Here’s a couple of helpful tips and tricks I’ve found from Windows 10 1909/1903 and previous versions. Let’s get into them! Search and Cortana Are Separated In 1903/1909 A good change IMO and my first impressions of the new search is that it’s back to being as good as Windows 7’s. The search bar on the Taskbar is now just search and has nothing to do with Cortana. By default the search bar is expanded on the Taskbar and Cortana is just an icon.

Current Known Issue: With the Windows 10 1903 ADK on 64-bit, the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) will fail to generate a catalogue. Microsoft has issued a fix which you can download here. The fix contains two updated files, ImageCat.exe and ImgMgr.exe which need to be copied to the location the ADK is installed. By default the location is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\WSIM. After installation you will still not be able to access the WSIM through MDT, but launching WSIM manually and then opening the install.

Current Known Issue: With the Windows 10 1903 ADK on 64-bit, the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) will fail to generate a catalogue. Microsoft has issued a fix which you can download here. The fix contains two updated files, ImageCat.exe and ImgMgr.exe which need to be copied to the location the ADK is installed. By default the location is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\WSIM. After installation you will still not be able to access the WSIM through MDT, but launching WSIM manually and then opening the install.

Update 2018-11-13: Microsoft has resumed the rollout of Windows 10 1809, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809. The ISO’s are now available to download from the Volume Licensing Service Center once again. Continuing from a previous post: Building A Windows 10 1809 (October 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT, this post will walk through creating a Deployment Share to deploy the Windows 10 reference image. It is assumed that you have a Server or PC with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and it’s dependencies installed and have been through the post previously mentioned.

Update 2018-11-13: Microsoft has resumed the rollout of Windows 10 1809, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server, version 1809. The ISO’s are now available to download from the Volume Licensing Service Center once again. This post will walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to build a reference image of Windows 10 1809 (October 2018 Update) using a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. It is assumed that you have a Server or PC ready to install MDT onto and create an file share for MDT to build the image with.

Continuing from a previous post: Building A Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT, this post will walk through creating a Deployment Share to deploy the Windows 10 reference image. It is assumed that you have a Server or PC with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and it’s dependencies installed and have been through the post previously mentioned. Creating the Deployment Share Open the Deployment Workbench from the Start Menu.

This post will walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to build a reference image of Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) using a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. It is assumed that you have a Server or PC ready to install MDT onto and create an file share for MDT to build the image with. Here are the links to the software we’ll be using: Windows 10 1803 Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (8450) Windows 10 1803 x64 Volume Licensing Service Center Additional software which may be useful to you:

Windows Deployment Services can not be installed on Windows Server Core unfortunately - it still requires a Windows Server install with a GUI (Desktop Experience). Luckily we can still install it using PowerShell and the command line. In this post I’ll go through the initial steps on how to deploy and configure a WDS server using command line and PowerShell. Installing Windows Server Boot the server from the Windows Server media and on the “Select the Operating System you want to install” screen, select the option “Windows Server Standard” or “Datacenter” edition with “Desktop Experience” in brackets.

Update 2018-11-04: I’ve evolved the script in this post into a more friendly utility which I’ve posted about here. If you are familiar with my other PowerShell scripts/utilities this isn’t as complete or polished as them, but it get’s the job done, and that’s all we can really ask for right? Let’s say it’s in early beta. The purpose of this script is to automate the process of setting the location and Office 365 license for users, using a local Active Directory to specify the users.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit build 8450 is out. You can read more about it here over on the MS Deployment Blog. Installing & Configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Dependencies Here are the links the software we’ll be using: Windows 10 1703 Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (8450) First we’ll install the Windows 10 1703 ADK which is now fully supported by MDT in build 8450. The setup will need to download additional files so it may take some time depending on your internet connection.

In a previous post I wrote about my Image Factory PowerShell script for MDT. This post is about a script derived from that which I setup to test my images and my deployment task sequences. Since this script is only an edit of the previous one I don’t intend to release it “officially” on the TechNet Gallery or the PowerShell Gallery. To explain succinctly what this script does, it turns Task Sequences into Virtual Machines.

Update 16/01/2018: Updated this post to reflect the release of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 8450, which fully supports Windows 10 1709. Update 30/10/2017: If SysPrep is consistently failing when building your Windows 10 1709 image, it is most likely due to the Windows Store update process updating the built in UWP apps. This issue is a known issue, but one I’ve managed to dodge when building previous versions of Windows 10. With 1709, I’ve had SysPrep fail every time.

This is a round-up all my previous posts regarding deployment and configuring Windows 10, installing Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Windows Server Update Services into one post for reference. Installing and Configuring a WSUS Server Installing WSUS from scratch! Resolving WSUS Connection Errors On Windows Server 2012 R2 Installing and Configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Getting Started With Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 8443 and Windows 10 1607/1703 PXE Booting for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit PXE Booting with WDS for UEFI and BIOS Devices Building and Deploying a Windows 10/Windows Server 2016 Reference Image Building a Windows 10 1607 Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 8443 Deploying a Windows 10 1607 Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 8443 Building a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Building a Windows 10 1709 (Fall Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Building a Windows Server 2016 Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Customising and Configuring Windows 10 Stuck Windows Updates from WSUS on Windows 10 1607/Windows Server 2016 Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Update) opens msn.