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For exe installers, I use Universal Silent Switch Finder To find the silent switches because exe switches can vary.

I prefer to use the Ninite Pro installer for this. It's super well documented, and has worked out great for me.

First create an offline installer: https://ninite.com/help/features/offline.html

Then do a silent install of that: https://ninite.com/help/features/switches.html

I have had good luck with copying the ISO image generated by MDT ( %DEPLOYMENT_FOLDER%\Boot ) to a bootable USB stick ( Ventoy ). If they can still access the deployment share on the network and just don't like to PXE boot, that's the way to go.

The command I have in my MDT server for deploying 7zip is

msiexec.exe /i 7z1900-x64.msi /q INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files\7-Zip"

The silent msi install example on the 7zip FAQ page has the INSTALLDIR option on it, I don't know if it is necessary or not.

I would also try using an absolute path for the working directory rather than a relative one. You may be getting an error because it can't find the msi in the working directory.

I just got a shipment of these in as well, and the cheapest usb-c to ethernet from amazon I could find at the time(link) and it worked fine. I've laid down an image already with no major issues.

Using WinPE 10 driver pack from 3/19/2020. Looking at drivers used, rtux64w10.sys is the nic driver reported by the OS. I do have rtux64w10.INF 10.33.0419.2019, rtux64w10.INF 10.2.0616.2015 in my HP WinPE Drivers. I would assume as long as you are using the latest WinPE Driver pack you should be fine, if not, its time to update.

If you need, the name of the adapter is "Realtek USB GbE Family Controller"

1. Remove any profile beside your template profile and another admin account.
2. Create a template profile, slim down as much as you can the size. AppData/Local is ignored.
3. Go on another user and run WinEnabler and copy your template user to your default user.
4. Run a script to remove as much as you can metro apps. Exemple here. I used version 2.
5. Go back to your template profile, run the same script that you just ran to remove metro apps
6. Start your capture image.

Turns out, it was due to the SSD being connected to PCI Express with this model PC. I followed the instructions from this article and everything worked normally.

Turns out, it was due to the SSD being connected to PCI Express with this model PC. I followed the instructions from this article and everything worked normally.

Turns out, it was due to the SSD being connected to PCI Express with this model PC. I followed the instructions from this article and everything worked normally.

Thanks man. I have learned a LOT since posting this. I figured out a whole bunch of juicy automation options for my TS's.

I have something you might be interested in.

https://chocolatey.org/

Fantastic package manager for windows.

There are still some things that are just easier to do manually but hey, can't have it all!

:)

On the first question, did you try to choose the completely regen the boot images option? Back up your boot images then try and see what happens. 2. The iso is the boot image you would burn into a CD or flash drive in order to boot the target computer to image it. The wim boot image is what you would give to your WDS server in order to boot the target computer from the network which is the much more convenient option as it will eliminate the need for you go around plugging and unplugging USB flash drives or CDs. 3. Once you successfully updated your deployment share, go to deployment share/boot you'll find 2 iso's one 64bit and a 32bit use rufus to essentially burn the iso into a flash drive. Let me know how it works out.

I only have one of the 'gather local only' steps in the sysprep/capture task under capture image. It's set on the first option.

https://snipboard.io/hG6gdf.jpg

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I've created a whole separate deployment share with new tasks and it does the same thing. I feel like something with the deployment workbench is screwed up.

Try changing your xcopy command to this.

cmd /c xcopy C:\*.csv %DeployRoot%\StaffDevices /qcivy

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/xcopy for information on the switches chosen.

For troubleshooting, you may want to remove the c from the list of switches, as that may mask issues you are encountering. You could also put a delay in the task sequence and then the command manually to verify what you need exactly.

You'll need to look it up program by program, everyone is different but I personally suggest making a list of tools that can go on all machines and making an image with them. A good resource is https://wpkg.org/Category:Silent_Installers

This is the way. Just copy the whole deployment share. THis also will include drivers, OS, apps, etc.. So be ready for all of that. You can clean it up a bit before you copy if you have a lot of data in there.

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When I took over MDT, I just build a whole new deployment share. Started from the ground up. I would look at what he had done a few times, but really you end up making it your own and doing things how you like. Don't bring over his problems into your deployment share, etc... There are some good books out there for this, I highly recommend deployment fundamentals line. Here is a $5 book to get you going: https://www.amazon.com/Deployment-Fundamentals-Vol-Deploying-Windows/dp/9197939080 Don't worry about it being outdated, all of this works on the newest MDT and Win10.

Hey if you want some guidance I would reccommend Johan Arwidmark's book, it will lead you step by step through all the parts of MDT in a reasonable amount of time with loads of pictures, and save you some time figuring stuff out on your own.

Hyper-V on Windows client has become a bit less useful for deployment nerds since they introduced the Default Switch and automatic checkpointing, so stick with the hypervisor you know - I would just point out that maybe not all of Virtual Box is open source (including the PXE-boot ROM?) so keep an eye on licensing issues if you're using Oracle stuff at work.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Adapter/dp/B00ECQZM1A i have one of these.

Works on anything that has a usbA port, and you can carry an A to C port so pretty much no matter what you're doing, you can boot either to PXE or USB.

No worries. What you want is two different deployment shares. One to build your golden/master/reference image and one to deploy from.

Your reference image should be built in a VM and only include Windows, Windows Updates, and essential LOB applications (Office probably). It should not include things that are frequently updated (such as flash, java, adobe reader, chrome, firefox, etc) unless you plan on updating your reference image as frequently.

Once you've built that reference image you can import it into your deployment deployment share as a custom wim. From there you will overlay your machine-specific drivers, frequently-updated software, and other odds and ends.

I can also recommend Johan Arwidmark and Mikael Nystrom's book Deployment Fundamentals Vol 4 for a few excellent techniques. If you can afford $10 for the kindle version, pick it up as it lays an excellent framework for deploying Windows 7.