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 own advantages, the new servicing features is using the ADR/Software Update engine, the Task Sequence one is using Task Sequence engine. The Task Sequence method allows to run additional tasks after the upgrade or install new applications. Read both our post before making your decision or use both if needed.
In this post, we will be upgrading a Windows 10 1511 to Windows 10 1607 using SCCM 1606. You can use this method to upgrade any upcoming Windows 10 release. Refer to our other blog post if you’re looking to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10 using task sequences.
Requirement for Windows 10 SCCM Task Sequence Upgrade
In an upgrade task sequence, you will need to have the full Windows 10 1607 media imported in Operating System Upgrade Packages node in SCCM :
- Open the SCCM Console
- Go to Software Library \ Operating Systems \ Operating System Upgrade Packages
- Select Add Operating System Upgrade Packages
- Select the path where you extracted the Windows 10 ISO
- In the General tab, edit Name, Version and Comment fields, click Next
- In the Summary tab, review your choices and click Next
- Your operating system upgrade package is imported and ready to use in an upgrade task sequence
Distribute Operating System Upgrade Packages
- Select your newly imported operating system upgrade packages and select Distribute Content
Send it to all your distribution points where you will be doing Windows 10 upgrade
Create Windows 10 Upgrade Task Sequence
- Open the SCCM Console
- Go to Software Library \ Operating Systems \ Task Sequences
- Right-click Task Sequence and select Create Task Sequence
- Select Upgrade an operating system from an upgrade package, click Next
- In the Task Sequence Information tab, modify the Task sequence name and description if needed, click Next
- In the Upgrade the Window Operating System tab, click Browse and select your imported package, click Ok then Next
- In the Include Updates tab, we’ll select Do not install any software updates
- In the Install Applications tab, add any applications you want to install after the upgrade, click Next
- Review your choices, click Next and close the Create Task Sequence Wizard
- If you right click your newly created task sequence and select Edit, you’ll notice that the task sequence is really simple. You can add additional steps if required
Deploy the Task Sequence
- Right click your newly created task sequence and select Deploy
- In the General tab, click Browse and select a collection that contains your Windows 10 devices to be upgraded. At this point, we recommend to select a collection containing a couple of devices to test your deployment. Click Next
- In the Deployment Settings tab, select the Purpose (Available or Required). For this post we will select Available, click Next
- In the Scheduling tab, select the desired date and time, click Next
- In the User Experience tab, select desired options and click Next
- In the Alerts tab, decide if you want to create alerts for the deployment and click Next
- In the Distribution Points tab, select desired options, click Next
- Review your settings, click Next and close the wizard
Deploy the Task Sequence on a Device
Now that our task sequence is targeted to our Windows 10 device, we need to open the Software Center to initiate the upgrade process.
Before launching, let’s look at our current Windows 10 version :
- Open a command prompt and enter ver
- We are running Windows 10 1511 (Build 10586)
- In the Start Menu, select Software Center. We are using the new Software Center, your screens may differ if you’re not.
- Browse to Operating Systems and select your task sequence
- Select Install
- Accept the warning by selecting Install Operating System (No, your data won’t be lost !)
- The installation process starts. You can monitor the progress in C:\Windows\CCM\Logs\SMSTSLog\SMSTS.log
- The computer will restart after about 5 minutes
- The whole upgrade process takes about 30 to 45 minutes and your device will be rebooted several time
- Once completed, log on the computer using your account. Windows is happy to tell you that it’s updated
- Open a command prompt and enter ver
- We are now running Windows 10 1607 (Build 14393)
Use the comment section to tell which upgrade method you are preferring.
18 Comments on “Upgrade Windows 10 using SCCM Task Sequence”
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Is there anyway to do a OS version test on this method before it runs the actual upgrade?
My TS runs the update and a few SW updates but it will run on any machine even on a machine that already has the OS version on matching the OS version I’m updating to. So my TS is updating to 1803. If I run on a machine that has 1803 on it still runs the update creating a Windows.old folder at the end.
I’m guessing a WIM query is needed at the update part of the TS?
You should deploy the task sequence to a device collection with WMI query on OS build that you want to upgrade.
For example for build 1511:
select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System where SMS_R_System.Build = “10.0.10586”
As someone new to SCCM I am missing where you get the ISO for the upgrade task sequence. I am in the same boat as scott as my .wim/.iso files that i captured are not been seen by SCCM. though informative, your step by step is missing a key to understanding what needs to be done to create the upgrade package.
Hi
i try to upgrade but i use a custom wim files. i read some post that it’s not possible, is it the case?
When I try to import the 1803 media as an OS upgrade package, I point to the directory with the files extracted from the ISO and keep getting the following error message: The specified path does not contain a valid operating system or you do not have permission to access it. Specify a valid path.”
The permissions on the folder match the permissions on folders of other upgrade packages and those packages import fine. I’ve updated to the latest version of the Windows ADK but no joy there either.
Any tips?
Hi Scott,
Can I ask where you got the ISO from?
Is there a install.wim or a install.esd in the sources folder?
If there is a install.esd in the sources folder you will have to convert that to a WIM
If there is a install.wim in the sources folder, check you can add to the operating system images.
I am also experiencing the same issue. The install file in \Sources is Install.esd. There does not appear to be an Install.wim in the 1803 edition. This is was downloaded from Microsoft VLSC and extracted from the ISO.
On a lark I extracted the Windows 10 Pro image from the ESD using the following command:
dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:install.esd /SourceIndex:6 /DestinationImageFile:install.wim /Compress:max /CheckIntegrity
I then copied the new Install.wim file to the \Sources directory
After that I was able to successfully import the OS Upgrade Package into SCCM
Microsoft really needs to get their differing departments on the same sheet of music. If they are switching to ESD from WIM format, then their deployment tools should really be able to speak ESD natively.
This is a great step by step but of my 3 sccm servers on 3 networks, only one will deploy the update. what should for to find out why they will not deploy?
And I notice that after it rolls back to previous LTSB that the clients are broken. Cannot run any tasks from local configuration manager and Software Center also fails.
My upgrade TS from LTSB to Enterprise 1703 keeps rolling back to previous version. No error codes. The _SMSTaskSequence Log say it upgraded but it stays at LTSB. Software Center shows that it failed but the only error code is 0x5(5).
And I notice that after it rolls back to previous LTSB that the clients are broken. Cannot run any tasks from local configuration manager and Software Center also fails.
Hi, great step by step, like allways.
What I am missing in all read online documentations until now are following things.
I hope that you can help on it.
– How to upgrade Multilanguage Clients
– How to update BIOS and Computer drivers. This would be very wisely since old bios & drivers might not work with new build, see Surface Pro Updates for Build 1703 for Example.
– Upgrade deletes previous custom settings. How can we keep old custom settings?
Best Regards
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Hi, great step by step. What happen’s when we have multilanguage clients?
Hello, amazing guide, thank you !
I have a question, I’m using SCCM 1606 with Windows 10 ADK version 10.0.26624 (RTM) and I’m not 100 % sure if I also have to upgrade to ADK version 1607 in order to upgrade my Windows 10 1507 workstations to the latest Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Edition) ?
I know about this link: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/enterprisemobility/2016/09/09/configuration-manager-and-the-windows-adk-for-windows-10-version-1607/
Regards.