Michael Niehaus created a troubleshooting guide about MDT
Check out: Troubleshooting Windows Deployments 2012-09-11.pdf
Tag: Windows
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:
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
Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter Solution Accelerator
The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) Solution Accelerator is a Microsoft-supported, stand-alone solution for the IT pro or solution provider who wants to convert VMware-based virtual machines and disks to Hyper-V®-based virtual machines and disks.
MVMC provides the following features:
- Converts and deploys virtual machines from VMware hosts to Hyper-V hosts including Hyper-V on Windows Server® 2012. As part of the machine conversion MVMC converts the virtual disks attached to the source virtual machine. It also migrates configuration such as memory, virtual processor and so on from the source virtual machine to the converted virtual machine deployed on Hyper-V. It adds virtual network interface cards (NICs) to the converted virtual machine on Hyper-V.
- Converts VMware virtual disks to Hyper-V based virtual hard disks (VHDs).
- Supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 4.1 and 5.0 hosts to Hyper-V.
- Note MVMC also supports conversion of virtual machines from VMware vSphere 4.0 if the host is managed by vCenter 4.1 or vCenter 5.0. You have to connect to vCenter 4.1 or 5.0 through MVMC to convert virtual machines on vSphere 4.0.
- Offers fully scriptable command-line interfaces for performing virtual machine and disk conversions that integrates well with data center automation workflows and Windows PowerShell scripts.
- Has a wizard-driven GUI, making it simple to perform virtual machine conversion.
- Uninstalls VMware tools prior to conversion to provide a clean way to migrate VMware-based virtual machines to Hyper-V.
- Supports Windows Server guest operating system conversion, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 SP2.
- Enables conversion of Windows® client versions including Windows 7.
- Installs integration services on the converted virtual machine if the guest operating system is Windows Server 2003 SP2.
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012
Before you install MVMC, you must install the following software on the computer on which MVMC will run:
- Operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012 (full installation)
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 if installing MVMC on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
- Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 if installing MVMC on Windows Server 2012
Updated eBook Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition
Mitch Tulloch and the Windows Server team have released a new updated version of the FREE e-Book for IT professionals: Introducing Windows Server 2012 RTM Edition. This book is a great way to get quickly skilled up on all the new improvements in this latest Windows Server – one of the most ambitious releases of Windows Server for IT Pros since Active Directory was released in Windows Server 2000! In this 256-page eBook, you’ll find 5 chapters of detailed technical content covering the following key improvements to building a Private Cloud at your shop with Windows Server 2012:
Get it for free by posting a tweet 
VMware Workstation 9
Windows 8
Workstation 9 has been designed to run on Windows 8 and run Windows 8 virtual machines. Easy Install has been enhanced to recognize Windows 8. Workstation 9 has been enhanced to support the Windows 8 user interface (formerly known as Metro). Toggling between Metro and the Windows Desktop can be done by simply pressing the Windows key on the keyboard and Unity intelligently handles the Metro interface. Workstation 9 also includes multi-touch support for driving the Windows 8 Metro interface running in Workstation on a Windows 8 tablet.
Graphics Improvements
VMware has made substantial changes to Workstation 9 graphics virtualization infrastructure. The enhancements include a display-only graphics driver that can render 3D in Windows 8 without hardware acceleration, improvements to make graphics applications like AutoCAD and SolidWorks render more quickly and accurately, an improved Windows XP graphics driver and fundamental changes to improve performance and enable more advanced graphics capabilities in the future.
OpenGL for Linux Guests
VMware has developed an OpenGL graphics driver and up-streamed it to X.Org. This allows VMware’s customers to use the new graphics capabilities in current Linux distributions without needing to install VMware Tools. The version of X.Org that includes the driver is being shipped in Ubuntu 12.04 among other Linux new distributions. Workstation 9 includes enhancements to the virtual graphics device to improve the overall speed and accuracy of rendering OpenGL graphics in Linux virtual machines.
Restricted Virtual Machines
This new capability allows the author of an encrypted virtual machine to require users to enter an additional password to change their virtual machine settings. This feature enables IT professionals and educational institutions to create virtual machines to be used by their employees and students that prevent these users from enabling shared folders, dragging and dropping files, attaching USB devices, and overcommitting system resources. Restricted virtual machines can be run in VMware Workstation 9, VMware Player 5, and VMware Fusion 5 on Windows, Linux or Mac PCs.
WSX
WSX is a prototype of a new VMware Workstation web interface that enables users to access their Shared virtual machines via a web browser on a tablet, smart phone or PC without installing any additional applications or browser plug-ins. This service renders an HTML5 web page that can connect to your Workstation hosts, enumerate the available Shared virtual machines and allow you to power them on and interact with the desktop. Both the Windows .msi and Linux .bundle installations are available for download along with VMware Workstation 9.0
WSX is currently not supported for production environments. The number of devices and browsers available on the market make it extremely difficult to test this feature thoroughly to ensure it works well everywhere.
This feature requires a very modern browser that supports HTML5 with WebSockets. VMware recommends using the Google Chrome 17 browser on PCs and the Apple Safari 5 browser on Mac OS hosts and iPads. Currently there are issues using this feature with Microsoft Internet Explorer 10. WSX may work with other browsers and on Android tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich with the latest version of Google Chrome installed, but more testing is required.
Downloading Virtual Machines from vSphere
Workstation 8 enabled customers to upload virtual machines to vSphere. Workstation 9 now enables downloading virtual machines from vSphere by dragging them from the remote host to the My Computer section of the Virtual Machine Library.
USB 3.0
Workstation 9 supports attaching USB 3.0 devices to Windows 8 virtual machines. The latest portable devices use USB 3 (SuperSpeed) to achieve faster transfer rates for data. USB 3.0 devices such as portable storage devices and video equipment can be connected directly to Windows 8 and Linux virtual machines that contain in-box drivers USB 3.0 controllers.
Nested Virtualization
Workstation 9 improves the implementation of virtual Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI extensions. This allows users to run ESX as a guest OS and run a 64-bit operating system nested in ESX using less system resources.
Note: If you enabled the virtualization extensions in a virtual machine running on Workstation 8, you might need to disable the extensions, upgrade the virtual machine to the latest virtual hardware version (compatible with Workstation 9), and then re-enable the extensions.
Hyper-V
Hyper-V has been added to the Workstation 9 guest operating system list. This enables customers to run Windows 8 with Hyper-V enabled, or install Hyper-V Server. This can be used for educational purposes or for building prototype Hybrid Clouds. This feature is NOT SUPPORTED and probably never will be. Microsoft does not support nesting of their hypervisor which makes it extremely difficult – if not impossible for VMware to fix issues that may occur in this configuration. For this reason, this capability has been implemented purely to see if we could do it!
CAUTION: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN HYPER-V ON A VIRTUAL MACHINE IN PRODUCTION.
Virtual Performance Counters
VMware virtual processors now include the capability to enable virtual performance counters which will allow developers to run profiling applications, such as Intel’s vTune, in a virtual machine.
Remoting Improvements
The experience when remotely connecting to a virtual machine running in Workstation 9 with a VNC client or interacting with the desktop of a virtual machine running on vSphere from within Workstation has been significantly improved.
Disk Cleanup
Virtual machines consume a large amount of space on your hard drive. Workstation 9 includes a new management option to easily recover disk space.
Quick Switch II
Previous versions of VMware Workstation included a view mode called "Quick Switch" that displayed tabs along the top of the screen to easily switch between running virtual machines. We removed this functionality in Workstation 8. The feedback we received has encouraged us to introduce a similar feature. On Windows, hosts tabs have been included in the full screen toolbar.
Thumbnail Actions
Views of your virtual machine on the task bar now include controls to change the power state.
Saved Filters
Workstation 9 automatically saves recent virtual machine library searches as filters to easily apply them the next time you run Workstation.
List of Performance hotfixes for Windows 7 SP1
Applies to:
Windows 2008 R2 SP1
Windows 7 Service Pack 1
Windows 7 SP1
Article ID: 2505438 – Slow performances in applications that use the DirectWrite API on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2505438
Article ID: 2505454 – The startup process is delayed on a computer that has a large hard disk installed and is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2505454
Article ID: 2510636 – An update that improves the startup performance of Windows 7 and of Windows Server 2008 R2 is available
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2510636
Article ID: 2523887 – You may encounter file corruption issues when you use the Offline Files feature to synchronize data in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2523887
Article ID: 2524478 – The network location profile changes from "Domain" to "Public" in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2. This problem can affect Group Policy processing at boot time because NLA does not know what network profile to use.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2524478
Article ID: 2525332 – You encounter a long logon time after you enable the "Do not automatically make redirected folders available offline" Group Policy setting in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2525332
Article ID: 2555428 – The Windows 7 startup process is slow when you create many restore points
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2555428
Article ID: 2561285 – You experience a long domain logon time in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 after you deploy Group Policy preferences to the computer
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2561285
Article ID: 2561708 – Offline files synchronization may not finish on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2561708
Article ID: 2581608 – Logon scripts take a long time to run in Windows Vista, in Windows Server 2008, in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2581608
Article ID: 2582112 – Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 stops responding when an application performs many I/O operations to a network share
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2582112
Article ID: 2610379 – The Folder Redirection policy does not work if a previous user sets a redirected folder to an offline mode in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2610379
Article ID: 2617858 – Unexpectedly slow startup or logon process in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2617858
Article ID: 2625434 – "ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION" error message in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003 when you try to open a file on an SMB share on a server that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2625434
Article ID: 2640148 – Windows Explorer stops responding if you try to expand a mapped drive in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2640148
Article ID: 2645611 – Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 stops responding if you try to log on a computer that has multiple monitors
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2645611
Delay occurs when you log on to a domain from a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=2709630
Article ID: 2709630 2690528 Slow performance when you browse the My Documents folder in the document library in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
An update is available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 KMS hosts to support Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
This update extends the Key Management Service (KMS) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to allow enterprise licensing of Windows 8 and of Windows Server 2012.
KMS provides support for the following KMS client activations:
- Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
- Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows 7 and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
- Windows Vista and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Key Management Service (KMS) uses a KMS host key to activate KMS on a KMS host, and to establish a local activation service in your environment. This update extends support for KMS to provide activation for Windows 8 and for Windows Server 2012.
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.
Windows 8 is RTM
Today is Windows 8 RTM. You can download it from MSDN of Technet if you have a subscription. 
Microsoft Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 2012
Virtual Machine Servicing Tool (VMST) 2012 is designed to work with System Center 2012 –Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2.
VMST 2012 helps you reduce IT costs by making it easier to update your offline virtual machines, templates, and virtual hard disks with the latest operating system and application patches—without introducing vulnerabilities into your IT infrastructure.
This Solution Accelerator includes the following components:
- Brief Overview. Available online only on Microsoft TechNet. Summary for business and technical managers that briefly explains how this Solution Accelerator can fit into an organization’s IT infrastructure management strategy.
- VMServicing_x64 and VMServicing_x86. Setup files for the tool, for 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Windows with System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager.
- Virtual Machine Servicing Tool Getting Started Guide. Provides information about how the tool works, explains prerequisites for the tool, and describes how to install and configure the tool.
- VM_Servicing_Tool_2012_Release_Notes Notes provide information about this release, describe known issues in the tool, and include feedback instructions.