fllorente

Hi Dennis, I use a script in the Specialize phase of the deployment with the following commands: net user /add %NewAdmName% %NewAdmPasswd% /active:yes /expires:never /logonpasswordchg:no net localgroup administrators %NewAdmName% /add Hope this will be helpful. -- Javier Llorente

That solution may be enough. I will try it, thanks! Regards, -- Javier Llorente

Hello, I've searching the forums and looks that nobody has been in this issue before, so here goes my question: I have to deploy offline 2 different images for both Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise, depending on the user current hardware and needs. I have 64GB Flash Drives, so I have enough space to put both images on them. I know that the local onsite technician can browse and manually select the image to be deployed, but we have some small sites where we don't have always a local technician, so sometimes the deployment task will have to be done by the office manager or someone else who may be just an end user. When I have multiple selections for joining a domain, I can define in the SmartDeploy.xml file a drop-down menu using the <domain_options> and <organizational_unit_options> tags. My question is: is there a way I can make the image file selectable by some kind of drop down or radio button menu, just like the multiple selections for the domain? Thanks in advance and best regards, -- Javier Llorente

Hello, When starting the deployment from a USB Flash drive, the current hard disk is assigned drive letter C:, but the optical CD/DVD drive gets drive letter E: instead of being assigned letter D:. The letter D: is wrongly assigned to the USB Flash Drive, what causes us a lot of problems. This problem has been verified in both SmartDeploy 1.1.3010 and 1.1.5010, on computer models HP EliteBook 2560p, HP ProBook 6550b, Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge 71, Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 & M58p, Lenovo ThinkCentre M90 & M90p and Lenovo ThinkPad T430s. The latests available Platform Packs have been used for testing. How can I make the deployment USB Flash drive to assign drive letters correctly? Thanks in advance and best regards, -- Javier Llorente

Bad news for me. Thanks for the info, anyway :-) Regards, -- Javier Llorente

Hello, everyone! Is there a way to create a custom generic manufacturer platform pack? I mean, I want to male a platform pack that should be deployed on all machines, regardless of their brand and model. Is it possible to do it? What should be the procedure? Thanks in advance and best regards. -- Javier Llorente

Hello, I've rebuilt the deployment media using SmartDeploy latest version 1.1.5010 (x64) and it's still failing. This time, the %SmartDeploy_Media% variable contains the drive letter of the media as a global variable in Windows PE environment, but it is empty at the Specialize phase; the test have been made as before by just opening a Command Prompt and trying "echo %SmartDeploy_Media%". More testing tomorrow...

Hi! I'm still having this issue, but now the Deployment project has entered the second phase and the scope is much wider, so this is going to be a big issue. I've confirmed the drive letter swapping issue: when booting the Windows PE from the SmartDeploy USB media, the USB flash drive gets drive letter D: while the DVD drive gets drive letter E:, but once the image has been applied and the system boots from the hard drive, the DVD drive gets drive letter D: and the USB flash drive gets drive letter E:, the specialize script cannot be found and the deployment fails. As far as I've tested, the %SmartDeploy_Media% variable is empty as a global variable in both Windows PE environment and at the Specialize phase; the test have been made by just opening a Command Prompt and trying "echo %SmartDeploy_Media%". I'm going to rebuild my media using SmartDeploy latest version 1.1.5010, but I don't think it will solve this issue. I'll post here the test results; in the meanwhile any idea for a suitable workaround will be welcome. Thanks in advance and best regards, -- Javier Llorente

Hi Flexim, I'm currently using the open source tool Rufus to format the USB drives and it works like a charm. Just give it a try :-) Regards, -- Javier Llorente

For us, it would be useful to have the platform pack in an FTP server, so we can script and automate the download. Just a suggestion ;-) Regards, -- Javier Llorente

Hi IT Support! I finally could not manage to make it work using the %SmartDeploy_Media% variable. As most computers in my scope are Lenovo Thinkpad T440s (which does not have DVD drive) and Lenovo Thinkpad T430s (which have an easily removable DVD drive), I haven't made further tests since my last post in April. For those models that does not have an easily removable optical drive, I've found a second workaround that has worked for us. You just have to burn a DVD containing the \z\ folder from the flash drive with all the files and subfolders, except for the Default.ppk and the image wim file to be deployed. Depending on what you are doing in your specialize script, that may easily fit on a CD or a single layer writable DVD. Just putting that disk on the drive after the first reboot would prevent the Specialize script failure. This workaround is valid for me because I have just around a dozen units of the problematic model but it won't be feasible if you have a large amount of computers. Hope it will help. Best regards, -- Javier Llorente

Anyway, it would be nice if you could put the provided solution here too, just for the case someone faces the same problem. ;-) Regards, -- Javier Llorente

Hi Admin, I know that, it's in the KB: Windows Could Not Parse Or Process Unattended Answer File. But that is a different error: as you can see in the complete error message, when there's an error with the PID the error message refers to component [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup], while in this case the error is referred to component [Microsoft-Windows-Deployment]. The related part on the unattend.xml file generated on the fly by SmartDeploy wizard goes as follow: <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add"> <Path>D:\z\Specialize.cmd</Path> <Order>1</Order> </RunSynchronousCommand> As you can see it is pointing to drive D:, but at the Specialize phase the USB flash drive is already on drive E:; that's why I'm getting this fail. I've also tried to point the command using the environment variable %SmartDeploy_Media%, as it's been recommended on another thread (as you can see, I've done my homework ), this way: %SmartDeploy_Media%\z\Specialize.cmd It has failed again, though. Now I'm trying again by using %comspec% /c to run the script, as it's recommended on the thread The Postimage Task, full command goes as follow: %comspec% /c %SmartDeploy_Media%\z\Specialize.cmd The image is still being deployed, I'll tell you if it works :-) Regards, -- Javier Llorente P.D. By the way, the 'Edit my profile' link here on the forum is giving an error.

Hello, I'm trying to deploy the platform on a Lenovo Thinkpad T430s. When the deployment reaches the specialize phase, I'm getting the following error: Windows could not parse or process the unattend answer file for pass [specialize]. The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for component [Microsoft-Windows-Deployment]. As the same platform is working smoothly on a Lenovo Thinkpad T440s, I discarded since the beginning that it could be an error on my scripts. After checking the unattended.xml file at %SystemRoot%\Panther, I've found that my specialize script is being called from drive letter D: <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add"> <Path>D:\z\Specialize.cmd</Path> <Order>1</Order> </RunSynchronousCommand> I have opened a cmd window when I got the error and the USB flash drive was on drive letter E:. Then I have restarted the computer, booting again from the USB flash drive, opened a CMD window on the SmartDeploy Welcome screen and (surprise!) this time the USB flash drive was on drive letter D:. I've checked the DVD drive to discard a problem with WinPE drivers and it is working correctly on drive letter E: So it looks that the problem is that the drive letters of the USB flash drive DVD drive are being swapped: at the first WinPE boot from the USB flash drive, the flash drive gets letter D: and the DVD drive gets letter E:, so when the unattend.xml file is generated it points to letter D: But, after one of the reboots, the flash drive gets letter E: and the DVD drive gets letter D: On the Lenovo Thinkpad T430s the workaround is to extract the optical drive while the computer is being imaged. Thank god there's no need to enter BIOS to disable the optical drive, as our platform is being designed to be launched by an end user in case of need... But this is just a temporary workaround. So, the question is: how can this be fixed? Maybe there is a way to change the drive letter on startup, or maybe there is a setting in the Platform Pack, or maybe some hacking in the unattend.xml file ... I don't know. :-( Thanks a lot in advance for your kind help. -- Javier Llorente