Recently, I wanted to revisit the process of installing the SCCM client during an MDT task sequence. At first, I tried to use the SCCM PowerShell module to initiate the install. I learned during testing that it does not work if a system is not present in SCCM. MORE

I wrote an article about three years ago on conditional task sequence reboots. It used the built-in reboot task sequence that was initiated only if any of the three conditions were met. MORE

In Windows 10 1809, I needed to enable some RSAT features that are now included in the OS. I figured this would be a good time to go from using a script to using one-liners for the build process. Mike Robbins's blog was a good start to developing this one-liner. MORE

Recently, I have been working on Configuration Baselines for security purposes. While doing so, two of my baselines required remediation that takes longer than 1 minute. I do not recall where I read it, but I believe the timeout for a compliance check is 1 minute. MORE

A recent project of mine was to obtain the Dell manufacture and ownership dates from all systems for depreciation and lifecycle purposes. This information is not readily available in SCCM and on the local machines. MORE

One of the issues I have had when moving the build process from MDT to SCCM has been windows updates. Windows updates are not available in the SCCM build if it does not already deploy the updates to machines. MORE

Recently, we had an issue of some machines not backing up the Bitlocker recovery password to active directory, even with the GPO in place. They ended up being offline while the bitlocker process took place. Plus, some of the systems in AD had multiple entries, which can be cumbersome. MORE

With the advent of Microsoft Endpoint Manager Configuration Manager 1910, I started researching the upgrade requirements. I happened to run into a great blog post by fellow MVP Martin Bengtsson on what should be done before the upgrade takes place. MORE

One of the things I have wrestled with over the years of using SCCM is verifying if the package on the distribution point contains the new content after updating the distribution point(s). MORE

If you have been wanting to wake your Dell systems up from sleep, hibernate, or shutdown states, this is how you do it. Starting out with this article from Dell, I got the list of things needed to set up the system for WOL. MORE

While working on a series of one-liners for configuring the NIC on machines, I created this needed to makes changes to the power management settings of the NIC. MORE

I got tired of duplicate systems appearing in SCCM caused by computers being reimaged while using the same computer name. To rid myself of this issue, I wrote the script below. MORE

We wanted a list of servers that are waiting for a reboot. Thankfully, SCCM has a pending restart field that allows admins to see when systems are waiting for a reboot. Our server team wanted that list to be automatically generated and emailed to them daily. MORE

Recently, I wanted a simple batch file to run the ccmsetup.exe file. I could have used PowerShell, but for debugging the parameters, I wanted it quick and easy to modify. One of the issues I had was getting the batch script to wait for the ccmexec.exe to install before proceeding. MORE

Over the past two months, I deployed the Windows 10 1809 to all Windows 10 machines. We got through 80% of the machines with successful deployments until we reached those last 20% where they did not have enough disk space for both downloading the package and installing it. MORE

One issue, more like a time-waster, I have had as we are migrating to SCCM from MDT is getting the boot image on the WDS server. SCCM is not configured to manage WDS because we use it for other things, so we manually upload the WIM. MORE

I have used the Dell Command | Update in the build for quite some time for managing the drivers on systems because it makes it a hand-off approach with little setup and reliable updates direct from Dell. MORE

Recently, I have begun setting up new front and back-office security runbooks in Microsoft Orchestrator. These runbooks needed to use PowerShell for getting data from the SCCM server. MORE

Earlier this year, we had a non-critical SQL server to crash. Come to find out, the backups were successful every night, but the data in the backup was corrupt. Needless to say, the server had to be recreated from scratch. Thankfully it was a non-critical server. MORE

I publish new blog postings to multiple Facebook groups regularly. It can be daunting if there are a lot of groups. Although there are several online options, there is a Google Chrome extension called Toolkit for Facebook that is fabulous. MORE

While working on a new compliance policy, I ran into a lot of hurdles that needed to be resolved. One of those hurdles was executing an SCCM package via PowerShell. Using the WMIExplorer, I was able to locate a method that allows you to execute an SCCM package as shown below. MORE

Recently, we decided to change the power scheme on machines during the build. This can be quickly done using the powercfg.exe, but I wanted to be sure it always set correctly. Plus, the GUID associated with a power scheme can be different, so I wanted to specify the power scheme by the name. MORE

Recently, I have been working on updating several scripts I have written for the build process. One big thing I have wanted is for the script to be able to initiate a reboot without the build process becoming corrupt. MORE

While planning and configuring the Windows 10 upgrades, we had to also include the transition to UEFI from BIOS. I wanted to make sure that when the build team builds new models that they are configured for UEFI when applicable, otherwise the build fails within seconds after it starts. MORE

With the recent 1809, RSAT is now integrated into Windows, which is a major plus for the admin side. In my environment, I have the active directory PowerShell module enabled on all machines for two reasons. The first is I use it to move the machine in AD during the build process. MORE

I have wrestled with the issue of managing mandatory reboots for quite a while. Back before laptops were introduced into the environment, we used an SCCM package that triggered a reboot once a week. MORE

I wanted to install the Configuration Manager PowerShell module on my admin machine. After investigating a little, the module does not exist in the Microsoft PowerShell gallery. MORE

One of the issues we have had is some users ending up being in the administrators group. There are circumstances to which we have to sometimes put a user in that group to install an application which is both user and computer-based. It can be easy to forget to take the user back out of that group. MORE

While writing a new PowerShell script for SCCM, I needed to be able to keep track of how many times a system had rebooted when using the SMSTSRebootRequested. The apparent solution, at least what I initially thought, was to create a TS variable and increment it upon each reboot. MORE

We have started the Windows 10 upgrades and part of this process is installing applications for users that are not included in the standard build. One option is to use the SCCM Resource Explorer for a list of apps installed. The problem with that is it is a blanket report. It shows everything and all we were wanting is a report of the additional apps installed after a build. MORE