[SCCM 1710] Setting up for Windows deployment. .WIM's?

[Garacesh]

So I'm used to WDS/MDT where I set up an .iso, a bunch of driver packages and a task sequence and boom, it installs a clean OS from scratch and then does drivers. No need to sysprep, it's just like popping in a CD-ROM. Fantastic.

 

I'm looking at moving to deployment via SCCM and it doesn't appear there's an option for using .ISO's, only to give it .WIM files.

I can't find much beyond a tool called ImageX, which appears to have been discontinued around W8/8.1 times, apparently replaced with DISM?

 

The stock W10 LTSB 2016 ISO from VLSC contains boot.wim and install.wim, but I don't think these are the files I need.

 

Something about WAIK?

 

After finding lots of different forum posts I'm trying to follow this guide by Microsoft and I've got MDT set up on the SCCM server and imported the O/S and made a task sequence as explained, but now I'm up to booting into it and capturing an image? Why do I need to capture an image if I already provided it with a W10 iso? This sounds an awful lot like SysPrep and that's really not a route I want to go down.

 

I really don't get this.

[FishCustard]

You do that so that you can make any configuration changes you need to before capturing the final image. You could probably feed it the vanilla install.wim and it'd work just fine though.

[Arthur]

The stock W10 LTSB 2016 ISO from VLSC contains boot.wim and install.wim, but I don't think these are the files I need.

The install.wim is what you need.

 

Something about WAIK?

The WAIK has been replaced with the Windows ADK. SCCM needs it to update the images.

 

Why do I need to capture an image if I already provided it with a W10 iso? This sounds an awful lot like SysPrep and that's really not a route I want to go down.

Just use the install.wim and then make all of the changes in the task sequence.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Arthur

[FishCustard]

As @Arthur mentioned, the Windows ADK is a good thing to have anyway. That way you can create customised images outside of SCCM if you wish, and just have a simple task sequence that applies them.

 

I think it's better to have a TS that does all the work, that way you don't have to regenerate the images frequently, but it's whatever works for you.

[Garacesh]

I think it's better to have a TS that does all the work, that way you don't have to regenerate the images frequently, but it's whatever works for you.

That's my thinking too, which is why I didn't want to faff about with capturing images because (at least, AFAIK) they're a to edit once you've done it.

 

I'd rather have the task sequence have steps to run certain commands (like disabling the recovery environment, or USB Selective Suspend) than to capture an image where those things were applied, since it lets me add/remove/modify so much easier.

 

Thanks a lot, you two! I'll give install.wim a bash!