In short, there is an issue in Configuration Manager CB 1806 where an additional file (*express.cab) gets included with some software updates. This causes Nomad to generate a LsZ file that contains download instructions for two files as seen below: ; Format=0003 (UNICODE) with alt hash ; Package Version = 1 . ; Data Format…
A few months ago, I noticed that Nomad had become really slow almost to the point that I thought I had a serious problem with my home lab. It did not matter if it was a virtual machine or a physical machine. Downloading content from a distribution point using Nomad had become painfully slow (averaging…
Lately, we have been ramping up our OSD in one of our test environments. One of the servers that hosts some of our test VMs sits behind a pretty solid firewall with only the required ports open for Configuration Manager traffic. OSD was rocking and rolling along and then we started to ‘Nomadize’ the Task…
[Update 4/5/2017] This post was based on the MBR2GPT that was released with the Windows Insider build 15007. There are a few things that have changed since then – the /silent switch has been replaced with the /convert switch. Also, it is highly recommended to run MBR2GPT from WinPE 1703 (this is required for earlier…
In my previous post, BIOS to UEFI made easier with Windows 10 Creators Update, I uncovered a hidden gem in the 15007 build of the Windows 10 Enterprise Insider Preview called MBR2GPT. The benefits of this MBR to GPT conversion utility is that it makes it easier to convert systems from BIOS to UEFI and…
Back in December, Microsoft published a blog (Windows 10 Creators Update advances security and best-in-class modern IT tools) where they mentioned a conversion tool for making the conversion to UEFI: “In-place UEFI conversion We’ve heard from our customers that they want to take advantage of new Windows 10 security investments like Device Guard on their…
At the Midwest Management Summit today in the 7 AM OSD Birds of a Feather session, there was a lot of discussion around troubleshooting PXE booting issues. A reference was made to a session that Troy Martin and I gave at the 2014 Midwest Management Summit called PXE Booting in the Real World. Troy put together…
1 Overview Microsoft Office 365 introduces a new way to deploy and update Office 365 using Click-to-Run technology. Office 365 is typically installed using the Office 365 portal. However, this presents several challenges in a managed environment. The first challenge is that users must be local administrators on their computers in order to install Office…
If you are starting to deploy Windows 10 (or are currently deploying Windows 8/8.1), then now is the time to make the switch to UEFI. A system needs to be configured for UEFI (without Compatibility Support Module being enabled) in order to take advantage of Secure Boot (and other Windows 10 security features like Device…
In System Center Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment, content can be obtained in one of two ways for network deployments. The first way is to configure the Task Sequence Deployment to “Download all content locally before starting task sequence”. There are a few downsides to this option – it is only available to ConfigMgr clients…
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