Venkat's Blog

Install Windows 8 as VHD using Windows 7 boot from VHD feature

2013-04-15T17:31:49Z

Many users want to try Windows 8 but they also don’t want to give up their existing Windows 7 yet. Here is a step by step guide to install Windows 8 on a VHD (Virtual hard Drive) running off of your Windows 7 operating system. This will enable you to dual boot the machine with your existing operating system.

Preparing virtual hard drive for operating system installation

From your Windows 7 machine, click on Start Menu –> Computer –> Manage. This will now open the computer manager.

From Computer Manager, navigate to Disk management , right click on the disk management –> Create VHD

Before Proceeding further, Make sure you have enough hard drive space to install another operating system and the drive is not encrypted using bitlocker.

You can specific the location to store the VHD. Example C:\VHD\ENUW8EEX86.VHD, You can choose between Dynamic Expanding disk or fixed Size disk. If you are just exploring options of Windows 8, then you can use Dynamic expanding disk so that it would not consume your local hard drive space. it expands based on the need. If you are going to try some performance related work, then you can choose fixed type. This could consume portion of your local hard drive space immediately after creation.

After the above step, you would now see the disk manager show the VHD as second hard rive for you as Not Initialized disk.

First, you need to initialize the disk. To do this, just right click on the disk and click on Initialize , Select Disk and leave the other selection default (MBR is the format) and click OK.

Now you will notice that the disk is Online. Select the disk and right click on it, then select “New Simple Volume”

The wizard appears to assist with formatting the newly created disk. Click Next

Leave the default selection and click next on volume size

On the format screen, you can check “Perform a quick format” and click next

Leave the default selection for drive letter and click next

Click Finish

Your disk preparation is completed.

Make sure you back up your data before proceeding to next step (Recommended)

Shutdown the machine and reboot to the Windows 8 media now.

You can download a 90-days Evaluation copy of Windows 8 from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx

Installing Windows 8

After booting to Window 8 DVD, click next

Before you click on “Install Now” , Hit Shift + F10 key from your keyboard to open a command prompt

At the command prompt, type Diskpart to show the disks attached. You may notice that the second disk is not visible here. Don’t worry about that.

Type, list vol to make sure the volume letter.

Type Select vdisk file=C:\VHD\ENUW8EEX86.vhd This the file location path to the VHD file that was created and formatted from earlier step.

After selecting the virtual disk, type list vidsk , you would see the disk state in Added

Now, type attach vdisk from the diskpart prompt to enable the virtual disk.

Type, list vol to make sure the volume appears and status “Healthy”

Type Exit twice to come out of the command prompt

Now, click on Install now

Accept the license agreement.

Select Custom Install Windows only

On the next screen, you would notice the second disk appear for installation.

Make sure you select the right disk that was attached ( In this case, it’s Drive 1), Click next to begin the installation.

Note : You may see a warning that Windows can’t be installed on this drive. This is because you are installing the operating system on a virtual disk. You can ignore this warning.

Allow the installation to complete

After the machine POST the BIOS, you would now notice your boot option changed and you can now see both Windows 8 and Windows 7. Leave it to default, that will boot to Windows 8 automatically and complete the installation.

Successful Window 8 Installation !!

From Windows 8, you can access all the disk resources from your Windows 7 operating system.

Rolling back to Windows 7

Reboot the machine and select Windows 7 from dual boot menu.

Once you logged on to Windows, click on Start –> Run

Type, msconfig and hit enter

From the system configuration dialog, select the Boot tab

Highlight Windows 8 and click on Delete button

Now , the boot option would show current OS and Default OS as your Windows 7

Rebooting the system and you will no longer see the Windows 8 option. Once you login to Windows 7, you may also notice the VHD will also be removed from your disk management snap-in as well. You can find the VHD intact at C:\VHD\ENUW8EEX86.vhd where it was created originally.

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use

MDT 2012 : Enabling GPOPack for Windows 8

2013-01-22T23:41:32Z

New Feature in MDT2012 allow you to deploy a Group Policy Object (GPO) Pack. Now that SCM 3.0 Beta now available to support Windows 8. (More info here and here ) You need to tweak the script to enable the support for deployment of GPO for Windows 8

Step 1:

Build your local local GPO based on SCM 3.0. You can find additional resource about SCM at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/cc835245

Step 2:

Export the Baseline you built or the default one using GPO Backup (Folder) option from Export Menu on the right hand corner

Step 3:

Navigate to the following directory in your MDT folder <Distribution Share>\Templates\GPOPacks\Win7SP1-MDTGPOPack

Copy the following files ( GPOPack.wsf, Localpol.exe , LocalSecurityDB.sdb ) and paste it to the exported Windows 8 GPO Folder ( Make sure you name the folder as Win8RTM-MDTGPOPack )

Step 4:

Use any script editor and open GPOPack.wsf from Windows 8 GPO folder and look for the section where it validates the Windows 8 and edit the file as per the below instruction and save it.

Modify the lines to the following

    If(Left(strOpVer,3) = "6.2") and (strProductType = "1") then
   strOS = "Win8"
    Elseif(Left(strOpVer,3) = "6.1") and (strProductType <> "1") then
   strOS = "WS08R2"

Step 5:

Now you are ready with your default base line package. Copy this back to the Template folder in your workbench

Step 6:

Update GPOPackPath variable in the customsettings.ini file to point to this new GPO Pack

GPOPackPath = Win8RTM-MDTGPOPack

If you do not want to apply any GPO Packs then task sequence step can be skipped by setting the variable ApplyGPOPack to NO in customsettings.ini.

Step 7:

Open the MDT Task sequence , Make sure you have the step exist to launch the ZTIApplyGPOPack.wsf called. ( This is part of default client task sequence) or you can manually add a “Run Command Line” Step after Restore Groups

There is no need to edit ZTIApplyGPOPack.wsf since the entry for Windows 8 is already present

Creating additional controls for MDT Application

2012-04-13T16:11:00Z

Creating controls for your application deployment is fairly simple.

Step 1:

Create a simple HTML controls with the variable names you would like to use and the values

Step 2:

Remove the character returns , spaces and form this in a single line format

Step 3:

Create a script to drive the installation based on the options entered from the wizard variable.

Initialize the variable in your script

Now, use oEnvironment.Item(“VariableName”) to leverage your newly created wizard variable. ( you can use MDT help “Create new Scripts from a Template”)

Create the application with the above created script to drive the installation

Paste the line from Step 2 to the “Display Name :” section of the application property

Step 4:

Launch the wizard and you will see the controls . When the wizard is processed, all these control names are translated in to MDT Variables ( No Additional coding required ). MDT have the capability to do this and these variables are available until the end of the deployment like any other wizard variables.

Re-installing WDS in Windows 2003 for Mixed Mode

2011-09-12T16:35:00Z

1. Run the following command from a CMD prompt and save the results for later reference:

WDSUTIL /get-server /show:config

2. Stop the WDS Service. To do this, run the following command from a CMD prompt:

net stop wdsserver

3. Rename the “Remote Install” folder (R:\RemoteInstall). You will received a message that the share will be lost. That is OK.

4. Go to Add or Remove Programs control panel and click Add/Remove Windows Components and click Windows Deployment Services to clear and uninstall the WDS component.

5. Go to Add or Remove Programs control panel and click Add/Remove Windows Components and click Windows Deployment Services to select and install the WDS component.

WARNING: Make sure that you are installing Windows files from a Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) media source. This is very important for WDS and RIS to function properly.

6. Restart Windows (if prompted).

WARNING: Do not launch and configure WDS using the "Windows Deployment Services" MMC. If you do, WDS will be in Native mode and you will not be able to access your legacy images.

7. Launch RISetup ("Windows Deployment Services Legacy") and click Next and specify your original remote install path and click Next and import a legacy OS. You will need to use any Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 media. This must be done to allow us to get back into WDS Mixed mode and we can delete this added image later.

8. Run the following command from a CMD prompt to change the mode of WDS to Mixed Mode:

WDSUTIL /Initialize-Server /REMINST:"R:\RemoteInstall"

Considering R:\ is your resource directory

9. Now, stop the WDS service:

net stop wdsserver

10. Rename the R:\RemoteInstall\OSChooser folder and the R:\RemoteInstall\Setup folder and copy back from your backup (which is the folder renamed from step 3).

11. Start the WDS service:

net start wdsserver

You should have all the images back.

12. Now you can open the WDS MMC and add your Windows PE images as a boot images and configure other settings which you noted from step 1.

Registering Environment Variables in MDT - Script

2011-07-05T23:01:00Z

It’s possible to write a task sequence variable but not the Windows Environment Variables. But you can write a simple wsf file and use the in-built registry write function.

oShell.RegWrite "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\MDTPath", oEnvironment.Item("DeployRoot"), "REG_SZ"

oLogging.CreateEntry "Registry Value Successful.", LogTypeInfo

</script>

</job>

Save the file Z_Filename.wsf to scripts folder

From the task sequence, just create a step run command cscript.exe "%SCRIPTROOT%\Z_Filename.wsf"

Above script creates an system variable called MDTPath and set the value to the oEnvironment.Item("DeployRoot") which would be \\servername\sharename$ in this case.

Broadcom Net Extreme II Driver deployment in MDT 2010

2009-11-02T15:47:23Z

1. Configure your task sequence to copy the driver to local HDD.

Technorati Tags: Broadcom in MDT2010,Broadcom NetExtreme II

xcopy Source destination /E /Q

Command Line : Xcopy %DEPLOYROOT%\$OEM$\All %DESTINATIONLOGICALDRIVE%\MININT\ /E /Q

2. Configure FirstLogonCommand in Unattended.xml ( in 2008 ) or GUIRunOnce in Unattended.txt in 2003 to run the setup package. In our case, I use a Script to do the install , but You can directly call the Broadcom setup ( e.g. path\Setup.exe” /s /v/qn) – Please refer Broadcom setup unattended reference for more info.

Identify Unknown Device

2009-10-05T21:17:00Z

The way to identify the right driver is fairly simple.

1. First Identify the right PNP_ID (DEV_ID) of the device.

If you are already inside Windows, then go to device manager-->properties--> Details -->Under Property select "Hardware Ids" and Make a note of VEN_XXXX and DEV_XXXX

2. With the identified VEN and DEV ID's locate the right chipset ( I normally prefer http://catalog.update.microsoft.com or www.pcidatabase.com to look up for the right chipset and driver)

3. Once the chipset is identified using VEN and the DEV ID's . You can visit the vendor site and download the driver for that chipset and also, you can open the driver inf file and search for the same DEV_XX which you grabbed to make sure it has the ID matching. Also, you can verify the driver has the right architecture by looking at the [Manufacturer] section from the driver inf file.

4. Import the driver to MDT and rebuild the WIM.

5. If you say, the machine has nothing installed and you need to identify what it has, then booted using MDT 3.0 PE. VEN_ and DEV ID's info are available from registry

" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\PCI"

The above process may sound really complex, but it actually take less than a minute identify the unknown device once you try it.

Technorati Tags: Unknown device,Identify driver

Configure Microsoft Synthetic drivers in MDT 2008

2009-06-03T22:47:00Z

Configure Microsoft Synthetic drivers in MDT 2008

Extract the drivers from VMGuest.ISO.

Add the extracted drivers using the Driver Wizard Page and create a driver group called Hyper-V.

Once it’s imported, check the proper architecture for the driver.

Now Go to Deployment point, Select your Network deploy point right click Properties –> Driver Group

Uncheck the driver group you created “Hyper-V”.

Select “Windows PE Tab” on the deploy point. Make sure you enable “All Drivers” under Drivers group.

Add the extracted driver bundle from VMGUEST.ISO as an application.

Complete the following steps in your Task sequence by creating a branch under “System Restore”. Replicate the same for x86. Basically, this will detect if the OS you are installing is a VM or a Hardware box , If it see it as a Hyper-V VM , then It will enter to this branch and execute the IC for you.

Working with Legacy NIC on Hyper-V with MDT

2009-05-12T15:48:00Z

Deploying Server 2003 with MDT 2008 on Hyper-V server.

Issue : You will find machine boot fine with PE 2.0 and connect to the deploy share but after deploying the 2003 OS. At the first boot you will find the machine does not connect back to the deployshare.

Resolve : Windows 2003 does not hold the driver for Hyper-V Legacy NIC in Windows. So you need to extract from one of the below source and add it.

Virtual Machine detects the Emulated NIC as : Intel 21140-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter (Emulated). This driver is part of Windows 2008/Vista already or a Windows PE 2.0 stored under %systemroot%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\dc21x4vm.inf_7d8c6569

Extract this driver from one of the above source and then add it to MDT Out-of-Box driver section and then update your network deploy point.

Find driver supported architecture before importing to MDT2010

2009-04-29T19:47:00Z

(Refer my new posting for Broadcom NX2 deployment via MDT2010 Broadcom Net Extreme II Driver deployment in MDT 2010)

Important Note : MDT 2010 Update 1 Release would automatically detect the right architecture. Below article applicable only for MDT 2010 RTM

For example if you are downloading driver file http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtremeii.php. Make sure you get the right architecture and extract the drivers (In general it contains only these two following files b06nd51a.sys and b06nd.inf)

Open the extracted b06nd.inf file and you can see the section show like below.

*************

[Manufacturer]

%brcm% = broadcom, ntx86, ntamd64, ntia64

; x86 WS3 or XP installation.

[broadcom.ntx86]

; x86-64 WS3 or XP installation.

[broadcom.ntamd64]

%bcm5706c_desc% = bcm5706c_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_164a

%bcm5706s_desc% = bcm5706s_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_16aa

%bcm5708c_desc% = bcm5708c_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_164c

%bcm5708s_desc% = bcm5708s_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_16ac

%bcm5709c_desc% = bcm5709c_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_1639

%bcm5709s_desc% = bcm5709s_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_163a

%bcm5716c_desc% = bcm5716c_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_163b

%bcm5716s_desc% = bcm5716s_amd64ws3, PCI\VEN_14e4&DEV_163c

****************

You can see section for [broadcom.ntx86] is empty and [broadcom.ntamd64] is filled with the PCI Id’s supported. [Manufacturer] section shows all ntx86, ntamd64, ntia64 ntx86 but It’s actually supporting only ntamd64 ( which is x64). So this driver is only for AMD64 only. After you import the driver in MDT make sure you uncheck x86 architecture to make sure this driver is only available for x64 only.