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SmartDeploySupport

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Everything posted by SmartDeploySupport

  1. Yes, you can do this via a SmartDeploy answer file. You will want to perform the following: Run the Media Wizard Proceed to the Optional Components page Click Create and complete the Answer File wizard which will map the directories and choose the settings of your deployment. After you complete it you will see your unattended answer file in the Custom answer file field. Complete the Media Wizard When you boot to your new boot media your unattended (Or attended depending on what you chose), will take affect with your desired network shares already mapped and setting set. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  2. Hello, Is it possible to send us a screenshot of what you're seeing? Send to support@smartdeploy.com and refer to this thread. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  3. No, it will not work with Windows 7. You will need a Windows 10 platform pack. If you're a customer, you can submit a platform pack request here: https://www.smartdeploy.com/support/platform-pack-request/ Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  4. Hi Arnaud, The Windows Imaging (WIM) file format uses a technology known as "single-instance storage", which means that only a single copy of any binary-identical files in the image is stored. This allows for space-savings for the captured WIM as compared to the disk that it was captured from. With this in mind, there's no way to know for sure why there's such a difference between the two environments, but it's likely that there is greater file variation on the 32-bit image than the 64-bit one. It's also possible that there are more concrete differences between the two - more installed updates, software, etc. If you have any followup questions, feel free to reach out to us at support (at) smartdeploy.com, and be sure to reference this thread. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
  5. Hello, Yes, you can place an image in a network share and then browse to it once you boot to our boot media and deploy. We also support creating answer files for an unattended deployment. You can create an answer via the Optional Components page in the Media Wizard. When you boot to your boot media select Deploy an Image -> Advanced -> Identification for the naming options you would like. You can also join a domain via the Deploy Wizard as well. There are no benefits using SCCM per say, we just integrate with it and WDS. You can find both those white papers here if interested: https://www.smartdeploy.com/support/ Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  6. Hello, What OS version of the pack did you use to create your boot media? Send your C:\SmartDeploy\Logs\Media.log to support@smartdeploy.com and reference this thread and we'll investigate what may be going on. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  7. Hi Wittk16, Hmmm... I checked our support inbox from last week, and we don't seem to have any email from you. Please feel free to shoot us a followup at support (at) smartdeploy.com. As an initial measure, I would suggest these steps: 1. Re-download the Platform Pack for this device. I'm not sure why the pack you have is showing as 450MB, but the pack that is available on the website is only 123MB. So something may have been modified in this pack. 2. Wipe and reformat your USB drive by performing the steps below: Open an Administrator command prompt, and entering the following commands: diskpart list disk [determine which disk is your external, probably disk 1] select disk 1 [use the correct disk number here] detail disk [read the disk info; ensure you have your external disk selected] clean [this destroys all data and partition/volume info] create partition primary active format quick fs=ntfs [Media Wizard can convert this to FAT32 later] assign exit 3. Once you have wiped your USB drive, re-run Media Wizard to recreate your media. If you still have issues, shoot us an email at support (at) smartdeploy.com, and make sure to reference the URL for this DeployCentral thread. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
  8. Hello, In order to pull the Dell Service tag for naming the computers please perform the following: · Boot to your boot environment (SmartPE) · Click “Deploy an image” · Click “Advanced” · Click “Identification” Tab · Click “User the following naming method” · Select “Read from WMI property” · Delete the whole default SMBIOSAssetTag string and add the following instead: SELECT SerialNumber FROM Win32_SystemEnclosure Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  9. Good question. All that you need to do in order to have your batch file run at the specific time in the deployment that you want to is to edit your custom answer file for the deployment. In the answer file creation wizard click the advanced button, then on the top set of tabs, all the way to the right, is a tab labeled tasks. Click on the tasks tab and in the drop down menu you will find the different phases that you can choose to have your batch file run. If you have any further questions feel free to email us at Support@Smartdeploy.com and we will do our best to help you out!
  10. Hi Dita, That's an odd one - we have seen (both in our testing and from user reports) that the Windows 10 Start Menu and Cortana take a few minutes to start working properly - that is to say, the Start Menu should launch normally, but searching for anything will take a while while Windows is indexing and optimizing for the first time. It's safe to say at this point that this is expected behavior. However, what you're describing - the Start Menu being completely unresponsive until a reboot, is new. Is this occurring on every device that you try this on? You may want to try powering on your VM and rebooting it, making sure there are no pending update installations, then gracefully shutting down. If you're using a VMWare product, you'll want to be sure and shut down using the command shutdown /s /t 0 in a command prompt. Then recapture the image, and retry deployment. Whatever's causing the issue, if a simple reboot fixes it on the deployed devices, it should hopefully resolve it on the reference VM as well. If this doesn't resolve the issue, go ahead and email us at support (at) smartdeploy.com, making sure to reference this thread, and we can help troubleshoot further. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
  11. Hello, Be sure your boot media is running 2.0.1050. You can verify the SmartDeploy version in the bottom right corner when you boot to the boot media. Also, be sure you shutdown your Windows 10 virtual reference machine with the following command via the CMD Prompt: shutdown.exe /s /t 0 Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  12. Kenneth, You can have multiple OS images in your ImageGroup. As long as the platform packs in that location support all operating systems, you will be fine. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  13. Hello, A differencing WIM is created during capture, and it creates a smaller file that has a parent-child relationship with whichever original WIM file that you specify at capture time. Our intended purpose for the differencing WIM was to allow customers to distribute a smaller file – perhaps to a branch office with limited internet connectivity – so that they wouldn’t need to distribute a huge, multi-GB WIM file each time they needed to refresh their image. Both pieces of that parent-child pair are still needed at deployment time, so the branch office would presumably either use SmartDeploy boot media to point to a network share containing both files, or they could conceivably put all of the files onto a USB stick. When you launch the Capture Wizard you will get an option to make a differencing image and it will require you to point to the original image as well before you proceed. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  14. Hello, Here are the steps to copy the default profile with SmartDeploy: Enter audit mode: You can either start from a fresh Windows 7 install and at the screen where it asks for user information (the OOBE Windows Welcome screen) press Shift + CTRL + F3, alternately if you already have the OS installed run “sysprep /audit /reboot” to enter audit mode. Once the machine reboots you should be auto logged into the Administrator account. Make any changes that you would like to become part of the default user profile. Once you have completed your changes run the “sysprep /generalize /OOBE /reboot /unattend:[path to the unattend file]” the machine will reboot and you can now create new profiles that will use the same settings you edited while in audit mode. To test, it may be a good idea to login to the VM and create a new user profile. Login to the new profile and make sure all settings are as copied as desired. The next step would be to capture an image from your VHD. To do this run through the normal steps using Capture Wizard. Once you have captured your image create your deployment media using Media Wizard as normal and boot your target machine to the SmartPE environment. Deploy Your image as normal. On boot all of your settings should be maintained when creating new users. Below are examples of answer files with copy profile setting. One is for Windows x86 and the second for Windows x64. x86 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="generalize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm> </component> </settings> <settings pass="specialize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/os media/en_windows_7_enterprise_with_sp1_x86_dvd_620186/sources/install_windows 7 enterprise.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend> x64 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="generalize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm> </component> </settings> <settings pass="specialize"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/smartdeploy/tools/install_windows 7 ultimate.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend>
  15. Hi pphil01, Couple of things - first, you'll want to make sure you have the latest version of SmartDeploy installed, as Windows 10 support was only added as of SmartDeploy v2. Beyond that, this error typically indicates the VM is in a bad shutdown state. With a Windows 7 VM on a VMWare platform, you can simply click Start | Shutdown without issue - but with Windows 8.1 and 10, VMWare supports (and defaults to) hybrid shutdown mode. To ensure that the VM is completely shut down, you'll need to use an alternate command-line procedure. Complete these steps, which will cover another common issue as well: 1. Power on the VM and log in. 2. Launch Windows Update, and check for updates. 3. Install all available updates. Reboot as needed. 4. Repeat steps 3-4 until there are no additional update installations or reboots pending. 5. Launch a command prompt and execute the following command to shut down the VM: shutdown /s /t 0 6. Retry capture and deployment. If the issue persists, go ahead and send us your Capture Wizard log at support (at) smartdeploy.com, and we can help troubleshoot further. This is located in C:\SmartDeploy\Logs\Capture.log. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
  16. HI Lee, Sysprep automatically disables the local administrator account. We do have an option to re-enable this during deployment. To do so, boot to your SmartDeploy boot media and then click Deploy an Image -> Advanced ->Enable Local Administrator account. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  17. Hello, Thanks for taking the time to evaluate SmartDeploy! Currently, to PXE boot to the SmartDeploy boot environment you will have to integrate with WDS. We are working on integrating our own PXE server into SmartDeploy but it's still in the Dev/Test phase, but it should be released in the near future. A simple file share will work with simultaneous deployments under 25 machines. If you're deploying 25+ machines at the same time, you will want to use WDS. If you do decide to use WDS you will want to place your platform packs in the \\WdsServer\reminst\Images\ImageGroup folder. In the same location as your install image. By default the Deploy Wizard looks in the same location as your image for the correct platform pack. If you choose to store your packs in a different location you can browse to that location via the Advanced options in the Deploy Wizard. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  18. Correct. You will have to physically boot to our boot media via PXE, DVD, or USB. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  19. Hello, Cloud services is no longer supported in SmartDeploy. This decision was largely in response to customer feedback, as the Cloud Services component of SmartDeploy had many limitations that made it insufficient for many of their needs. That being said, we are hard at work with our next version of SmartDeploy that will support push deployments. i.e. The computers on your network will show up in the SmartDeploy console and you can deploy via the console instead of having to physically go to the target machine. This solution should be much better than our "cloud services." Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  20. Hi Ditasn2000, Speaking to the broader issue of difficulty reading volume info from the virtual disk, this can sometimes be caused by antivirus software running on your IT workstation, or if the VM is in a bad shutdown state. If you suspect a bad shutdown state, try powering up the VM, installing any available Windows Updates, and restarting a couple of times, making sure there are no more pending update installations. Then shut down gracefully. On a Windows 8.1 or 10 system on certain virtualization platforms, a complete shutdown must be performed via command line: shutdown /s /t 0 With this error, we'll need to have a look at your Capture log to be sure exactly what's going on. It's located in: C:\SmartDeploy\Logs\Capture.log Go ahead and email that to us at support (at) smartdeploy.com. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
  21. Hi Maarten, Do you have any anti-virus on the machine with SmartDeploy installed on? If so, try disabling it and redownloading the packs. If you still have issues send us your C:\SmartDeploy\Logs\Console.log and we can investigate what may be going on. Send it to support@smartdeploy.com. Also, refer to this thread please. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  22. Hi ditasn2000, Platform Packs are created based on customer requests, and are subject to driver availability from the manufacturer. It's possible that there is a driver set available for some of those older machines. To request a Platform Pack, you can simply fill out the Platform Pack Request Form: https://www.smartdeploy.com/support/platform-pack-request/ Once a pack request is submitted, we check to make sure that drivers are available from the manufacturer for the requested operating system, and we check to make sure that the submitter has a current SmartDeploy support contract, and whether any fees would apply to create the pack. The most common business model series are included at no additional cost. The Sales team tells me you're in the process of a quote - you can go ahead and submit the form if you do decide to purchase, or if you'd like us to check on driver availability for any models before your purchase, just shoot us a list at support (at) smartdeploy.com. And finally - if you wish, you can certainly try deploying to a device with no Platform Pack. To do this, simply boot the device to SmartDeploy media. You will be warned that there is no Platform Pack available for the target device and OS - you can then click Yes to continue. The device will deploy using only the inbox drivers included with Windows 10, which will provide sufficient functionality on many older devices even if a driver set is not available from the manufacturer. This must be tested on a per-model basis, however - and we cannot guarantee success if the device is unsupported. Please note that there is an updated version of SmartDeploy available as well - so again, if you do decide to purchase, you should download the latest version and update to 2.0.1050 (current as of this writing), then recreate your SmartDeploy media. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
  23. Hello, You will want to create boot media via the Media Wizard, then boot to it and proceed to the Select Image page and select Browse. Click the network button to map a network share that contains your image and complete the wizard. We also integrate with WDS. If you're interested we have a whitepaper here for more information: https://www.smartdeploy.com/wp-content/uploads/SmartDeploy_WDS.pdf Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  24. Hi Lee, We have fixed the "The specified path is invalid" error some users were receiving as well as support for capturing VDHX disks.Be sure you're using SmartDeploy 2.0.1050 which you can download here: https://www.smartdeploy.com/download/smartdeploy/ If you still have issues, send an e-mail to support@smartdeploy and we can investigate further. Thanks, SmartDeploy Support
  25. Hi Lee, If you received an error that states, "The update is not applicable to your computer," when attempting to install these updates on your Windows 7 reference VM, this likely indicates that you attempted to install the wrong chipset version of the update. Note that the updates are available from the following links in both x86 and x64 versions - for your Windows 7 x64 VM, you'll need to be sure to select the version of each update that includes "x64" in the filename. The links and instructions are included here, for reference, just in case any other customers run into this same issue: User-mode framework 1.11 Kernel-mode framework 1.11 You can confirm that these updates are installed by booting your virtual reference computer, opening Programs and Features | View Installed Updates, and searching for KB2685813 and KB2685811. If those updates are not present and installed, they should be installed from the links above. Once both of these updates are installed in your virtual reference machine, you can try capturing and deploying again. SmartDeploy Support Team TECH RESOURCES SmartDeploy User Guides DeployCentral Forum Platform Pack RSS SOCIAL
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