A long overdue post... In April I changed roles within the company, leaving Microsoft Consulting Services and joining the Windows Intune product team as a program manager. This blog will remain, but I currently have no plans to make any further...

I developed some automation for a customer to help them manage the lifecycle of collections used for assignment of DCM baselines as they are revised.  Part of this required the ability to convert a collection from query-based membership to direct...

The US Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) group policy object (GPO) for Windows 7 Computer Settings includes the setting: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Desktop Gadgets Turn off desktop gadgets = Enabled This...

A seemingly simple requirement for a Desired Configuration Management configuration item is to verify that the Configuration Manager 2007 site backup maintenance task is enabled.  What became the difficult part of this was tracking down the specific...

To import computer information into Configuration Manager for OS deployment you have to enter the computer name and then one or both of the following unique identifiers: MAC address or SMBIOS GUID, aka UUID. Many customers use the MAC address because...

I know this information exists elsewhere in the world and I really dislike redundant posts.  But I’m always hard-pressed to find this so am posting it here more as a reminder to myself.  If it is of use to anyone else, all the better. When you...

While using MDT to remaster an existing Windows 7 image I added tasks to apply Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and a slew of other updates to the image (so that deployed workstations are up to date out of the gate instead of waiting for updates to come down...

During a Windows 7 64-bit deployment project the customer gave me a requirement to allow users to install a variety of language packs without adding all of them to the baseline image to keep the size down.  They are already using ConfigMgr to advertise...

While implementing Remote Assistance during a Windows 7 deployment I found that a RA connection to older Windows XP workstations would behave like a Remote Desktop connection: the user would not be prompted to allow the administrator to connect, and the...

This is nothing new; I’m typically not one to repost information that can be found elsewhere online.  This is just so that I have an easy place to find it in the future! select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID, SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType, SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name...

Instead of bashing on the keyboard, I’m a proponent of using a tool to generate a random password, such as when creating a service account or new user accounts.  A colleague of mine recently discovered that this is doable with Windows PowerShell...

I’m starting a DCM project for a customer and one of the requirements is to determine whether a system was deployed via a ConfigMgr task sequence.  This seemed like a simple request but initially stymied me as to how to best implement it with a significant...

I was recently having a conversation with a coworker about ways to troubleshoot an automated installation process and describing how to inject further logging into the process. Instead of running the command line setup.exe, I suggested he run a simple...

I created a relatively simple Configuration Manager 2007 Desired Configuration Management (DCM) configuration baseline with twenty configuration items (CIs) each with a handful of settings. In trying to move it from a development environment into production...

My mathematics and computer science lesson for the day came when creating a Desired Configuration Management (DCM) configuration item (CI) setting for the TCP/IP v6 DisabledComponents registry value. (See Microsoft Support Article ID: 929852, How to disable...

At the Microsoft Management Summit 2011 in March I presented session BF21, Accelerated Scripting with the MDT Framework . The session focused on using the VBScript libraries built-in to MDT to reduce the amount of time to write custom scripts and using...

This post details my experience and lessons learned with hardening a System Center Configuration Manager system. I'll review the risks and then describe the various technical components of a ConfigMgr system: Windows Server host, Internet Information...

I usually don't cross-post, but this is just too cool. http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2011/03/29/mms-2011-labs-powered-by-hyper-v-system-center-amp-hp.aspx

A bit off-topic for most of the posts on this blog...I didn't see this posted anywhere else in this context so I thought I'd share. I'm working on a RemoteFX prototype for a customer and have a HP Z600 Workstation with a Nvidia Quadro NVS 450 video adapter...

A little self-promotion.... BF21 Accelerated Scripting with the MDT Framework Speaker(s): Aaron Czechowski Track(s): Server Management Technologies, Solution Accelerators, Systems Management Session Type: Breakout Session Product(s): Configuration...

Writing custom scripts for MDT and/or MDT-integrated ConfigMgr task sequences should leverage the common scripting framework in MDT (WSF script referencing ZTIUtility.vbs) to take advantage of the provided features, such as: centralized logging...

This is probably the only place where I can post these and get some level of appreciation. While I was at TechReady in July, I sent texts to my wife who sent back some witty replies. I must note that while she might come off quite dim, it's all meant...

In deploying Windows 7 x64 via a ConfigMgr 2007 SP2 task sequence I have a custom script to change the TCP Global Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level. The command that is executed via the script is: cmd /c netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=highlyrestricted...

I’m a huge fan of the Desired Configuration Management (DCM) feature of ConfigMgr. However, I found that it can be quite literal with the input data, and the result is not always very user friendly. For example, I created a new General Configuration...

I recently had the opportunity to use the One of operator on a CI validation of a registry integer value. While trying to input the multiple values (1, 3, 4 or 5) using a variety of delimiters (space, comma, semi-colon, etc.), I kept getting a UI error...