Problem finding the Win7 Time Zone names!

Remember In the good old Windows XP days, when the Time Zone you used when creating your Sysprep.inf/Unattend.txt was just a number you could look up in a Microsoft table (and properly also remember) Well those days are almost gone and now you will have to use Time Zone ID which is a Name rather than a number, so the Danish time zone that used to be 105, is now Romance Standard Time… So the question then is, where do i get a hold of those names?? The answer is simple…TZUTIL which is an embedded windows 7 command line tool. [...]

By |2010-02-12T10:28:15+01:00februar 12th, 2010|OS Deployment|1 Kommentar

The annoyance of none elevated command prompts.

You know how when ever you run something from a prompt in Windows 7 or Server2008 you need to remember to elevate the privileges, or you will get the annoying message that you do not have administrative privileges, which then means you will have to open a new prompt, run it as administrator,  and do things all over again.. (especially annoying when working with WAIK) Well I know that you could just disable UAC all together, but that's not what Microsoft intended when they put it there! and it would also mean a huge decrease in security. So what to [...]

By |2010-02-09T10:17:47+01:00februar 9th, 2010|General info, OS Deployment, Windows Client|Kommentarer lukket til The annoyance of none elevated command prompts.

Install XP MUI from SCCM Task Sequence.

  Create a new package called Microsoft XP MUI   Note: It is not necessary to create a program for the package unless you intend to advertise the package to clients. The Microsoft XP MUI package should contain the files from the root of one if the MUI installation CD’s, and any language packages you wish to install. In this case a included the Danish, Russian, Chinese (simplified) and Chinese (traditional) language MUI’s. Now open your TS in edit mode, and add a Run Command Line step at the end of your TS (or at least after the Mini setup [...]

By |2009-08-25T15:20:39+01:00august 25th, 2009|OS Deployment|6 Comments

Changing boot order in Vista/Windows 7

If you do not want to play around with BCDedit or 3rd party tools like EasyBCD, it is quit easy to change boot order from within Windows 7. I Know that this is kind of low tech, but I notice a lot of  questions out there regarding, how to change the boot order using BCDedit. Here goes: Go to Computer – Properties. Note: You can also do this by hitting the key combo Windows + Pause/Break or Click on Advanced System settings Open the Advanced tab In the Startup and Recovery section click on Settings Note: run sysdm.cpl to go [...]

By |2009-08-17T09:08:39+01:00august 17th, 2009|General info, OS Deployment, Windows Client|4 Comments

Resizing a Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)

Ever run into problems with a VHD that ran out of space?? I did just yesterday, and found a couple of solutions for that problem. Here are two ways of dealing VHD size issues . Methode 1: Using 3rd part tool “VDH Resizer” Download and install VHD Resizer. http://vmtoolkit.com/files/folders/converters/entry87.aspx Open VhdResizer and point to the file you VHD you want resized. Choose a location to put the new file, and choose a new size. The resizing process might take a while, but be patient, it will be worth the wait.   When the resizing is done start a the virtual pc [...]

Enable Integration features for Virtual PC Beta running server 2008

Running on Windows 7 it obvious you would use the new Windows Virtual PC Beta. There is a problem however, when you want to run a Server2008 virtual PC. The server it self runs great, and is much faster than Virtual PC2007, but like in Virtual server2005 Drag’n Drop is not supported. This Should basically not be a problem because the integration features gives you access to all the host machines drives (including USB).  Only problem is that it doesn't seam to work on Server2008. It might work at first, but after a couple of reboots the integration features suddenly [...]

Try out Windows 7 without messing up your XP/VISTA installation

I just love Windows 7 RC… It runs much better than VISTA, and has lots of super nice features.  (Get it here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ ) One of these features is the ability to boot from a VHD, which actually means that I can run Win7 on my laptop, without having to reinstall my existing OS, mess around with partitioning or having to install some boot manager in order to run it a dual boot environment.  So what does this mean exactly!! Well for me it means that I can still have my Vista installed PC where I know my Microsoft training [...]

By |2009-06-03T13:59:53+01:00juni 3rd, 2009|OS Deployment, Windows Client|1 Kommentar

Auto run action when a new user loges on / add setting to HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Ever wanted to set a registry key to automate some stuff for your users, only to find out that the key resides in HKEY_CURRENT_USER making it quit difficult to have it work for all users on the pc. You can of cause set this in your login script, but setting registry fixes is not really a job for the login script. During a deployment scenario, where only the administrator is logged in, we can obviously us the run once command from the registry, but that only run once on the computer, and not once pr. USER. We could also manipulate [...]

By |2009-05-25T10:05:34+01:00maj 25th, 2009|General info, OS Deployment|9 Comments

Handling HAL switching during XP deployment (no BSOD /0x07 error)

  Because of the issue with different HAL’s (Hardware Abstraction Layer) used by XP, it is necessary to make some changes to both Sysprep, and the Kernel files during deployment.. I thought I'd supply my HAL changing script, as it does not require the reference computer to be to build  from a specific XXX, and you do not need to add any files to the image beforehand, as that will done by the script. You will have to either integrate MDT into SCCM, or run the script from a package containing this script and  ZTIUtility.vbs from the MDT package. Just [...]

By |2009-04-08T10:55:07+01:00april 8th, 2009|OS Deployment|21 Comments

Fix none working DVD/CD drive in Vista and windows 7

When You upgrade a computer to Windows Vista or Windows 7 Beta, or install Windows Vista Service Pack, and after a restart, the computers CD/DVD drive no longer works as expected, or it says driver is not digitally signed, you will have to remove the affected filter drivers. To do this, follow these steps: Open Registry for editing (Regedit.exe). Locate, and then click the following registry sub key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Caution To make sure that you are in the appropriate registry sub key, make sure that the Default data value is DVD/CD-ROM and the Class data value is CDROM. In the [...]

By |2009-03-27T15:51:28+01:00marts 27th, 2009|OS Deployment, Windows Client|8 Comments

Working with regional settings during OSD

I know there are different ways to add regional settings to you build during OS deployment, and some of them are quiet confusing… I'm not trying to put any of the methods down, but I would like to suggest an easy way of adding simple stuff like: Keyboard settings Time Zones Local Settings And all the other sysprep settings. The way I do this is quit simple, and it works every time.. (almost ;-)   As we are going to use a couple of MDT scripts,  creating a package with the necessary configuration files is necessary. If you are already [...]

By |2009-03-02T11:15:35+01:00marts 2nd, 2009|OS Deployment|8 Comments

Deep Dive Image deployment training now live

We are proud to announce that Coretech's Deep Dive Image Deployment course is ready to launch. The course is based on all the wishes and feedback we have received from customers and earlier students. We will discuss Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server deployment. On all public courses the main focus will be on Windows Vista. The training can be delivered at the customer site or in cooperation with your local training vendor. For more information contact Kent Agerlund, [email protected]. Title: Deep Dive Microsoft Image deployment Duration: 3 days Material: PowerPoint presentations and hands-on labs Environment: Microsoft [...]

By |2009-01-09T14:45:32+01:00januar 9th, 2009|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Deep Dive Image deployment training now live

Server deployment with Configuration Manager

Before you start any server deployment projects save you self a lot of time by reading these documents: IBM server deployment - http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/toolsctr/v1r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.xseries.tools.doc/deploy_tools_sgst.html HP server deployment - http://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPSCCMOSDWP Dell server deployment - http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/Dell+Deployment+Pack+for+Configmgr+%28Server+Deployment%29?t=anon

By |2008-12-29T11:23:46+01:00december 29th, 2008|OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Server deployment with Configuration Manager

Creating and Using Toolkit package..

A nice thing about Integrating MDT into Config. mgr is the functionalities the Toolkit package gives you. The obvious thing being the ability to use all the MDT script without having to create individual packages.. Another thing I really like, is the fact that it will set a variable that points to the package, allowing you to do simple routines like Copy files, run your custom scripts and programs, use ImageX and much more.   To utilize these features we must first create the Toolkit package with all the necessary files… One way to do this is to create an [...]

By |2008-12-16T17:55:36+01:00december 16th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment|6 Comments

Creating Custom Boot Image (boot.wim)

When using  System Centre Configuration Manager for OS deployment you always use WinPE as your boot media/environment for deploying  the actual image… Normally you can just use the boot image supplied with SCCM (a WinPE 2.1 wim, taken from WAIK and placed in \\”SiteServer”\SMS_”SiteCode”\osd\boot\”architecture”\boot.wim), with out any further considerations. Well you might have to inject some NIC and Storage drivers, but that's properly it! A problem you might run into though, is lacking functionality of that WinPE build, like no HTA, MDAC/ADO support etc, or you might need to ad a “Custom media hook” to run a script prior to [...]

By |2008-10-29T10:52:03+01:00oktober 29th, 2008|OS Deployment|9 Comments

Setting up the Custom Media Hook (pre TS action)

  If you want to run a script before the actual TS start, well even before the boot CD looks to SCCM for policies to run, you could add a Custom Media Hook. The Media Hook will run a script defined in an INI file and not enter TS mode before it has finished.. This could be useful in any number of scenarios like cleaning the disk, enabling the disk if it has been encrypted,  setting variables, entering data to DB and so on and so on. Now enabling this feature is quit simple, and then again it is not! [...]

By |2008-10-22T17:45:01+01:00oktober 22nd, 2008|OS Deployment|15 Comments

Using WDS for legacy RIS images, SCCM boot Images, and PSP (SCCM PXE Service Point)

  Setting up WDS 1. If WDS is already installed go to step 4 2. Make sure you are running Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later 3. Go to "add or remove programs" and open "add/Remove windows components". Scroll to the bottom of the wizard and check of "windows deployment services" and hit NEXT (Make sure you have the srv2003 source files as you will be prompted for files) 4. to check the status of your WDS open a command prompt and type wdsutil /get-server /show:config 5. If WDS operational mode is Mixed or legacy, you are done. 6. In [...]

By |2008-10-07T16:22:07+01:00oktober 7th, 2008|OS Deployment|3 Comments

Working with different languages in Windows XP

  Deploying XP with different languages can sometimes be a real challenge. Not that it's that difficult to make the different settings in sysprep.inf or unattend.txt but you still need to make sure the correct files are present during installation, and depending on how you do this, a number of things can go wrong. First let me point out that, this guide assumes that we are working with BDD/MDT or SCCM and therefore do not have the ability to manipulate the behavior of winnt32.exe (the executable used to start the Windows XP installation) by adding different command switches. Normally we [...]

By |2008-08-19T16:17:43+01:00august 19th, 2008|OS Deployment|5 Comments

SAS storage drivers in WinPE 1.5 (2005)

  So, I don't know if there are any one out there who still playing around with BDD/MDT and SMS? if not your are the lucky ones... Myself I still have customers who are running that setup... Basically it runs fine, but there is always the issue with updating WinPE with NIC and Storage drivers... Recently (well yesterday actually) I had to update WinPE to work on a "DELL Precision T5400" with a non built in SAS 6 Storage Controller. Normally its not that difficult to add storage controllers to WinPE 1.5, I just import them in trough SMS, and [...]

By |2008-08-15T16:15:01+01:00august 15th, 2008|OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til SAS storage drivers in WinPE 1.5 (2005)

Make changes to WDS/SCCM boot file to run script before Task Sequence:

  I recently had a customer who couldn't re image machines because of some hidden partition stuff on manufacture preloaded machines. It actually turned out that a couple of files needed to be removed prior to running the TS. So we added a  script to be run prior to the launch of the TS, to get rid of these files. Its not like its a big secret, how you do this, as it is in the WinPE.chm but I thought just make small description of the steps anyhow. 1. MountRW SCCM boot.wim with ImageX - ImageX /MountRW C:\boot.wim 1 C:\mount [...]

By |2008-07-14T15:44:32+01:00juli 14th, 2008|OS Deployment|1 Kommentar

Keep Test Computers in Test collection.

  When testing your different deployment scenarios eg. Task Sequences, you normally create a Test collection, and associate a test PC to that collection. Now ones the PC has successfully carried out the steps in the TS, you might want to change some thing, and then run the TS again. You now find that the test PC does not work any more, and you have to associate the PC all over again. Why does this happen! The PC receives a new GUID during deployment, and therefore, the original associated PC will become obsolete. The PC (obviously still with the same [...]

By |2008-07-09T15:33:15+01:00juli 9th, 2008|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Keep Test Computers in Test collection.