Out of Office Hours

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  • Windows releases: secret decoder ring required

    It started off as a simple exercise: I want to grab the latest Insider build containing the features likely to be included in Windows 11 26H2 later this year. Which channel and build would that be? The answer, as illogical as it sounds, is “yes.” In true Hitchhiker’s Guide-style, you might then ask “well then,…

  • Discovering PowerShell provider dynamic parameters

    PowerShell ships with providers that expose things like file systems, the registry, certificates, environment variables, etc. To see which are available in your PowerShell session, you can use Get-PSProvider: Not surprisingly, these behave differently based on the type of data or objects they are working with. So Microsoft provided a way to extend the provider’s…

  • Looking for an MDT replacement? Consider DeployR.

    Since Microsoft unceremoniously announced the “immediate retirement” of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (something that isn’t surprising since it really hasn’t been updated in any significant way since 2013 and leverages obsolete technologies such as VBScript and MSHTA), some of you are probably looking for a replacement. As many of you are probably aware, I’ve been…

  • Following up on the MDT security issue

    I mentioned in passing in a previous blog post that the “immediate retirement” of MDT was caused by Microsoft not wanting to fix a security vulnerability identified by security researchers in the MDT monitoring service. If you aren’t using the monitoring service, you’re OK (as long as you follow some general best practices described below).…

  • A complete history of MDT (abridged)

    Way back in 2008, I published a blog post (now captured by the Wayback Machine) that gave a concise history of BDD, now known as MDT. Eighteen years later, I can now complete that story and expand on some of the items in more detail. (I will refrain from getting too carried away, hence the…

  • Still running ConfigMgr tech preview? Not for long…

    Way back in December 2024, Microsoft released the ConfigMgr Tech Preview 2411 release. It wasn’t long after that before the India-based team maintaining ConfigMgr was either laid off or reassigned to other things, so not surprisingly there was then an announcement in November 2025 that laid out a new annual release cycle for ConfigMgr. Reading…

  • The MDT download is gone, so RIP

    We knew the day would come, and have talked about it for a while (see my previous post). In the march toward oblivion, Microsoft appears to have taken the last step now: the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit installer MSI files are no longer available on the Microsoft download center. Assuming that wasn’t an accident, that’s the…

  • Feature updates can be bigger than expected too…

    I upgraded my last Windows 10 virtual machine from Windows 10 22H2 to Windows 11 25H2. The upgrade itself worked just fine (after I added a virtual TPM to the VM and expanded its available disk space). This was a media-based upgrade, using a 7GB (!) Windows 25H2 business editions x64 en-us ISO. It was…

  • Windows 11 cumulative updates: How can they possibly be that big?

    In a session at the MMS Music City event today, it was mentioned that the monthly cumulative update for October for Windows 11 25H2 was nearly 4GB: The speculation was that this was because of AI, that the models needed were bloating the size. That just really made me scratch my head. Initially, I thought…

  • Updated UEFIv2 module posted

    Since Microsoft has posted some documentation that makes use of my UEFIv2 module, I figured I should fix the module so that it’s compatible with PowerShell 7. The new version 3.0 is available via the PowerShell Gallery; you can upgrade with: In addition to a simple fix to make the Get-UEFISecureBootCerts module compatible with PowerShell…

  • New Autopilot Branding release

    It’s been a while since there was an actual release of the Autopilot Branding script, although there were a few “preview” releases as we worked out kinks in the processes. Things are looking reasonably good now (thanks to feedback from several people on the preview versions), so a new 3.3.0 release was published: https://github.com/mtniehaus/AutopilotBranding/releases/tag/3.3.0 So…

  • A new milestone: 5 million views

    The number didn’t manage to flip over to 5 million while I was still awake, but it had passed that threshold this morning: Yes, that’s the number of views from the https://oofhours.com site. I hope that number will continue to climb. If you haven’t already, subscribe via WordPress prompt and get e-mail notifications for new…

  • Get ready to manage updates in OOBE, but only with Autopilot v1?

    As Rudy Ooms discovered on the Microsoft 365 Message Center, bulletin MC1134168 announced a change coming with the September 2025 cumulative update: You’ll be able to install updates at the end of OOBE again, and you’ll get a new control that enables you to turn that on or off. Weirdly, I don’t see that same…

  • Bigger monitors, new challenges

    For a long time, I’ve used three displays attached to my MacBook Pro (well, four counting the Mac’s display): One 32″ monitor in the center, flanked by two 27″ displays, one landscape (mostly for browsing) and one portrait (mostly for Teams/chatting). But I had an “opportunity” to upgrade: I could donate one of the 27″…

  • Attending EUC World 2025 Amplify event in Minneapolis?

    If you’re going to be in Minneapolis next month for the EUC World Amplify event, being held from August 4-7 on the University of Minnesota campus, be sure to look me up — I’ll be there as an attendee (a refreshing change from events where I’m either speaking or preparing to speak). If you are…

  • A policy to remove Windows apps…

    In the “it’s about time” category, this one popped up on Bluesky today from Tero Alhonen: It’s time to start paying attention to the new Insider builds in the dev channel, since 25H2 isn’t far off.

  • ARM64 on Intune apps, finally…

    The latest “what’s new” doc update for Intune includes this tidbit: So now you can restrict ARM64 apps appropriately. Considering how many years ago this was first discussed, it’s about time. Here’s what it looks like, starting with the default of “app works on any architecture”: Change that to “Yes” and you get some checkboxes:…

  • Updated Autopilot Branding package published

    Version 3.1.0 is now available with a variety of fixed based on customer feedback. See the release information for more details: https://github.com/mtniehaus/AutopilotBranding/releases/tag/3.1.0 Note that this version doesn’t use IntuneWinAppUtil.exe directly. Instead, the “makeapp.cmd” batch file will call the “makeapp.ps1” PowerShell script; that script will then use the IntuneWin32App PowerShell module (which automatically downloads IntuneWinAppUtil.exe if…

  • Speaking of APv2…

    Autopilot v2, a.k.a. Autopilot device preparation, was announced on May 22, 2024, it wasn’t really done yet. From the original annoucement (highlight added by me): Not sure about what they consider “soon” but here we are a year later and we’ve seen none of these items. What has happened in this past year? There were…

  • Using .intunewin files outside of Intune

    In my previous post about pre-provisioning, I showed three apps (MDT, Office, and PowerToys) that I was installing as part of a task sequence. What I didn’t show was the details for those apps. Sure, you can always add the same original app source files to SCCM, MDT, or DeployR and install them with the…