August, 2008

We've received a number of questions over the past few days on the best way to upgrade from MDT 2008 to MDT 2008 Update 1 without losing any settings.  The most common problem that has been seen is that the Deployment Points are no longer present after installing MDT 2008 Update 1.  The following instructions will allow you to upgrade and maintain all of your existing settings:

1.  Before installing MDT 2008 Update make a backup of the Deploy.XML file.  The file is located by default in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Control

2.  Install the MDT 2008 Update 1 MSI

3.  Launch the Deployment Workbench and right click on Distribution Share and choose Create distribution share directory

4.  A wizard will then be presented.  Choose Upgrade an existing distribution share and type or browse to the path of your existing distribution share.  Check the check box to Backup existing scripts and configuration files and click on Finish (the files will be backed up to the Distribution\Backup folder)

5.  Close the Deployment Workbench and restore the Deploy.xml that was backed up earler to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Control, overwriting the existing file

6.  Launch the Deployment Workbench, navigate to the Deployment Points and your Deployment Points should now be visible.

7.  Right click on each Deployment Point and choose Update.  This will update all of the Windows PE images with the correct version of the scripts

8.  If you are using WDS, you will now need to replace your boot image in WDS with the updated Lite Touch WIM file

We've received several questions over the past few days regarding the Help, About Microsoft Deployment Workbench showing 4.1 even after the upgrade to MDT 2008 Update 1:

The reason why the Help, About Microsoft Deployment Workbench shows Version 4.1 is due to caching that can occur with certain DLL's.  In this case the value of the previous installation of that screen can be found here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache\@C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Bin\Microsoft.BDD.WorkbenchResources.dll,-105

If you previously had MDT 2008 installed the value was cached in this location and unfortunately does not update properly after the installation of MDT 2008 Update 1.

So how do you determine if you have the correct version installed?  The correct version of MDT 2008 Update 1 is 4.2.523.40.  This can be found by going into Add/Remove Programs.  You should see an entry like the following:

If the About window really bothers you, you can delete the registry entry mentioned above and it will then update with the correct version number. :)

We are pleased to announce the release of our first update to Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008  (MDT 2008).  We have added two major features:  OEM preload scenarios for Lite Touch Installation and Zero Touch Installation with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and a new management pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1.  Minor updates include bug fixes and design changes to override driver platforms as well as the ability to inject all drivers into Windows PE. 

Get MDT 2008 Update 1 and the new Quick Start Guides from the Download Center. All of the latest documentation can be found within  updated and  searchable help files.  However, if you would like a full collection of the Word documents, download it here.

Add these great deployment blogs to your list of resources: these experts are always sharing their latest knowledge around deployment.  MS Deployment, Deployment Guys, Michael Niehaus