I was working on my daughter’s Windows 7 computer last weekend and one of the first things I noticed was she hadn’t installed any updates for quite a while. It took a couple of update cycles to get her machine current.  Once it was, I noticed the antivirus software the computer had come with had...

Join me and Johan Arwidmark, Chief Technical Architect at Knowledge Factory for a discussion around deployment. Johan gives some tips and tricks along with customer scenario examples when using Windows Deployment Services (WDS), Microsoft Deployment Toolkit(MDT), and Microsoft System Center Configuration...

John Baker, Sr. IT Evangelist at Microsoft, and Jeremy Moskowitz, Chief Propeller Head at Gpanswers.com talk about the latest features in Microsoft Windows Group Policy. Jeremy touches on XP to Windows 7 migration along with other insights that give administrators real control over their desktops and...

Its IT Time and in today’s episode, Blain Barton and John Baker welcome IT Pro Community Manager, Stephen Rose. Tune in as Stephen walks us through the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and shows us how easy it is to slipstream IE9 and other applications into a Windows 7 migration - in a matter of minutes...

If you have a bunch of machines you want to install SP1 on you can always use Windows Update.  This means however SP1 is going to be downloaded over for each of the machines.  Obviously not if you’re using WSUS!!! In my case I have a lot demo machines in hyper-v that don't have access to the...

Custom Edit the Deployment Wizard to Add a New Page   In the final part of the seven part series we’ll see how we can do further customizations to the MDT deployments.  We’ll use the MDT 2010 Wizard editor from CodePlex to modify our Windows Deployment Wizard .  In this demonstration we...

Using Linked Deployment Points In our demonstration we have a Test deployment share that has been populated with some deployment assets suchs as application, operating systems, out-of-box drivers and packages.  So how do I easily get the deployment assets I’ve tested into a production environment...

Configuring the Deployment Point to Use the Configuration Database In order for the properties populated in configuration database to be of any use, the database must be tied to a deployment point. In this demonstration we’ll look at how to configure the database rules which basically tells what needs...

Configuring Other Methods in the Configuration Database In this demonstration we’re going to go through creating examples of the other three role methods and will assign role methods created earlier: Refresh User and Managed Computer . With all methods we can associate properties settings, applications...

The other day at a TechNet event someone asked me about the various parameters that can be used when doing an application install with MSIEXEC.EXE. I found the info below at http://bit.ly/agBMUI . ****************************************************************************************************...

Configuring Role Methods in the Configuration Database Role methods are used to target a group of computers based on a variety of criteria. As you will see there are four types of methods: Computers , Role , Locations , and Make and Model . The Role method is unique in that it can be assigned to other...

Create and Explore the Configuration Database The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit has the ability use a configuration database which provides a rich opportunity for customization of an automated deployment.  The configuration database is a logical extension of the configuration settings normally stored...

Improve the efficiency and availability of IT resources and applications with the new virtualization innovations provided in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta. This service pack release delivers two new features, namely Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX, to help businesses further optimize their...

Blain and John’s TechNet Event Resources Windows 7 Deployment Sept- Dec 2010 Future Live, In-Person Event Information TechNet (for IT Pros): http://www.technetevents.com MSDN (for Software Developers): http://www.MSDNEvents.com Webcasts Windows 7 Webcast Series http://www.microsoft.com/events/series...

Have you ever needed to make a bootable USB stick drive?  We will actually be doing this as part of our live events in order to be able to upgrade a Windows XP machine to Windows 7. We will make the USB drive bootable and add resources from the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit such as Operation System...

TechNet Events registration is now OPEN !  Many who have attended the TechNet events in the past have told us that they would like us to go deeper on the topics.  They have also told us that we should make it an all day event.   You asked for it, you got it!  TechNet Events will...

  I was working on a demo environment for session we’ll be doing in the upcoming TechNet roadshow in a few weeks.  I usually use Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V for my demos, but because I needed to have access to USB drives from the virtual machine, I decided I use a Windows 7 laptop with Windows...

  The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 is an agentless tool designed to simplify and streamline the IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments. This Solution Accelerator performs an inventory of heterogeneous...

If you’re using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 then you’ll be pleased to know the MDT 2010  Update 1, the newest version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, is now available!   What is the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Update 1 It’s Solution Accelerator for operating system...

The Windows 7 Test Drive is designed to let you explore the great new features in Windows 7 – with no installation required.  Check out our updated site with new content on Enterprise products including IE8, MDOP and Virtualization.  Try out our virtual labs, watch demo videos, download whitepapers...

In this screencast I'll go through the process of deploying the custom image created in Part 7 of the series.  We will import the image into the Deployment Workbench and then create a Task Sequence to deploy the imported image to target computers in our environment.   Resources: Download Windows...

How do I get to a standard operating system image? In this screencast we’ll use the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 to first create, and then deploy a custom Windows 7 image to a Reference computer. The image is  then "Sysprepped" and captured, creating a custom, Windows image in the...

In this screencast we’ll continue to go through the Windows 7 deployment process using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010.  Now we have installed the MDT 2010 and the WAIK for Windows 7, our next step is to configure the the MDT Deployment Workbench.  The first step is to create the deployment...

In this screencast we’ll look at what needs to be done to prepare the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 environment. We'll step through the installation of both the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 as well as the Windows AIK for Windows 7. Resources: Download Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial today...

In this screencast I’ll review the software required for Lite Touch Installation (LTI) deployments.  Using MDT 2010 for the Lite Touch, High-Volume Deployment strategy streamlines deployment and reduces support costs by providing a more consistent configuration with fewer support calls. The Lite...