When deploying Windows 10 operating system using SCCM (OSD), you will need to monitor SCCM task sequence progress. This allows us to track task sequence start, end time and most importantly errors (if any). Our post will show 4 different ways to monitor SCCM task sequences. Each of them has its own benefits and drawbacks. Monitor SCCM Task Sequence Using the Console You can view the progress of a task sequence using the SCCM console. This method is simple and easy but permit to see the status of only one machine at the time. If your deployment staff don’t have access to the console or view deployment status, this option is not for you. Open the SCCM Console Go to Monitoring / Deployments Search and right-click the deployment linked to your Windows 10 task sequence On the menu, select View Status In the Deployment Status screen, select the In Progress tab for a running … Read More
How to update HP BIOS using latest HPFirmwareUpdRec with SCCM
At a client site, they received newest HP models to be tested. Downloading drivers and BIOS updates were the usual. Looking at details about the BIOS update, we noticed that the HPBIOSUPDREC.exe that was used was no longer available. HP released a new version called HPFirmwareUpdRec to replace it. Even if the help stated the command line to be the same, it turned out it didn’t work at all. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem HP documented the new tool and how to use it. we were able to figure it out by digging into HP forums… In this post, we will show hot to update HP BIOS using the latest HPFirmwareUpdRec tool within a task sequence. Prerequisites When downloading the bits from HP, looking at the BIOS files you need to see HPFirmwareUpdRec.exe. If the file is not there, the update should be done using the old tool HPBIOSUPDREC.exe like before. Update … Read More
How to Configure SCCM Delivery Optimization Task Sequence
Windows 10 brings a new feature to optimize network performance when it comes to Windows Update. This feature is called Delivery Optimization. Delivery Optimization is a cloud-based service that allows computers on the same network to share updates files to prevent reaching out to Windows Update directly or to a remote WSUS. Windows 10 clients must have access to the internet to be able to leverage Delivery Optimization to establish a peer-to-peer connection to another Windows 10 computer. This blog post will describe how to configure SCCM Delivery Optimization Task sequence. With that said, Delivery Optimization as the potential of doing the opposite of what it was designed for. By default, the Download mode is configured in LAN Mode. This means that every computer going on the internet through a single IP address like many businesses do will be considered in the same LAN network. This means a remote office could be considered local, then … Read More
How to add Latest Windows 7 Convenience Update in a SCCM Image
For this post, we will be talking about how to do a SCCM Windows 7 convenience rollup image creation. A lot of companies still use Windows 7 and have not yet migrated to Windows 10. So, in the spirit of still having Windows 7, I thought I would write up a post to help fellow administrators. You may have seen that a few weeks ago, Microsoft released a new convenience rollup for Windows 7 SP1. This convenience rollup is meant to make our lives easier when deploying fresh instances of Windows 7. As stated on the Technet article, it contains all the security and non-security fixes released since Service Pack 1, up to April 2016. Officially, the convenience update is released to help us administrators catch up our deployments of Windows 7 faster, have us have a Windows 7 release that’s consistent with the latest code levels, support benefits and so … Read More
Configure High-Impact Task Sequence Settings in SCCM 1702
Starting with SCCM 1702, new options are available in Task Sequences. It’s now possible to give more information about Task Sequence in Software Center (restart required, the download size of the task sequence, and the estimated run time), create a custom notification for high-risk deployments and configure any task sequence as a high-risk deployment. The new options can be found in the properties of any Task Sequence. We will configure those options and shows how it affect the end user. SCCM High-Impact Task Sequence Settings It’s possible to configure any task sequence (including non-operating system task sequences) as a high-risk deployment. This will allows the user to receive a notification before the task sequence runs which can be customized by the SCCM administrator. Go to Software Library / Operating Systems / Task Sequences Right-Click your task sequence, select Properties On the User Notification tab, you can select to use default text or a custom text Let’s … Read More
BIOS UEFI Conversion using SCCM Task Sequence
With the release of SCCM Current branch 1610, one of the interesting new feature is the ability to do a BIOS to UEFI conversion in a task sequence. This would also allow to use Secure Boot with Windows 10 for strengthen security. In this blog, we’ll explain how to convert BIOS to UEFI with a task sequence on HP computers. This solution can also be applied for Dell and Lenovo computers. SCCM BIOS UEFI Conversion Prerequisites Before starting, you need 3 things : SCCM Current Branch 1610 or higher [su_box title=”Note” style=”glass” title_color=”#F0F0F0″]If you are not yet on 1610, you can achieve BIOS to UEFI following this procedure from Johan Schrewelius and Jörgen Nilsson.[/su_box] The computer manufacturer must provide a tool for BIOS configuration HP Lenovo Dell Package for Bios Configuration Utility and configuration file must be created (procedure included in this post) Create BIOS and UEFI Configuration File First, we need to create a configuration … Read More
Upgrade Windows 10 using SCCM Servicing Plans
With the introduction of new Windows 10 service branches, you will need to upgrade your Windows 10 devices at a much faster pace. Hopefully, SCCM Current Branch (1511 and higher) has built-in features to help you fulfill this task. You can choose between Upgrade Task Sequence or the new Windows Servicing feature. This post will describe how to use SCCM Windows 10 servicing plans to upgrade Windows 10 devices. If you are running SCCM 1511 we recommend using the Upgrade Task Sequence over servicing plans. SCCM 1511 has an issue that makes all Windows 10 languages and editions to be downloaded to the device when the ADR runs. This is fixed in SCCM 1602, using a new filter you can exclude unwanted languages and editions. If you are running SCCM 1602 or later, it’s really a matter of preference of which process to use. Each one has their own advantages, the … Read More
Upgrade Windows 10 using SCCM Task Sequence
With the introduction of new Windows 10 service branches, you will need to upgrade your Windows 10 devices at a much faster pace. Hopefully, SCCM Current Branch (1511 and higher) has built-in features to help you fulfill this task. You can choose between Upgrade Task Sequence or the new Windows Servicing feature. This post will describe how to upgrade Windows 10 using SCCM Upgrade Task Sequence. If you are running SCCM 1511 we recommend to use the Upgrade Task Sequence over the new servicing features. There is an issue in SCCM 1511 that make all Windows 10 languages and editions to be downloaded to the device when the ADR runs. This is fixed in SCCM 1602, using a new filter you can exclude unwanted languages and editions. If you are running SCCM 1602 or later, it’s really a matter of preference of which process to use. Each one has their … Read More
Refreshing a Windows 7 Computer to Windows 10 using USMT and SCCM
Since SCCM 1511, you can use the new upgrade task sequence to easily upgrade a Windows 7 computer to Windows 10. But what if you want to upgrade a computer from a 32-bits operating system to Windows 10 64-bits ? You can’t use the upgrade task sequence for this specific scenario. Another reason would be that your company decided to use the wipe and reload option in your Windows 10 migration project. In those cases you will need to use USMT to capture data and settings from the users profiles before applying the new operating system. This post will describe how to upgrade a 32-bits computer to Windows 10 64-bits using USMT and SCCM. This post will be using hard-links without using a State Migration Point. Continue reading if you are not familiar with those terms, we will explain it later. Since you’re at the step of deploying Windows 10, we assume that you already … Read More
SCCM Windows 10 Customization using Task Sequences
In this post we will describe how to customize your windows 10 image to personalize it to your company. There’s an infinite amount of customization that can be made but i’ll try to cover the more frequent one, those that are asked 95% of every Windows 10 projects I was involved in. You could also do all those modifications through group policies if you want to enforce those settings. SCCM Windows 10 Customization Package Before we begin any customization, we will create a Windows 10 Customization package that we will use in our task sequence. It will be empty to start but we will create the folders and scripts during this blog post. Open the SCCM Console Go to Software Library / Application Management / Packages Create a new package On the Package tab, enter a Name, Description, Manufacturer and Source folder (this is where all scripts will be stored) On the Program Type … Read More