ConfigMgr 2012

Reporting about all the different OS Deployment Versions with ConfigMgr 2012

by

One of the biggest challenges with OS Deployment is keeping track of all the different deployments and everything that changed between the deployments. This post will focus on the first part, keeping track of all the different deployments. I will do that by showing a way to write information to the registry, creating a hardware inventory for those registry keys and building a report on the inventory data. For the second part, keeping track of all the changes, take a look at this great post of Maik Koster. Create registry keys The first thing is to create a script that will write information about the deployment to the registry. As a deployment is much more then just the image, we need information about the task …

Read more

Migrating to Windows 8 by using hard-links with ConfigMgr 2012

by

After the release of Windows 8 last week we can already start thinking about migrating. When I’m thinking about migrations I always like the computer-refresh scenario’s where we can use hard-links. In this post I will show a basic task sequence to capture user files and settings, either offline or online, with help of hard-links. I already showed the basics of that in an earlier post last year when ConfigMgr 2012 was still in Beta. Since then the Wizard screens have not changed so I will not show that again, but  I will show some more information about what happens. Prerequisites To support migrating to Windows 8 we need ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 (which is currently still CTP) in place with at least the following packages: …

Read more

Add HTA-Support to a Boot Image with ConfigMgr 2012

by

With ConfigMgr 2012 lot’s of things got simplified. One of those things is adding extra components to the Boot Images. Before it was possible to add these extra components by either using the MDT integration, or manually running DISM. Now it’s possible to do this from the console! Of course, in the background it’s still DISM that does the action. In this post I will show an example of how to add HTA-Support to a Boot Image with ConfigMgr 2012. Of course the same steps apply to adding any of the optional components to a Boot Image. In the ConfigMgr Console browse to Software Library > Overview > Operating System > Boot Images, right-click a Boot Image and click Properties. In the Properties, select the …

Read more

Deploy App-V version of Office 2013 with ConfigMgr 2012

by

One of the new features coming with the Service Pack 1 release of ConfigMgr 2012 is the support for App-V 5. So what is a better way to try this feature then deploying the just released Microsoft Office 2013 Preview AppV packages in combination with the just released App-V 5.0 Beta 2 Desktop Client. But then the big question is, how can we deploy this? Well, I thought it was pretty straight forward, but there where a few caveats that everyone should know and pay attention to. Challenge 1: App-V Package Name The first thing I ran into was that I couldn’t import the Microsoft Office 2013 Preview App-V package in ConfigMgr. It appeared that the default configured Package Name was to long for a …

Read more

Deploying Windows Server 2012 including Roles and Features with ConfigMgr 2012

by

This week, for me, was all about deploying Windows Server 2012 (which is currently still in RC), with ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 (which is currently still in CTP) and MDT 2012 Update 1 (which is currently still in BETA). So it was one big test case, but it showed a lot of possibilities for the coming releases. For those who follow me on twitter this post will contain a lot more information about the short tweets that I already did the last week. For instance, the need for running your own Build-and-Capture Task Sequence got a lot smaller with Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 8), because the default install.wim will install on the C-drive ánd ConfigMgr 2012 brings Offline Servicing. So when you’re used to deploy …

Read more

How to silent install the ConfigMgr 2012 Admin Console

by

As we all know, a lot of things are made a lot easier with ConfigMgr 2012. One of these things is installing the ConfigMgr 2012 Admin Console. We don’t need to make ini-files anymore and we don’t need the complete installation source anymore. Instead ConfigMgr 2012 delivers a separate installer for installing the console only. In this post I will shortly explain, in two steps, how easy this can be done. Step 1. Locate the installation files The first thing we need to do, is to locate the installation files. When we are looking around, we will see that there are two different locations were the installation files can be found: <ConfigMgrSiteServerInstallPath>\tools\ConsoleSetup <ConfigMgrInstallMedia>\SMSSETUP\BIN\I386 Of these two locations the first one is the best option (and …

Read more

All ConfigMgr 2012 related releases combined

by

What a week it was! As we all expected the last week was one full of cool announcements and releases. In this post I will give an overview of all the ConfigMgr 2012 related releases of last week. System Center 2012 empowers you with a common management toolset for your private and public cloud applications and services. System Center helps you confidently deliver IT as a Service for your business. System Center 2012 is available in English. Download System Center 2012: http://bit.ly/Jzfak9 System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Component Add-ons and Extensions Package Conversion Manager (PCM). The Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Package Conversion Manager allows for converting packages and programs into applications and deployment types in System Center Configuration Manager 2012. There is a …

Read more

Overlapping Boundaries and ConfigMgr 2012

by

In ConfigMgr 2007 everybody’s first reaction about overlapping boundaries was “don’t do it!”, but is that the same in ConfigMgr 2012? Well, the answer on that differs per situation. In this post I will describe the three different situations/ scenario’s about overlapping boundaries and ConfigMgr 2012. Scenario 1 – Overlapping boundaries for automatic site assignment: NOT supported! The site to which the client will assign is still unpredictable when there are multiple boundary groups that includes the current network location of the client (and of course, the boundary groups are assigned to different sites). Scenario 2 – Overlapping boundaries for content locations: Supported! It will enable the client to get a list of all the content locations that are connected with a boundary group that …

Read more

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager RC2 is available!

by

For those who didn’t read it on Twitter, Facebook or mail yet, ConfigMgr 2012 RC2 is available for download! Last night I received the following mail: Dear : Thank you for downloading one or more System Center 2012 pre-release components. System Center 2012 Release Candidate is now available as part of the Microsoft private cloud evaluation: » Download Microsoft private cloud evaluation software Enjoy! Your TechNet Team By starting the download I was pleasantly surprised to see that a part of this download is ConfigMgr 2012 RC2 (see picture).

System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection point in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager (RC)

by

Last week there was finally another update on ConfigMgr 2012. Besides some small changes, they also slightly changed the name of the products in the System Center –family. It all (including Endpoint Protection) now starts with System Center 2012! This post will be about the new Endpoint Protection point in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. During the beta’s it was already clear that Microsoft was going to change something about the integration of ConfigMgr 2012 and FEP 2012, and they did! They removed the Endpoint Protection from the Forefront –family and fully integrated it with ConfigMgr 2012! I also mentioned before that I’m not really the “step-by-step guide maker”, but in some cases there are exceptions and this is another one of these cases. In …

Read more