat I gather is … Continue reading Calculating the Offline Time for a Windows 10 Upgrade
Getting Creative: a Bespoke Solution for Feature Update Deployments
This is the first blog post in what I hope will be a series of posts demonstrating several custom solutions I created for things such as feature update deployments, managing local admin password rotation, provisioning Windows 10 devices, managing drive mappings and more. My reasons for creating these solutions was to overcome some of the … Continue reading Getting Creative: a Bespoke Solution for Feature Update Deployments
Real world notes: In-place OS upgrade on Server 2012 R2 ConfigMgr distribution points
In my MEMCM primary site I had several distribution points that were still running Windows Server 2012 R2, so I decided to run an in-place OS upgrade on them to bring them up to Server 2019. After reading the MS Docs, I concluded this is a supported scenario and things would go smoothly. I was … Continue reading Real world notes: In-place OS upgrade on Server 2012 R2 ConfigMgr distribution points
Windows 10 Upgrade Splash Screen – Take 2
Recently I tweeted a picture of the custom Windows 10-style splash screen I'm using in an implementation of Windows as a Service with SCCM (aka in-place upgrade), and a couple of people asked for the code, so here it is! A while ago a blogged about a custom splash screen I created to use during … Continue reading Windows 10 Upgrade Splash Screen – Take 2
Forcing Installation of the MDT ConfigMgr Integration WMI Classes
Today I encountered an unexpected issue installing the ConfigMgr Integration for MDT. The scenario was an environment with several SMS providers and 2 site servers in a high availability configuration (active / passive). The MDT ConfigMgr Integrations ran successfully on each of the SMS Provider servers, but on the passive site server the BDD_* WMI … Continue reading Forcing Installation of the MDT ConfigMgr Integration WMI Classes
Create a Custom Splash Screen for a Windows 10 In-Place Upgrade
A while back I wrote a blog with some scripts that can be used to improve the user experience in a Windows 10 in-place upgrade. The solution included a simple splash screen that runs at the beginning of the upgrade to block the screen to the user and discourage interaction with the computer during the … Continue reading Create a Custom Splash Screen for a Windows 10 In-Place Upgrade
Create Disk Usage Reports with PowerShell and WizTree
Recently I discovered a neat little utility called WizTree, which can be used to report on space used by files and folders on a drive. There are many utilities out there that can do that, but this one supports running on the command line which makes it very useful for scripting scenarios. It also works … Continue reading Create Disk Usage Reports with PowerShell and WizTree
PowerShell One-liner to Extract a Windows 10 Upgrade Error Code
Short post - here's a PowerShell one-liner that will extract the upgrade code from the setupact.log generated by a Windows 10 upgrade. It includes both the result code and the extend code. You could include this in an in-place upgrade task sequence with ConfigMgr to stamp the code to the registry, or WMI, or create … Continue reading PowerShell One-liner to Extract a Windows 10 Upgrade Error Code