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  • Cumulative updates will be installed during OOBE, like it or not

    A while back, I noticed that updates were installing at the end of the Autopilot process, after device ESP had completed and before the user signed in. Per Microsoft’s post, this is now going to happen on all Windows 11 devices starting soon: The summary: Affects Windows 11 22H2 and above. All MDM-enrolled devices, Autopilot…

  • Autopilot branding package updated for MDE

    Microsoft published KB5043950 which describes an issue where the Defender for Endpoint agent (Sense client) isn’t installed as expected on Windows 11 24H2. This can happen when a device is upgraded from Home to Pro: that feature now isn’t present in Home, and it doesn’t get added when the device is “transmogged” to Pro. As…

  • Windows Autopilot v2: Associating devices with a tenant

    While doing some Autopilot (v1) pre-provisioning work using the latest Windows 11 Insider Canary ring build (27695), I noticed a new item in the UI: If you try it out, you can see a rough version of this new Autopilot v2 (Autopilot device preparation) user experience, but it’s very clear that this functionality isn’t done…

  • Another Media Tool release, this one with USB support

    I always thought the process of creating Windows USB media was pretty simple: take a USB key, format it as FAT32, then XCOPY the contents of an ISO to that USB key. But there are some complications: If the WIM file is larger than 4GB, you need to split it since a FAT32 drive doesn’t…

  • Comparing directory contents without extra tools

    I had a need to compare two directories to see what differences existed between them. In the past, I had used utilities like WinDiff and WinMerge to do that, but I was hoping to do that more easily. A simple Bing search took me to a superuser.com post that had the simplest possible answer: Just…

  • “Windows RT in the Enterprise”

    Here’s a blast from the past: a document that I wrote many years ago about Windows RT in the Enterprise. We all remember how that went, right? This particular document version, which has highlights in it that weren’t in the original, came from someone (a customer who in the end didn’t buy any of the…

  • OneDrive in Windows media is not up to date

    That might seem like an obvious statement: the OneDrive client is updated frequently, so of course the version of OneDrive that is included in Windows 10 and 11 media is going to be out of date. But just how out of date? Let’s take a look. OneDrive is not installed in the images on Windows…

  • Updated Media Tool available

    Back in 2023, I posted a Media Tool app (which uses PowerShell behind the scenes) to download Windows 10 or 11 media, for both x64 and ARM64 architectures. I’ve now uploaded a new version of that with a few tweaks: It now understands Windows 11 23H2 and 24H2. The script had logic to fall back…

  • Windows device provisioning with Workspace ONE, part 4: Other provisioning scenarios

    Provisioning a new device can be done in ways other than with Windows Autopilot. Let’s look at some scenarios implemented in Workspace ONE that leverage technologies that have been around since before Windows Autopilot even existed. Provisioning packages When using provisioning packages (PPKG files), you create a single file (.ppkg) that contains settings that should…

  • Windows device provisioning with Workspace ONE, part 3: Windows Autopilot

    In the first part, I set up Workspace ONE and integrated it into my existing Entra ID (Azure AD) tenant. In part 2, I set up apps and policies that should be deployed to my devices. That prepares me for the next step, provisioning new devices with Windows Autopilot. Configuring ESP Deep in the Workspace…

  • Windows device provisioning with Workspace ONE, part 2: Apps and policies

    In the first part, I got to the point where I could successfully get a device into a managed state, but that doesn’t mean the device is actually usable. To get it to that state, I need to deploy some apps and policies to it. I typically deploy a list of representative apps that are…

  • Windows device provisioning with Workspace ONE, part 1: Getting started

    I’ve spent a lot of time over the years talking to ISVs about provisioning Windows devices, but I’ve never actually used any non-Microsoft solutions for doing that. In that time, one of those solutions has shifted names from AirWatch to Workspace ONE, now from Omnissa, a new company spun off from its former corporate parents.…

  • Thanks for reaching out

    It’s been just over a month since I posted the Microsoft giveth, Microsoft taketh blog post (which, ironically, is one of the top posts on the site), and I think I’ve finally caught up on the e-mails, direct messages, texts, and every other sort of communication from literally hundreds of people. Thanks for the support,…

  • Using PowerShell 7 as a replacement for Windows PowerShell 5.1

    Windows PowerShell 5.1, the version that’s built into Windows, shipped back in 2016 with the release of Windows 10 1607 and Windows Server 2016, with support for older OSes back to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. That was almost eight years ago. What has changed with PowerShell 5.1 since then? While there are more…

  • MSI apps are now downloaded using Delivery Optimization

    Phil Wilcock posted a blog last week with details about “non-peerable” content, pointing to Microsoft’s official documentation about what is and isn’t “peerable.” Interestingly, the Microsoft documentation is missing an entry for one specific type of content: MSI apps. These are delivered using the Enterprise Desktop App Management CSP, which historically has used BITS to…

  • RIP: Autopilot support in Store for Business

    In the slow march to its final death, the Microsoft Store for Business (and presumably the Microsoft Store for Education as well) has removed the ability to add, edit, and remove Autopilot devices. That’s a bit anticlimactic, because most customers have probably forgotten about the Store for Business/Education since the private store feature was removed…

  • Autopilot v2: My “second” thoughts

    My first thoughts around Autopilot v2 (a.k.a. Autopilot device preparation) are scattered through a week of posts: Digging into Windows Autopilot v2 Windows Autopilot v2 experience: Some surprises (including updates) Windows Autopilot v2: Random chatter What is it with Microsoft and progress bars? Running an SCCM task sequence during APv2 Setting the computer name with…

  • Setting the computer name with APv2

    One of the things that is not currently included in the APv2 device preparation policy is an option to configure the computer name, so as a result the devices end up being given a random name like “DESKTOP-1GY5FL7”. Initially, I thought that would be easy enough to work around using a custom OMA-URI policy that…

  • Running an SCCM task sequence during APv2

    I mentioned in my previous post that I was able to use “Co-management Authority” (a.k.a. “Co-management settings”) to install the ConfigMgr agent and then initiate a task sequence (using PROVISIONTS) during an APv2 device provisioning process, but that I didn’t think that it was actually being monitored by APv2 since I saw no error when…

  • What is it with Microsoft and progress bars?

    People have made fun of Microsoft’s progress bars for decades. We’ve all seen examples, e.g. file copies that show days, then minutes, then hours; “updating Windows” messages that sit for a long time on a particular percentage and then jump forward; etc. And certainly there are challenges with accurate calculations, especially when conditions change (e.g.…