Windows Deployment
Deploying A Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT
· ☕ 13 min read
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.

Building A Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) Reference Image with MDT
· ☕ 10 min read
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:

Building a Windows 10 1709 (Fall Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 11 min read
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.

From Zero to 10 - Windows 10 Deployment Round-up
· ☕ 2 min read
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.

Windows 10 1709 Fall Creators Update Deployment Preview
· ☕ 2 min read
I’ve been testing a preview build of Windows 10 1709 - the Fall Creators Update with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and putting it through a few task sequences. I’m happy to say that I’ve not encountered any issues, which I did with previous updates. Keep reading for more info on my testing below. The main point of this post is just to say that when the time comes to deploy the Fall Creators Update with MDT, you shouldn’t encounter any issues.

Upgrading to Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
· ☕ 7 min read
As Windows is now delivered ‘as-a-service’ with major updates being released biannually, you may want to push out these major updates using WSUS. In previous posts I’ve covered deploying Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) as a clean install with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and also how to perform an upgrade to Windows 10 1703 using MDT. In this post, I’ll walk through the process of pushing out the upgrade to Windows 10 1703 using WSUS.

Upgrading to Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 8 min read
If you’re looking to deploy the latest version of Windows 10 1703 (better known as the Creators Update) as a fresh install, please check out this post. This post is designed to walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and to create a Task Sequence to upgrade to Windows 10 1703 from a previous version of Windows. The Windows upgrade process has come along way in recent years, so in certain circumstances it may be worth while running an upgrade, rather than a wipe-and-load.

Building a Windows Server 2016 Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 7 min read
In a previous post I walked through how to install MDT, it’s dependencies, and how to create a reference image to deploy. In this post I’ll be doing the same thing but centred around building a Windows Server 2016 image using a Hyper-V virtual machine. Installing & Configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Dependencies. We’ll be using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) version 8443, which (at the time of writing: 24/07/2017) is the most recent release and fully supports Windows Server 2016.

Building a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 9 min read
Following on from a previous post which covers some queries and issues I had when first deploying Windows 10 1703 (better known as the Creators Update) this post is designed to walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to build a reference image of Windows 10 1703 using a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. Installing & Configuring Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Dependencies We’ll be using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) version 8443, which at the time of writing is the most recent release and fully supports Windows 10 1703.

Delving Into Disabling OneDrive
· ☕ 3 min read
UPDATE 2017-11-07 After testing the method below on Windows 10 1703, I found that it wasn’t working as it did with 1607. To disable One Drive and remove the One Drive folder from the Navigation Pane of Windows Explorer, enable the group policy item: Computer Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/OneDrive/Prevent Usage of OneDrive for file storage and also set the following registry key from 1 to 0: 1 2 HKEY\_CLASSES\_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} "System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree"=dword:00000000 Please note that the registry key must be set on a per user basis.

Some Notes On Building a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) Reference Image with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
· ☕ 4 min read
With the release of Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) ISO on the Volume Licensing Service Center, I’ve recently been looking into using the “final” code with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) to build reference images and discover what issues are present. This post is a round up of differences and issues I’ve found with building and deploying Windows 10 1703 thus far, and some resolutions. For a full walk through on installing MDT and creating a Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) reference image, check out this post.

Windows 10 1607/1703 Start Menu Customisation - Update
· ☕ 3 min read
Here’s a quick update on an option I missed in my previous post about how to customise the Start Menu and Taskbar for new Windows 10 1607/1703 installs. Update 2017-05-02: This also works with Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) The method that I used in my previous post would not be suitable for other environments where you would still want users to have some control over apps that were pinned to the Start Menu.

Quick Tip: Enable server-side log storage in MDT for easier troubleshooting
· ☕ 2 min read
Probably the most important thing about troubleshooting anything is having the data on the process. Troubleshooting Task Sequences in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit can be tricky, and has, in the past stumped me for days because I didn’t have, or couldn’t find the right data on what was going wrong. Luckily MDT does have logs - lots of them! During a task sequence they’re kept on the client and by default they’re deleted when the deployment finishes, even if it’s unsuccessful.