Category: ConfigMgr

Use the following WQL queries to identify devices by architecture – this makes rolling out SCCM client updates a little easier.

The WQL below can be used to create an X64/64-bit device collection. Simply modify X64-based PC to “X86-based PC” to create a collection for X86/32-bit devices.

{code lang:text showtitle:false lines:false hidden:false}select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.SystemType = “X64-based PC”{/code}

I was under the impression that USMT will save/copy any unsynchronised offline files, whilst ignoring files that are safely synchronised elsewhere – until recently.

On performing an in-place refresh from Windows Vista x86 to Windows 7 x86 SP1 we had a single user who’s un-sync’d offline files were not saved/copied by USMT. Unfortunately there was little we could do after the event, other than try and work out why, without the scanstate.log files.

I then came across the following Microsoft KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2736596

So USMT should protect and migrate these files… it just doesn’t.

Microsoft User Experience Virtualization is a relatively straightforward technology to deploy – there is no server-side application installation, all you need is a couple of file shares and then an agent deploying to each device. The components of my production deployment are as follows:

DFS shares, each with offline files disabled – UE-V 2.0 doesn’t play well with offline files:

\\domain.local\DFSNOCACHE\UEV2\Settings : All Users that use computers with the agent should have permissions as outlined here

\\domain.local\DFSNOCACHE\UEV2\Templates : All Computer Objects that have the agent should have read permissions, again as outlined here

Rather than using all of the built-in templates, copy those that are of interest into the Templates folder, and ensure that you do not register the MS templates at Agent Install (I’ll show you in a moment). I encountered lots of issues with the built-in templates and Office 2013 – see here. For reference I copied:

When it comes to settings synchronisation, you have two options:

1. Per-User – ensure the users gets the same look and feel across multiple devices
2. Per Device – ensure all users of one device get the same look and feel

We opted for a per-user model, this means that if a user loses their device they can logon to a new laptop – one which we have associated their user account with in SCCM – their personal, user assigned applications install via SCCM and UE-V 2.0 applies their personal settings such as IE homepage, Outlook Signatures, Desktop Background. Essentially its a poor-man’s USMT, it will never provide the incredibly rich capability of USMT as on a per-user basis we’re seeing <5MB per user, in fact typically 2MB.

Finally, to deploy the agent via SCCM use the following command – be sure to update the UNC path with a valid location! The important parts here are:

• RegisterMSTemplates=FALSE ; ensures the built-in templates rae not imported
• SettingsStoragePath=\\<UNC PATH>\Settings\^%username^% ; the DFS share to store per-user settings. Command is specifically for SCCM deployments, ^%username^% will ensure the username environment variable is used.
• SettingsTemplateCatalogPath=\\<UNC PATH>\UEV2Templates ; the DFS share with the XML UE-V 2.0 templates

AgentSetup.exe /quiet /norestart /log "%temp%UE-VAgentInstaller.log" RegisterMSTemplates=FALSE SettingsStoragePath=\\domain.local\DFSNOCACHE\UEV2\Settings\^%username^% SettingsTemplateCatalogPath=\\domain.local\DFSNOCACHE\UEV2\Templates

Remember, with UE-V 2.0 settings are synchronised in different ways:

• Logon/Logoff
• Lock/Unlock
• Launch/Close of an application

Microsoft, as of 28/01/14, have now issued official Office 2013 UE-V 2.0 Templates – available here: https://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/springboard/archive/2014/01/28/announcing-ue-v-office-2013-template-support.aspx?Redirected=true

Here is a Microsoft RDS Client template I created to sync recent connections and associated logon names between devices.

No warranty implied, use at your own risk.

A variation on a theme from yesterday where I enabled existing Windows PE images to support DaRT RemoteRecovery.exe on startup.

I also want to have a PXE-delivered DaRT WinRE Task Sequence deployed via ConfigMgr 2012 SP1. In order to automate the build of DaRT 8.1 images that include execution of the RemoteRecovery.exe via Unattend.xml I have modified the DaRT Wizard created PowerShell script. This script, along with pre-requisite file can be downloaded from here. The image will create shortcuts on a chosen file share for DaRT Remote Viewer connections – this means you don’t need the Ticket ID from the console to connect.

When executing the script, you will be prompted for a number of inputs  including specifying the target architecture – the script can be used to create x86 or amd64 DaRT WinRE images.

This article is focused on modification of a “true” DaRT image to facilitate RemoteRecovery.exe launch at boot. For existing WindowsPE 4/5 images, refer to this article.