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 designer. Our Coretech HTA is intended to those administrators where OSD only plays a small part in their working life but never the less must have custom solution that works right out of the box.

– And hey Coretech dudes; why don’t you just use the MDT database and all the MDT features? Why do you spend time creating solutions that already exist “out there”? Well, because we are talking with multiple customers that are not OSD experts and just want to have a simple solution.

The main benefits of using the Coretech HTA is:

• Very easy to implement
• No developing skills are required to install or maintain the solution
• Automate the computer naming standard
• Easily create OSD “roles” and target specific applications/packages to each role.
• Create custom selections like integrating USMT, Bitlocker etc.
• Control language and time zones.
• Configure primary user.

We control and configure most settings using variables on computer objects and collections. This method might be new to you, and will certainly require a new way of thinking.

Download HTA and Task Sequence

System requirements

The following requirements must be met before installing the HTA:

• A domain user account, the account will be granted permissions in Configuration Manager to create and delete computer objects. The user account do not require any additional permissions. The account used in this guide is named viamonstra\cm_hta.
• System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 or later. For those who are running ConfigMgr 2012 R2, you also required to install KB2905002 and KB2907591
• Microsoft Deployment Toolkit integration and a MDT toolkit package.
• A share than can host the HTA files. In this blog post \\cm01\sccm_sources$\OSD will be used.

What the HTA is not

The HTA is not an Enterprise solution or a replacement for MDT.

Install the HTA

1. Ensure you have a HTA user account created in Active Directory as mentioned in the system requirements.
2. Run the hta_installer.exe as administrator and fill Install Folder, HTA user and Password.

   

3. When ready click Install close the window when the installation is done.

What happens during the installation?

1. A new user role is created and associated with the HTA user account.

   

   

2. A new boot image is added.

   

3. A new folder called OSD is added along with several OSD collections.

   

4. A Task sequence is part of the download and can be imported. The task sequence includes examples on how you can use the collection variables in the deployment.

   

5. During the install process, the files used to support the HTA solution is copied to the share specified in the installer. In my example the share is

   \\CM01\SCCM_Sources\OSD.
   

   Files in the main folder:

   HTA.exe is the main executable.

   StartHTA.vbs used to the HTA in “prestage mode”.

Files in the Bootimage folder:

The custom boot image

 

Files in the Bootimage\Prestart folder:

RunHTA.exe maps the drive letter T to the HTA file share, and executes the RunHTA.vbs

RunHTA.vbs executes the HTA.exe main executable and waits for it to end.

 

Files in the Config folder:

Config.xml, the main configuration file containing information about the site server and the main OSD folder.

Logo.png, the top logo used in the HTA.

PCNumber.txt keeps track of the running number. The file is used if a running number is being used as part of the computer name.

RunAfter.bat contains commands executed after the HTA.

RunBefore.bat contains commands executed before the HTA.

How to get started with the Coretech HTA solution

You are almost ready to use the solution as soon as the install is finished. Only a few details needs to be configured before you can deploy the very first image in your environment.

Modify the custom boot image

1. From the Software Library, select Operating Systems, Boot Images.
2. Open the HTA Boot Image (x86) boot image properties, select the Optional Components tab.
3. Select Optional Components, click the Yellow icon and add HTML (WinPE-HTA) and Database (WinPE-MDAC) support.

   

   

4. Click OK and update the boot image.
5. Distribute the boot image to your distribution points and PXE enabled distribution points.

    

Deploy the task sequence

In theory the HTA is now ready for use (although you might want to customize the task sequence first).

1. In order to use the task sequence you need to create a deployment to the Unknown computers collection and each of the collections that can contain a machine object. In the example below three available deployments are created allowing me to deploy a custom Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 image to the Developers collection.

   

2. WinPE will launch and show the HTA, in this example I’ll create a new Windows 8.1 computer in the developer collection. To do so, click Windows 8 and Developer. Specify a computer name (this can be 100% automated using the collection variables) and the primary user of the device.

   

3. Click Additional selections and select a language from the dropdown box (you can add multiple languages in the OSD collection hierarchy).
4. Click Install to begin the image process. What happens now is that the HTA will look for an existing object in ConfigMgr, delete the object and create a new computer object in the Windows 8 Developer Collection.

   

5. If you open the computer properties in the ConfigMgr console you’ll notice several computer variables

   

6. If you open the OSD Windows 8 developer collection and select the Variables tab, you’ll find additional variables. Those are not effective by default, but can be used in the task sequence to control department specific applications and other cool stuff.

   

7. To deploy specific applications to the developers, open the Task Sequence and navigate to the Software –Developer step.
8. From Add, select General, Install Application and specify the applications.

   

9. Select the Options tab, and click Add Condition, Task Sequence Variable.

   

10. In variable type HTA_Type and in value type Developer. This will ensure that only computers in a collection with the Developer variable (both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1) will run the step.

    

11. Click OK and close the task sequence.

Modify the default values in the HTA

The true value of the HTA is found in the simplicity when it comes to making changes. Changes like controlling the computer names, modifying the default values etc. All you need to know is the variable and the optional values. Below is the list of some of the values you can modify in the hta_main collection, after that are some examples that you might find useful.

Modify the HTA

The HTA is controlled by folders and collections. If you look at the main HTA you’ll notice two main buttons (Windows 7 and Windows 8), those correspond to the folders created in the Roles folder. By creating a new folder in Roles, you’ll automatically create a new main button in the image.

Once the role is selected, one or more role types are available. Those are controlled by the collections you have created in the role folder. In this example I have created 3 different Server 2012 R2 role types.

Prestaging computers

You can prestage computers by running the hta.vbs directly from the server. The only difference is that you will be prompted for a user name, password and a MAC address. Once you have entered those information you’ll be presented with the HTA from where you can configure the computer information.

What’s next

This blog post is meant to be an introduction that will give you enough information to get started with using the tool. The solution also contains other features, so stay tuned more information will follow.

This tool would never have existed if it wasn’t for my fantastic team of dedicated collegues, huge colleagues goes to both Jakob Svendsen (contributing developer) and Claus Codam (main developer).