Deploy Office 2013 with MDT 2012

When you want to deploy Office 2013 with MDT 2012 you must first create a MSP File and saved in Updates Folder:
How to:  Create custom configurations of Office 2013.

1. Copy de Office 2013 install to the Applications folder

2. Create a application:
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2. Change the Command Line

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Change Quiet install Command: setup.exe /adminfile \\servername\deploymentshare$\Applications\Microsoft Office 2013 NL x86\Updates\setup.msp

4. Change the Task Sequence:
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5. Final Deployment

Free E-book: Introducing Windows 8 for IT Professionals

Augusto Alvarez Wrote a nice e-book “Introducing Windows 8, an overview for IT Professionals” (preview version).

This book has some quite important topics that every IT guy which is considering implement Windows 8 in their company should read it carefully. Here’s a short summary for the topics included (I’m just naming a few; the entire list is available in the download):

  1. 1. Overview
  2. 2. Experiencing Windows 8
  3. 3. Windows 8 for IT Pros
    • Customizing and configuring Windows 8
    • Client Hyper-V
    • Redesign NTFS
    • PowerShell 3.0
  4. 4. Preparing for Deployment
    • Windows 8 SKUs
    • Application compatibility
    • User state migration
    • Windows To Go
  5. 5. Deploying Windows 8
    • Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit
    • Deployment and Imaging
    • User state migration tool
    • MDT 2012 Update 1
    • e. SCCM 2012 with SP1
    • f. Desktop Virtualization
  6. 6. Delivering Windows Apps
  7. 7. Windows 8 Recovery
    • DaRT
  8. 8. Windows 8 Management
    • Group Policy Improvements
    • Windows Intune
    • Mobile device support
  9. 9. Windows 8 Security
  10. 10. Internet Explorer 10
  11. 11. Windows 8 virtualization
    • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
    • Application Virtualization
    • User State virtualization

I did not read it completely, but for what I’ve seen so far the content is not fully detailed with step-by-steps but contains valuable information and guidance that must be read it if you are implementing / managing Windows 8.

Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) and vSphere 4 does not work together

When you using vSphere 4 and and using MDT 2012 update1 with Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit you run in de following error. Same thing wil also with Workstation 8.clip_image001

Solution 1: Do not install Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit on your MDT Server. You can still using MDT 2012 Update 1 with waik 3.5 if not deploying Windows 8 or Windows 2012 right now.

Solution 2: Upgrading you vSphere server to the latest version (5.1) or Upgrade Workstation to latest version (Version 9).

Troubleshooting Windows Deployments

Michael Niehaus created a troubleshooting guide about MDT

Check out: Troubleshooting Windows Deployments 2012-09-11.pdf

Copying $OEM$ files and folders with MDT 2012 Update 1

MDT 2012 Update 1 no longer uses SETUP.EXE to install Windows 7 and above. One side effect of this is that $OEM$ folders are no longer going to be copied, since that was something that SETUP.EXE did that the MDT LTIApply.wsf script doesn’t handle.

I’ve never been a big fan of using the $OEM$ folder structure, as it’s just as easy to add explicit XCOPY steps into the task sequence. But for those of you out there that are using them, you can leverage the attached script (CopyOEM.zip) in your task sequence to do that.

To set this up, first copy the script into your deployment share. Then, add a new step to the task sequence right after the “Install Operating System” step to run the script. It should look like this:

CopyOem

Now, it will follow the original MDT logic for locating the appropriate $OEM$ folder to use, checking in this order:

  • %DeployRoot%\Control\%TaskSequenceID%\$OEM$
  • %SourcePath%\$OEM$
  • %DeployRoot%\%Architecture%\$OEM$
  • %DeployRoot%\$OEM$

where %DeployRoot% is the path to the deployment share, %TaskSequenceID% is the ID of the running task sequence (e.g. WIN8), %SourcePath% is the path within the deployment share for the operating system being used, and %Architecture% is either X86 or X64, depending on the boot image being used.

Once it finds a folder, it will look for two folders in that $OEM$ folder and copy them to the appropriate place for the new OS:

  • $1 will be copied to the root of the volume that the new OS image was applied to.
  • $$ will be copied to the Windows folder on the volume that the new OS image was applied to.

The script doesn’t deal with any other folders because it’s too messy to do that from within Windows PE – drive letters aren’t the same as what they would end up being in the full OS

Download: CopyOEM.zip

Source: Copying $OEM$ files and folders with MDT 2012 Update 1

MDT Displaying the task sequence name

When you configure MDT you could specify an organization name  To specify these, you can configure them in CustomSettings.ini:

_SMSTSOrgName=WardVissers
_SMSTSPackageName=My Package Name

That’s great if you want to hard-code the values, but what I wanted was that _SMSTSPackageName  is set to the name of the task sequence that is being executed. That’s a little harder to do, because the task sequence hasn’t yet been selected when CustomSettings.ini is being processed, and you can’t set these read-only variables once the task sequence has started.

So this is one of those cases where you have to modify one of the MDT scripts, in this case LiteTouch.wsf. Fortunately, it’s a really trivial change. Look for this line:

oEnvironment.Item("_SMSTSPackageName") = "Lite Touch Installation"

And change it like so:

oEnvironment.Item("_SMSTSPackageName") = oEnvironment.Item("TaskSequenceName")

That line is only executed if _SMSTSPackageName is blank after CustomSettings.ini has been processed, so it won’t have any effect if you manually configured a value in CustomSettings.ini.

With that change, you can now see the name of the currently-running task sequence:
IMG_20120903_155124

You can download the file here: LiteTouch.7z (Tested with MDT 2012 Update 1)

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1 is the newest version of MDT, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. MDT 2012 Update 1 supports deployment of Windows 8, Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

Some of the key changes in MDT 2012 Update 1 are:

  • Added support for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
  • Support for System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 CTP: Added support in MDT for deploying Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 with Configuration Manager 2012 SP1 CTP, while supporting all new Configuration Manager functionality (offline BitLocker, UEFI, and Assessment and Deployment Kit).
  • Support for DaRT 8 Beta: Updated MDT to support DaRT 8 for Windows 8 deployments, while continuing to support DaRT 7 for Windows 7 deployments. Added DaRT support for Configuration Manager scenarios.
  • New “Build Your Own Pages” User-Driven Installation (UDI) feature: Enhanced the UDI wizard and designer to enable IT pros to design their own wizard pages with little effort.
  • New System Center 2012 – Orchestrator support: Provided the ability to add steps into an OS deployment task sequence to execute Orchestrator runbooks as part of the deployment process.
  • Other improvements: Added support for Windows PowerShell 3.0, reworked Roles and Features installation logic for Windows 8, improved “boot from VHD” deployment scenarios, and added support for Configuration Manager monitoring.

Download

MDT 2012 Update 1 Beta 1

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit team is pleased to announce that Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Update 1 Beta 1 is now available for download!

Download MDT 2012 Update 1 Beta 1 now!

Download the latest release to stay up-to-date on your deployment needs. New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever!

This release expands your deployment capabilities with support for the latest software releases, including Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate, and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 Community Technology Preview. Other notable new features include:

  • Support for using the DaRT 8 Beta with the Windows 8 Release Preview version of the Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).
  • New "Build Your Own Pages" support for User-Driven Installation (UDI), enabling IT pros to create new wizard panes using simple drag-and-drop operations – no coding required.
  • Integration with System Center Orchestrator, enabling task sequences to invoke Orchestrator runbooks at any point in the deployment process.
  • Completely reworked "Roles and Features" logic, supporting both installation and removal, as well as providing a new Lite Touch wizard pane for selecting roles and features to install at deploy time.
  • Support for PowerShell 3.0 to make it easier to run PowerShell scripts inside task sequences on Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and Windows PE 4.0.
  • Simple monitoring functionality for Configuration Manager task sequences, leveraging the monitoring capabilities provided initially in MDT 2012 for Lite Touch deployments.
  • Improved "boot from VHD" deployment capabilities, supporting both bare metal and refresh deployments.

Enable Bitlocker with MDT

Bitlocker is a password centered disk encryption system built into Windows which encrypts your volumes and server platforms.

When your do a new deployment on a new computer with MDT you want automatically enable the TPM chip and encrypt the disk.

On 1 Feb 2012 a wrote an article about how to Enable TPM devices on HP Laptops trough MDT.

When you create a new client task sequence enable Bitlocker is default on.

After that I found a bug in MDT 2012 witch cost me al lot of time finding the answer.
MDT 2012 – Settings Per Task Sequence

So let’s begin.

Open Customsettings.ini

Change the following

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

to

[Settings]
Priority=TaskSequenceID, Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

Add the following text.

[HP6560B] = TaskSequenceID in my Case
MachineObjectOU=ou=laptops,ou=ward,dc=wardvissers,dc=local
BdeInstallSuppress=NO
BDEDriveLetter=S:
BDEDriveSize=300
SkipBitLocker=NO
BDEInstall=TPM
BDERecoveryKey=AD
OSDBitLockerWaitForEncryption=TRUE
BDEKeyLocation=\\ward-bh01.wardvissers.local\Bitlocker$

And change the following SkipBitLocker=YES under [DEFAULT]

In my case on the OU Laptops I created the following Bitlocker Group Policy

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Important:

Group Policy’s will break deployment’s

MDT 2012 Settings Per Task Sequence

I recently converted to MDT 2012 after running MDT 2010 for awhile. 10 December 2010 I blogged about MDT 2010 Automatically Move Computers to the Right OU.

After I upgraded from MDT 2010 to MDT 2012 this did not work anymore.

After a lot of searching a found the following on the Technet Forum at the MDT section: MDT 2012 – Settings Per Task Sequence

I changed DeployWiz_SelectTS.vbs file and it work again Glimlach

1. Edit DeployWiz_SelectTS.vbs
2. Add after "Dim sTemplate"
Dim sCmd
Set Oshell = createObject("Wscript.shell")
3. Add before "End Function" (bottom of page)
sCmd = "wscript.exe """ & oUtility.ScriptDir & "\ZTIGather.wsf"""
oItem = oSHell.Run(sCmd, , true)

You can download the changed  file here: DeployWiz_SelectTS.7z

Update 12-09-2012
In beta 1 MDT 2012 Update 1 this was fixed Glimlach. But in de final release MDT 2012 Update 1 this is still a issue….. Bedroefde emoticon but no error anymore at the final page Glimlach.

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