Archive for the ‘Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012’ Category

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012

Visit the Microsoft Download Center to download MDT 2012 now! 

Download the latest release to stay up-to-date on your deployment needs. New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever!

Key Benefits:

· Support for Configuration Manager 2012

· Customizable deployment questions

· Ease Lite Touch installation

· Secure deployments

· Reliability and flexibility

· Support for Windows 8

Support for Configuration Manager 2012:This update provides support for Configuration Manager 2012 RC2 releases. MDT 2012 fully leverages the capabilities provided by Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment. The latest version of MDT offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and 2012. Users now also have the ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012.

Customize deployment questions:For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions.

Ease Lite Touch installation:The Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) is now integrated with Lite Touch Installation, providing remote control and diagnostics. New monitoring capabilities are available to check on the status of currently running deployments. LTI now has an improved deployment wizard user experience. Enhanced partitioning support ensures that deployments work regardless of the current structure.

Secure Deployments:MDT 2012 offers integration with the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to ensure a secure Windows deployment from the start.

Reliability and flexibility:Existing MDT users will find more reliability and flexibility with the many small enhancements and bug fixes and a smooth and simple upgrade process.

Support for Windows 8:MDT 2012 provides support for deploying Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Windows Server “8” Beta in a lab environment.

Learn more

Visit the MDT home page:www.microsoft.com/MDT

What’s Been Removed from This Release?

This release of MDT does not include the following features that existed in previous versions of MDT:

· Support for prerelease versions of Configuration Manager 2012

· Support for installation of MDT on Windows Server 2003

· Support for installation of MDT on Windows Vista

· Support for installation of MDT on Windows XP

· Support for Windows Deployment Services running on Windows Server 2003

· Original equipment manufacturer task sequence templates from ZTI (Instead, use the prestaged media capabilities in Configuration Manager 2012 and Configuration Manager 2007 R3.)

Operating system

LTI

ZTI

UDI

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

˜

    

Windows Server 8 Beta

˜

    

Windows 7

˜

˜

˜

Window Server 2008 R2

˜

˜

  

Windows PE version 3.1

˜

˜

˜

Windows PE version 3.0

˜

˜

˜

Windows Vista (with SP1 and later)

˜

˜

  

Windows Server 2008 (all service pack levels)

˜

˜

  

Windows XP (with SP3)

˜

˜

  

Windows Server 2003 R2

˜

˜

  

˜ = supported

Posted April 18, 2012 by Robert Smit in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Beta 2

MDT’s new features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever!

Beta 2 of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 is now available for download! New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever! For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 Beta 2 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions. MDT 2012 makes full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment. MDT 2012 integrates with configuration templates from the Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to ensure a secure Windows installation from the beginning of the deployment. Download the latest version of MDT and improve your deployment experience. Existing MDT users will find more reliability and flexibility with the many small enhancements and bug fixes and a smooth and simple upgrade process.

Key Benefits:

  • Fully leverages the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
  • Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.
  • IsOnBattery. This will be set to true if the machine is currently running using a battery with no AC power. This can be useful in any deployment – you really don’t want a computer to turn off because the battery went dead during a deployment.
  • VMHost. When a virtual machine is running on a Hyper-V server and has the Hyper-V integration components installed, we can determine the name of the Hyper-V server (the VM host) that the VM is running on.
  • VMName. This also comes from the Hyper-V integration components, telling us the name of the virtual machine in Hyper-V, which might be different than the “computer name” (the name given to the OS) of the VM.

We also made a few other related changes:

  • The “Make” property now detects Xen, in addition to the the other platforms that could be detected in MDT 2010 Update 1 (Hyper-V, VMWare, VirtualBox).
  • We fixed the “SMSDP” property, so it should now always return a valid server name for the ConfigMgr distribution point that the boot image associated with the task sequence came from. (The task sequence doesn’t have a distribution point, so we had to pick a package that each task sequence should have.)
  • We changed the “OSVersion” property so that it doesn’t generate an error on unknown OSes (e.g. Windows 8). We don’t plan to add new OSes to the list set by this function, so consider this variable to be “functionally stabilized” and “obsolete”. It would be better to use OSCurrentVersion or OSCurrentBuild (maybe combined with IsServerOS) instead.
  • We added progress reporting (which works with Lite Touch and ConfigMgr deployments) so that you can see what ZTIGather is doing during the process. This will be especially useful when you are doing database queries: you’ll be able to see which ones are taking too long

Posted January 27, 2012 by Robert Smit in MDT, MDT 2012, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Beta 2 is available for download

Beta 2 of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 is now available for download! New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever! For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 Beta 2 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions. MDT 2012 fully leverages the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment. MDT 2012 integrates with configuration templates from the Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to ensure a secure Windows installation from the beginning of the deployment. Download the latest version of MDT and improve your deployment experience. Existing MDT users will find more reliability and flexibility with the many small enhancements and bug fixes and a smooth and simple upgrade process.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=217607

Benefits:

  • Fully use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
  • Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.

With MDT 2012 Beta 2, the feature improvements span all installation scenarios. The latest version of MDT offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012. MDT 2012 offers integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for Lite Touch Installation remote control and diagnostics. Beta users now also have the ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012. MDT 2012 offers improved support for Configuration Manager 2012 while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007. New monitoring capabilities for currently running deployments ease Lite Touch Installation through an improved deployment wizard user experience, and enhanced partitioning support ensures that deployments work regardless of the current structure.

New Features:

For System Center Configuration Manager customers:

  • Support for Configuration Manager 2012 (while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007)
  • New User-Driven Installation components for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012:
    Extensible wizard and designer, additional integration with Configuration Manager to deliver a more customized OS experience, support for more imaging scenarios, and an enhanced end-user deployment experience
  • Ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

image

For Lite Touch Installation:

  • Integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for remote control and diagnostics
  • New monitoring capabilities to see the progress of currently running deployments
  • Support for deploying Windows to computers using UEFI
  • Ability to deploy Windows 7 so that the computer will start from a new VHD file, "Deploy to VHD"
  • Improved deployment wizard user experience

For all customers:

  • Integration with configuration templates from the Security Compliance Manager Solution Accelerator, ensuring Windows is secure from the start
  • A simple mechanism for running Windows PowerShell scripts during a deployment, with task sequence environment and logging integration
  • Better partitioning support, creating the recommended partitioning structures on new computers and ensuring deployments work regardless of the current structure
  • A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users
  • Many small enhancements and bug fixes

Posted November 13, 2011 by Robert Smit in MDT, MDT 2012, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012

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