Windows 8 Image Engineering

[Jacks]

Hi , could you please suggest some best practices and Customization for windows 8 Image Capture and Deploy

[teklogic]

look at using the Microsoft toolkit with MDT, no need to capture images, just insert the ISO, build in the drivers and software. Its tricky to get the hang of a few bits but it makes life easier.

[Jacks]

I am Using MDT to capture Images ...I am looking into the customization Part, like Desktop Personalisation ...It would be helpful if you could suggest....

[free780]

Well you still have to capture to get an up to date image.

[Jacks]

I am using MDT to capture Windows 7 Image...I am now unable to Set Lock screen and Account picture in win 8 ...could you please suggest or provide me some links whre i get best way to image windows 8

[garethEds]

Take a look in the Deployment Forum here: O/S Deployment

 

Plenty of experts and resources there to use.

 

Gareth

[sted]

wait for 8.1 much better customisation via gpo ie some

[Jacks]

I have got a requirement from one of the customer for windows 8 ...to Inculde Customer Wallpaer, customer logo in the lock screen and user account...Remove some of Built in Apps and Make the corporate email as teh default one .....I Tried the customistion using the MDT Pause Task Sequence , but i am uncale to customise as Windows 8 doesnt allow unless it is activated...I was looking fot a solution for this.

[Arthur]

customer logo in the lock screen

The lockscreen image can be set via Group Policy...

 

How to Manage the Lock Screen Image on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

 

... or the registry key below.

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization]
"LockScreenImage"="C:\\Pictures\\LockScreen.jpg"

 

Alternatively, you could disable it completely (if that's an option)?

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization]
"NoLockScreen"=dword:00000001

 

Remove some of built in apps

Here's a PowerShell script that does that. Just remove the apps you want to keep from the list (if any).

 

# Remove Built-in Windows 8 Apps
# Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2013/06/07/update-removing-built-in-applications-from-windows-8.aspx

$AppsList = "Microsoft.Bing",
           "Microsoft.BingFinance",
           "Microsoft.BingMaps",
           "Microsoft.BingNews",
           "Microsoft.BingSports",
           "Microsoft.BingTravel",
           "Microsoft.BingWeather",
           "Microsoft.Camera",
           "Microsoft.Media.PlayReadyClient",
           "microsoft.microsoftskydrive",
           "Microsoft.Reader",
           "microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps",
           "microsoft.windowsphotos",
           "Microsoft.XboxLIVEGames",
           "Microsoft.ZuneMusic",
           "Microsoft.ZuneVideo"
           
$AppsList | ForEach { Get-AppxPackage -Name $_ } | ForEach { Remove-AppxPackage $_; Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackageName $_ }

 

 

 

make the corporate e-mail as the default one

Outlook 2010/2013?

 

I am unable to customise as Windows 8 does not allow unless it is activated

Can you use their KMS server to activate Windows?

Edited July 29, 2013 by Arthur

[Jacks]

Thanks a lot Arthur... We are using KMS To Activate windows 8...Dats the worry for some DEsktop Customisation Manullay using LTISuspend

We are using Outlook 2010 ..

[coop88]

:pI think maybe you can search your question in Windows related forums, like:

 

Capture an Image for Deployment (Generalize)

 

Hi , could you please suggest some best imaging practices and Customization for windows 8 Image Capture and Deploy

[qcomer]

You could build your image how you want. Then use MDT for sysprep and capture, set CopyProfile in the unattend to true and it will copy your admin settings. Like the others have mentioned - we moved away from making custom WIM files (thick imaging) and are now doing thin imaging. Use WSUS for updates (or inject the update packages into MDT), use MDT to install Office, etc. The beautify behind Thin imaging (installing from source) is that you do not have to keep the image itself up to date. It can all be done using WSUS/GPO/MDT/etc. With Windows Vista and above being hardware independent it makes this process very easy and an ideal way to go. Most Windows 8 settings can be found in a GPO or can be set using registry/scripts.

[free780]

I do hybrid. Win7, office, c++ runtimes, all updates. Then enable windows update in the deployment ts as the image will get out of date. I rebuild the images every 3/4 may months. Though I could monthly.