Enterprise Microsoft Q&A: Hello for Buttprint

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Enterprise Microsoft Q&A: Hello for Buttprint

dox: Mar 4, 2006

kiwid posted:

Yikes, this got me on the right path but everything seems to be for Windows 7. Some of the tools have changed or no longer exist in the Windows 8.1 AIK. The Windows PE USB worked but then required a network share for the install images. I'd rather have these users just plug in a USB key, boot it and walk away for an hour. I ended up getting exactly that by doing this:

1. Export install.wim image from my deployment group on WDS
2. Extract the original Windows 8.1 install media to a folder
3. Replace the sources\install.wim with my exported file
4. Modified my answer file for WDS so it works with a DVD/USB boot then put it in the root\autounattend.xml
5. Used imgburn to create an ISO of this folder
6. Used rufas to create a bootable USB of this ISO

I tested it on multiple machines and it's working great.

Another (easier) option is just to use MDT, create a Media share and an .iso will be made for you automatically that you can load on a DVD/USB.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 01:22

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:55

dox: Mar 4, 2006

The Diddler posted:

Is it really that easy? I tried a couple of times and never got it to work. Granted, people were pestering me with other stuff every time I tried, but it still didn't seem quite that easy.

Yeah I have basically zero real Windows Admin experience (up until recently) but after spending a weekend tinkering with MDT 2013 and watching technet videos, it really is that simple. Import OS, Create task sequence, go to Media, create it and you're done. Obviously more customization is possible with an unattend and more steps in your sequence but it is fairly breezy once you figure it out. If you need any help feel free to PM me here or on IRC- I'd love to help (and learn more!)

# ¿ Mar 6, 2014 15:27

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Mindisgone posted:

Before I completely blow my top on this let me consult you crafty Goons . I recently rolled out WDS. Neatly added all my driver packages and finished my unattended.xml FOR THE CLIENT. This works PERFECTLY! My only issue now is getting the goddamn image unattended to work. For some reason it is not able to see my unattended.xml, on my image I went into properties and added my file (yes I do have separate xml's for the client and image) but I consistently get the error message saying it could not parse the file in the panther directory. Now this is a Win 7 image and as I understand it the XML on the WDS server should be all I need. I did notice every time I choose my xml WDS copies it into an unattended folder within the image folder and renames it imageunattend.xml. At this point I am at a lose I tried a hundred stupid things that aren't working.

Any suggestions will help keep me from going postal!!!

EDIT: I think I was just being to slick trying to code my own XML file. Used Windows SIM to craft the image unattend file and I should be good now (although I am waiting to see, an image is being deployed right now).

If anyone cannot create a catalog file for a .WIM image file in SIM, right click the image in WDS MMC and export the image to the desktop. After its finished exporting, create the log file from the exported image. Windows places permissions on a captured file that does not allow it to be cataloged afterwards (odd in my opinion).

Take a look at MDT. If you are internal IT you probably want to be be using this for imaging.

# ¿ May 2, 2014 05:17

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Kaninrail posted:

So I have a sort of frustrating issue that I've been unable to research a solution to, and am hoping someone might have some ideas.

One of my client sites is a k-12 school, and they're very serious about having their internet access be "safe". So they're using a default search engine called "Kidrex", which is a rebranded custom Google Search site. This gives them everything they want.

However, the problem is that the kids can still go to Google directly, and even with SafeSearch turned on, both Google Images and the auto-complete will give them what the school considers to be "inappropriate" results. If we block Google, then Kidrex stops working as it relies on Google for its search results. My thought was to simply block Google Images and then disable the autocomplete function, but for the life of me I cannot find a way to actually disable the feature. Google Instant can be blocked, but there doesn't seem to be a way to stop the autocomplete.

My boss has reached a point of wanting to outright abandon Google for their site and look into a move to Bing. Is there another alternative?

I've seen this before. Instead of coming up with a respectable solution, the school decided to create their own cert for Google and all hell broke loose.

I would recommend taking a look at OpenDNS.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2014 16:53

dox: Mar 4, 2006

FISHMANPET posted:

So what can MDT do for OS installs that SCCM can't do on its own? I've found SCCM to be generally satisfactory for installs.

The general rule of thumb is to use MDT to build your reference images and then use SCCM for deployment.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2014 23:23

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Wicaeed posted:

So after a few days of hitting my head against Windows Deployment Services, does anyone think they can explain to me the differences with the various points you can choose unattend options?

By this I mean the following:

Within WDS itself, there are various places in which you can choose an unattend file:

#1: Within the WDS server client architecture options for an unattend file
#2: Within the Install image option itself (The allow image to install in unattended mode option)
#3: And you can also choose to Sysprep and capture an image, to which you can then apply option #2 above during the image deployment

I'm having a hell of a time figuring out of any of these steps can overlap, or if you have to apply various options at each state you can specify an unattended option.

Don't bother using WDS to actually deploy Windows. Download the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to customize your Windows install and then use WDS for the MDT boot images.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2015 00:41

dox: Mar 4, 2006

FISHMANPET posted:

Last I checked, MDT has options in Litetouch deployments to install roles on servers during deployment, so I think it's just as much for servers as it is for Desktops.

This is definitely true. I spend a lot of time deploying MDT in environments and use it for both servers and desktops- although more for desktops unless there's a big server infrastructure project incoming.

You're on the right track with MSPs and Office- note that MDT has a GUI button to launch OCT to assist in customizing Office after you've imported it as an application.

If you have any MDT questions, let me know- I have a lot of (mostly vb/ps) scripts made up that assist in deploying certain applications like Office 365. The most handy is Mikael Nystrom's Cleanup Before Sysprep script that will remove all of the bloat leftover after Windows Updates to make your sysprepped image smaller before capture.

dox fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Mar 18, 2015

# ¿ Mar 18, 2015 15:35

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Potato Salad posted:

Edit: Same licensing coworker is under the strong impression that ProPlus is available only under volume licensing. What's going on in your case specifically? If it is indeed proplus, the volume license key ought to work -- unless the customer didn't keep a copy on hand.

ProPlus is Volume License, Professional is OEM for 2013.

If it's 2013, no key finder will work as far as I know. Hunt down your Microsoft rep and have them run a license report on the business, they will find it.

I could write an effort post on how I've attempted to manage Office licensing for various small sized businesses but oh god it's so awful I think I'll spare y'all the pain.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2015 00:18

dox: Mar 4, 2006

MDT 2013 Update 1 and MDOP 2015 are out.

One of the more interesting bits about MDT is that they moved from ImageX to DISM for the for imaging processes... but this also means there's no status percentage on deploying/creating an image. There are some bugs (MDAC support), but it seems pretty good so far.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2015 17:47

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Zero VGS posted:

As everyone said, AppData can gently caress up a lot of things, it was redirected at one of my previous places and it would do all sorts of crazy poo poo, such as if someone was logged into two computers at once, Firefox would refuse to open on the second computer because it was "already in use", among other anomalies.

Pro-tip, if you have Office 365, each licensed used gets 1tb of OneDrive storage. Assuming none of your individuals hard drives are larger than 1tb, what you can do is install OneDrive for Biz, reboot, go into the user profile folder, highlight "Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos" etc, except AppData, then drag them all into the OneDrive for Business folder. Now every file the user has is automatically backed up the moment is it created or rewritten, and they can look up the complete version history on the O365 portal. I have 500+ users set up this way and it's great.

Word/Excel/Powerpoint save their files to OneDrive for Biz by default, but this covers absolutely everything doc on their PC, with the sole exceptions of Outlook Signatures and Sticky Notes which Microsoft stupidly buries in App Data.

Plus, if you ever have to reimage their PC or give them a new one, just reinstall OneDrive for Biz, repeat the folder drags, and poof the Desktop is back. It's like a ghetto redirection. Sharepoint which OneDrive for Biz runs on can sometimes have weird sync issues but I'll take it to being responsible for a file server any day.

I'm truly shocked this works for you... I would never recommend doing this, or really anything with OneDrive to anyone.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2015 16:56

dox: Mar 4, 2006

skipdogg posted:

Yo Zero VGS, you're getting a little closer to having your AD in the Cloud you want

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/active-directory-ds/

He's just going to put his Active Directory in OneDrive, it'll work fine.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 22:15

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Zero VGS posted:

If you buy a single volume license of Windows 10 (costs like $80 from any VAR) you gain reimaging rights for all your PCs. Then you can image Win 10 Build 1511 to any of them, and input their Win7/8 key (or use Produkey to pull it from the BIOS if it is bound to that). That'll activate it them.

This is not compliant. You cannot image machines that shipped with 7/8/whatever and use the re-imaging rights to image them to Windows 10 Pro/Enterprise. The licensing requirement is that the machine that you are imaging has the same exact version and edition of Windows. So if you buy new machines with Windows 10 Pro OEM, you can image them with Windows 10 Pro VL. I've been down this road at least a dozen times with various clients and your rear end will be handed to you during a SAM engagement if you are not careful... you'll want to keep your proof-of-ownership of the machines that you re-image so you can prove that they came with the same OEM edition.

Also, I'm not sure where the hell you are getting $80 Windows 10 VL... sounds very sketchy as that is cheaper than an OEM copy.

e: I misread exactly what you were doing, but essentially you're just upgrading OEM machines to Windows 10 and using their OEM 7/8 key... which means you never needed the Windows 10 VL key to do "re-imaging" because you're not imaging at all, and not using that key to activate a Windows 10 VL copy of Windows. I'd still be careful if an audit comes your way.

Swink posted:

Oh you bet your rear end I'm imagining them. Incidentally, anyone have any good resources for MDT and win10?

I just need to know what's different from imaging 7.

Here are some good customizations for Windows 10 OSD-- most of everything else stays the same. Just make sure to make new Task Sequences for 10 after upgrading MDT.

Maneki Neko posted:

Is there a definitive answer from Microsoft on whether or not a DC that is also a DNS server should be using itself as the primary DNS server? I feel like this is one of those "well it was a problem in Windows 2000" things around the DNS island problem that people have held onto forever and the internet (in it's normal fashion) is just full of conflicting articles and people arguing.

The loopback address should be configured as the 2nd/3rd DNS server.

dox fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Nov 25, 2015

# ¿ Nov 25, 2015 18:59

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Zero VGS posted:

See that last line? I actually went and pointed this whole quote to the Microsoft licensing representative at Microsoft, and asked him to explain exactly what the "implications" are and his answer was "no idea". Thanks buddy.

Yeah that has been my experience-- a bit of mixed bags.

I still do think that you need the "Windows 10 Pro Upgrade license" for each machine that you upgrade.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2015 16:33

dox: Mar 4, 2006

Swink posted:

Disclaimer: I haven't used this for a number of years, nor on so many accounts(unsure if its scriptable)
https://www.forensit.com/downloads.html

I used this to migrate a few dozen accounts manually and it worked wonders. I did run into issues with IE not allowing certain passwords to be saved any longer, but that was the only issue I came across. It's fully scriptable if you purchase a license, which is fairly affordable iirc.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2016 20:47

dox: Mar 4, 2006

FISHMANPET posted:

I'm trying to build a series of MDT task sequences to build a dev version of our sccm environment. It's annoying, but I seem to be slogging through. But I'm stuck with the actual install of SCCM itself. I need it to run as the Local System account rather than local administrator, but I'm not sure how to do that. I've got the install files to be copied to the machine, but I'm not sure where to go from there. I've got an application with aworking directory of C:\ConfigMgr2012SP2 and a script that uses psexec to run setup.exe as System, but that seems to have failed. Should I just use run command line to execute my install script in C:\ConfigMgr2012SP2? Is there a way to run as system without first copying content locally? Am I thinking about this all the wrong way?

I think you'll want to take a look at Johan Ardwidmark's Hydration Kit.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2016 15:21

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:55

dox: Mar 4, 2006

skipdogg posted:

There are some issues between the Click To Run versions of O365 office software and MSI based installs of Visio/Project.

This is accurate. You cannot install the Office 365 software (Click-to-Run) alongside any of the MSI based software (source).

I have to deal with this on my work computer and am forced to use Visio in a VM. A better alternative would be a RemoteApp.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2016 18:32

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Enterprise Microsoft Q&A: Hello for Buttprint