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Requirements Not Met ~ Program Rejected (wrong platform)…What Witchery is This?

Ran into a challenge yesterday that found me chasing apparitions into the SCCM DB and in the process, discovering some interesting insights into the fatal, Failed to download policy (Code 0x80004005) Task Sequence (TS) error. Besides being interesting as Hell, we also found a “clean” resolution that was not available through countless Goog searches.  As if all that was not enough, there is a quick lesson on using a SQL Search tool that I was completely unfamiliar with until good friend, Adam Gross (follow this cat on the Twit: @AdamGrossTX), hipped me to what all the cool kids were doing!  [...]

By |2019-07-25T13:25:47+01:00juli 24th, 2019|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment, SQL, Training|4 Comments
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Set computer name with Autopilot in Windows 1809

A quick blog post to show you that it is now possible to set computer name of an device going through the Out-of-Box experience enabled with Autopilot in Intune! This is new capabilities in Intune which is only available with Windows 10 RS5 1809. This post assume that you have an autopilot profile and that it is already assigned and in use. If not I recommend looking at the links below to get you started with Autopilot. For more information visits these websites: Overview of Windows Autopilot: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/windows-autopilot/windows-10-autopilot Whats new in Autopilot as of 24/9-18: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-IT-Pro-Blog/New-Windows-Autopilot-capabilities-and-expanded-partner-support/ba-p/260430 Now over to the [...]

By |2018-10-03T00:16:29+01:00oktober 3rd, 2018|Automation, Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment, Windows Client|2 Comments
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To OOBE or not to OOBE

In my most recent customer project I was building a Windows 10 1803 reference image.For this build I came across a kind of strange issue.When deploying the reference image using SCCM, I got a weird error right at the end of the task sequence.If I clicked Try again Windows would do something for a few seconds and then the task sequence would finish like nothing went wrong.And the odd thing was that nothing seemed to be wrong, everything worked.But the error would pop up every single time and that was not something I could ignore.So I google’d and chased all [...]

By |2018-07-31T14:10:31+01:00juli 31st, 2018|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Operating Systems, OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til To OOBE or not to OOBE
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DeviceMap and Device Inventory Failures in Win7 to Win10 1709 In-Place Upgrades

**UPDATE**  to the  **UPDATE**  **UPDATE** There has been "multiple TONS" of amazing and diligent work done by some extremely talented individuals to not only uncover some extreme deficiencies in the MS update process but more importantly, to help the community to cope, resolve and move forward!  If this blog post is along the lines of anything you are experiencing, please immediately take a moment to read through this blog post by my friend @AdamGrossTX which should answer all your questions and also provide a solution for "what ails you".  Please also take a moment to follow another friend, @SeguraOSD who has developed [...]

By |2018-08-31T07:24:29+01:00maj 1st, 2018|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hardware & Drivers, Operating Systems, OS Deployment|7 Comments
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Win7 to Win10 In-Place Upgrade Failures w/ DownLevel 0xC1900208 Error Codes

This will be short and sweet as I am not fond of typing nor do I wish to waste your time with wordy explanations. If you require more details, simply reply to this blog and I will do my best to assist. ENVIRONMENT/SCENARIO: The environment is ConfigMgr (CM) 1710 with a slew of Win7 Lenovo models in dire need of Win10 1709 in-place upgrades. Delivery of Win10 1709 is by way of a CM Task Sequence (TS) with no out of ythe ordinary configurations that would be noteworthy. CHALLENGE: I recently ran into a frustrating challenge where my Win7 to [...]

By |2018-05-01T14:08:16+01:00april 29th, 2018|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Hardware & Drivers, Operating Systems, OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Win7 to Win10 In-Place Upgrade Failures w/ DownLevel 0xC1900208 Error Codes
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System Center Configuration Manager Toolkit Package Download Very Slow

Recently I built a new ConfigMgr/SCCM environment for a customer. I installed the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and created an MDT integrated task sequence in SCCM. The deployment task sequence that I created was very slow, it took at least a couple of hours to load. I noticed that the toolkit package was taking approximately 30 minutes to download. The site server was running Symantec antivirus and I had not yet configured any antivirus exclusions. This was a simple sign server environment therefore I add the exclusions listed in this article on the site server. In a more complex environment the [...]

By |2017-08-07T02:46:00+01:00august 7th, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, OS Deployment|2 Comments
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A couple of nice little OSD tweaks in ConfigMgr 1702

ConfigMgr 1702 have a wealth of new features and client management improvements. This one might not be the reason you upgrade, but it’s still nice and worth a blog post. With 1702 you can customize your task sequence information and control what’s being displayed to the end-user. in this example you should notice a few changed in software center. Looking at my Upgrade task sequence, I now have information about download time/size and restart. when I start the task sequence, I have interesting information from my IT department telling me why the company is upgrading to Windows 10 All of [...]

By |2017-03-28T15:39:25+01:00marts 28th, 2017|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til A couple of nice little OSD tweaks in ConfigMgr 1702
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Unlock BitLocker Encrypted Drive From WinPE the Secure Way!

I have seen several blog posts on how to unlock a BitLocker encrypted drive from Windows PE, using the recovery password stored in the Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) SQL Server database. What's the problem with these solutions? All of these have one thing in common: they query the SQL database directly, requires changing SQL Server configuration and granting access to the database directly. Why is this a problem? Well, in my opinion this is a bad design approach, as the core purpose of implementing BitLocker volume encryption and MBAM is to secure our data from being compromised. By [...]

By |2016-10-12T08:49:13+01:00oktober 12th, 2016|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment, Security|9 Comments
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Notes from the field: Deploying Windows 7

I never thought that I would write a blog post about deploying Windows 7 x64 in UEFI mode and TPM 2.0 in 2016. However, I understand that bigger enterprises aren’t 100% ready to deploy Windows 10 but you should definitely have a plan for that. In this blog post I will point out some of the key things regarding Windows 7 SP1 x64, UEFI and TPM 2.0 and maybe this will be helpful for others as well. My experience is with HP models, like the EliteBook 820 G3 / 840 G3 and HP Probook 640 G3 / 650 G3.   [...]

By |2017-08-22T10:29:05+01:00august 15th, 2016|OS Deployment, Windows Client|4 Comments
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Win PE Peer caching in ConfigMgr Current Branch

There are so many reasons for migrating your environment to ConfigMgr CB (current branch), one of them being the new content management feature – Win PE Peer caching. To me it’s important to understand what the feature is bringing to the table, and what it is not. Win PE Peer caching is introduced to save bandwidth by sharing content already present on your local network. Those who are familiar with the ConfigMgr ecosystem, know that solutions to support that has been around for years. Solutions like OneSite from Adaptiva, Nomad from 1E and custom BrancheCache from 2Pintsoftware. This blog post [...]

By |2016-03-30T21:29:42+01:00marts 30th, 2016|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, OS Deployment|10 Comments
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DHCP Guide

This document describes common scenarios for implementing DHCP in relation to PXE boot with particular focus on Configuration Manager. Assumptions and audience Audience must familiar with basic IP networking principles. The background In order for a client to perform a PXE boot, there must be a DHCP service available, this is not required to be a Microsoft DHCP service. Any DHCP server is good. The following diagram shows a typical network setup In this case the client and the server is on the same network, which is the simplest setup you will come across, normally the setup will be more [...]

By |2016-02-08T14:07:39+01:00februar 8th, 2016|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment, Windows Server|1 Kommentar
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How to create Mac OS X OSD resources with Parallels for ConfigMgr

For those already using Parallels Mac Management for SCCM here’s a little guide for creating the boot image and netrestore image. Boot Image Build and start a clean Mac with latest OS X version. Login with the admin user and create the following folders in Documents: Boot SSHKeys Open the Terminal application. Navigate to the SSHKeys folder. Example: “cd /Users/%accountname%/Documents/SSHKeys/” Run the following command: ssh-keygen -t rsa When asked about filename just enter id_rsa. When asked about a passphrase just press enter for default selection which is blank. In the SSHKeys folder there should now be two files located: id_rsa [...]

By |2015-12-22T13:29:08+01:00december 22nd, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment|3 Comments
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Managing Mac OS X devices with ConfigMgr and Parallels

Xmas is not far away now, but before we hit that one special holiday during the year I want to throw one more blog out into cyberspace. Managing those Mac OS X devices once and for all! ConfigMgr 2012 started out with a proposed solution to how we could start managing those silver things from the Apple company, it just wasnt quite as easy as we would like it to be. We needed all kinds of special little configs and tweaks to be made and on top of it we needed to bring in the PKI infrastructure with a transition [...]

By |2015-12-22T13:03:39+01:00december 22nd, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Managing Mac OS X devices with ConfigMgr and Parallels
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Add the “Trigger Setup Rollback” Step in Windows vNext (Windows 10) Upgrade Task Sequence for proper status monitoring

With the announcement of Windows 10 Microsoft released a pre-created Task Sequence for an in-place-upgrade scenario with all the necessary steps it takes to upgrade from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. For more information and the task sequence itself go to the System Center Team blog here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2015/06/16/revised-content-for-the-win10-in-place-upgrade-via-task-sequence-for-configmgr.aspx The task sequence after imported into SCCM: Now, the task sequence comes 100 % out-of-the-box, but if you want to monitor Roll Back Scenarios then you have to add a simple step at the end of the sequence named Trigger Rollback. To do this simply create create the step under the Rollback [...]

By |2015-10-13T15:10:20+01:00oktober 13th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Operating Systems, OS Deployment, Windows Client|Kommentarer lukket til Add the “Trigger Setup Rollback” Step in Windows vNext (Windows 10) Upgrade Task Sequence for proper status monitoring
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Links and tools from our Ignite Instructor lab – Upgrading to Windows 10 using ConfigMgr 2012 R2

Thanks all for attending the Instructor led lab @Ignite – All three Vikings had a great time on stage – thanks for turning the ILL into a very interactive breakout session :-)   Download the labfiles, scripts and instructions from the lab - http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2014/10/29/how-to-upgrade-to-win-10-using-the-task-sequence-in-sc-2012-r2-configmgr.aspx Download ConfigMgr Technical preview - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-system-center-configuration-manager-and-endpoint-protection-technical-preview?i=1 Driver Import script - https://blog.ctglobalservices.com/kea/automate-importing-and-creating-drivers-packages-in-sccm-2012-r2/

By |2015-05-06T17:59:17+01:00maj 6th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), Events, General info, OS Deployment|Kommentarer lukket til Links and tools from our Ignite Instructor lab – Upgrading to Windows 10 using ConfigMgr 2012 R2
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Windows 10 Preview Start Menu not working in build 9926

A quick fix to the StartMenu issue in Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 9926 During deployment of your Windows 10 image, you can fix this issue by prepping the default user profile, so that all users logging on to the device will benefit from the fix. In the registry key HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Create a REG_DWORD with the name EnableXamlStartMenu Set the value to 0 (zero) Or simply use this command to do it during a Task Sequence reg.exe add hku\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /v EnableXamlStartMenu /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

By |2015-02-15T18:28:51+01:00februar 15th, 2015|Configuration Manager (SCCM), OS Deployment, Windows Client|Kommentarer lukket til Windows 10 Preview Start Menu not working in build 9926
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SMSTS.log Size and History is Reset During Refresh Scenarios

If you have changed the default values for LogMaxSize and LogMaxHistory in your SMSTS.ini in your boot media, some of you might have experienced that these values gets reset to their default values (1000000 and 1) during a refresh scenario. This causes us to loose build history and makes troubleshooting quite difficult as logs are incomplete. Well, our friends over at E1 have created a nifty little tool that you can use to overcome this issue. The tool will change the following variables that controls the log behavior, these are normally read-only and can not be changed the way we [...]

By |2014-12-04T09:25:16+01:00december 4th, 2014|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, OS Deployment|1 Kommentar
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Activate local Admin account – or why you need BitLocker!

While this is not a newly discovered hack, I feel that we can not stress the importance of using Bitlocker to encrypt our hard drives. If you like me encounter customers that still runs their computers unencrypted, and don’t see the need for encryption. just use the following guide to show them how easy it is to activate the local administrator account and reset its password. Step 1 Show the customer that the local administrator account is disabled. (or that you don’t know the password). Step 2 Boot from any bootable media, such as the original installation media, Ultimate Boot [...]

By |2014-09-26T14:32:36+01:00september 26th, 2014|Operating Systems, OS Deployment, Security|8 Comments
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Deploying Windows 8 with MBAM Used-Space-Only Encryption

Windows 8 comes with the option to pre-provision the disk for use with BitLocker, allowing only the used-space to be encrypted, thus reducing the encryption time a lot. Problem occur when enterprises want to use the Microsoft Bitlocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) toolkit from the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) to store BitLocker recovery keys, and track compliance. MBAM 2.0 sp1 does not support used-space encryption as per the release notes, forcing enterprises to either drop MBAM or perform full encryption of the disk, which can be a time consuming task depending on disk size and CPU performance. After spending [...]

By |2014-03-11T15:35:38+01:00marts 11th, 2014|OS Deployment, Security, Windows Client|14 Comments
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Coretech HTA

The main idea with this HTA is to assist small and medium sized organizations with an easy way to implement a custom OSD solution without having any developer or HTML skills. The HTA solutions can be used when booting directly into WinPE and to prestage computers. Why; You might ask, Why, do Coretech create this tool instead of using the built-in tools in Configuration Manager or using the UDI wizard in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit?  The answer is straight forward. We often run into customers who do not have the knowledge it takes to build custom solutions or use the UDI [...]

By |2014-01-30T16:16:21+01:00januar 30th, 2014|Configuration Manager (SCCM), General info, OS Deployment|30 Comments
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