If you have been working with SCCM deployments long enough, eventually you may encounter a need to display a window during running Task Sequence. It may be just a simple message box advising user to save all their data, up to more complex solutions with multiple options for the users. Whichever it might be, you … Continue reading
You may have encountered a problem with your Task Sequences that a step to start BitLocker encryption does not work as expected. Depending on a method used to start the encryption (e.g. built-in “Enable BitLocker” step, StartMBAMEncryption.wsf script), the error you are getting varies, but quite often the underlying issue is the same: the TPM … Continue reading
Ever wondered how to control Task Sequence progress bar? This post will give you a quick overview on how to tap in to relevant object with an example of custom delay step. This approach works just fine in both MDT and SCCM Task Sequences without modifying a single line of code! Controlling the progress bar … Continue reading
There are countless ways to set a hostname in SCCM OSD Task Sequence: through variables, queries or manipulating various files. You can automate hostname assignment and derive it from, for example, a serial number or a MAC address, however sometimes it is necessary to prompt user to enter hostname (e.g. for hostname to match asset … Continue reading
My colleague encountered a problem the other week with BGInfo reporting “incorrect” version of IE. He had used his package for months with a great success, until when customer requested IE to be upgraded from version 9 to version 11. BGInfo’s built-in variable for IE version returned value that was prefixed with “9.” – and … Continue reading
Changing a wallpaper should be a trivial task, shouldn’t it? All we need to do is to replace a file… This post walks you through hurdles you will stumble up and how to get through them. Default Windows 8.1 wallpaper is stored in C:\windows\web\wallpaper\Windows directory and is called img0.jpg. However, you can’t just overwrite the … Continue reading
Many of IT deployment professionals out there have a need of supporting multiple deployment shares. Whether it is for different departments, customers or environments the classic approach is that each deployment share means generation of a new boot image. Maintaining WDS, supporting all network and storage drivers for WinPE as well as enforcing consistency across … Continue reading
In my line of work BIOS upgrade/downgrade is a topic that keeps coming back quite frequently. Along with actual BIOS firmware update there also may be few settings that need to be applied and if you are dealing with bulk deployments – it makes sense to automate the process to save time and eliminate human … Continue reading
Couple months ago a bug has been reported in one of my scripts: occasionally when importing data a MAC address field would get corrupted in the process. Having some time this week I looked into the issue and found the underlying problem. In this instance MAC addresses are presented in plain text format (no delimiters), … Continue reading
Recently I have been asked to upgrade a standard issue mSATA SSD on Panasonic ToughPad FZ-G1 to 256GB SSD and clone manufacturer’s preload onto it. Task, as easy as it sounds, turned out not to be so straightforward after all. After deploying the image and booting onto the hard drive the OS would blue screen … Continue reading