Best Customisable Windows Installer?

[Sonic007]

I'm looking at the quickest way to deploy Windows 11, join to domain, install our selection of apps, set wallpaper, Wifi network, customise Taskbar, etc.

 

Something that I can setup and then when I need to setup laptops I can just boot from USB or something.

 

What do you recommend?

 

Thanks all.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Sonic007

[Oaktech]

Windows configuration designer?

[DalekSec]

Do you have intune licensing? if so Autopilot if your best bet

[KK20]

We have two methods onsite. One ancient, one modern. For our new pupil laptops, we use autopilot to do the majority of the heavy lifting, then intune policies and app installers to get things set up. Pro, it does work and is fairly universal. Con, you must remember to delete the devices if you wish to reinstall everything from scratch, it also takes a looooong time (comparatively) to set everything up again. I have not yet created a bare metal ADK/install.wim/AutopilotConfigurationFile.json USB pen drive for true bare metal -> autopilot -> intune "hands free" although I know it IS possible.

 

The ancient method? Yeah, that will be audit mode, set up, generalise, capture and deploy. This uses the same intune policies to configure and roll out the apps but lets you go from bare metal to domain capable in around 6 minutes. You can get from bare VM to captured image in around an hour and a half if you have a decent list (and UEFI V2 VM - legacy adapters are capped at 100mb so that will slow your capture down). You need some ancient knowledge to get this going though and you will live and die by your answer file (and post deployment scripts), ours will install snappy drivers for odd machines, automatically expand the C: for various drive sizes (and create a scratch drive with a few Gb on it) plus join appropriate WIFI for devices with no network (USB boot ones). I dont recommend this as a way forward though - it works for us only because ive been doing this since windows XP so have it down to a tee....

 

We are hybrid for our onsite, pupil laptops are 365 sharepoint/onedrive only - this is the migration path as all devices will be moved off hybrid eventually.

Edited May 10, 2023 by KK20

[Dos_Box]

Moving to the O/S Deployment forum.

[Olliedawg]

If you want some automation i'd say MDT, not mega complicated to get going - via task sequence you can install OS, auto join to domain, install apps etc..

 

You could also go down an older route. Create a golden image with all the apps etc you want installed, set it up how you need it & sysprep. Then use something like Clonezilla to clone the drive to another USB.

[jthompson]

I'm looking at the quickest way to deploy Windows 11, join to domain, install our selection of apps, set wallpaper, Wifi network, customise Taskbar, etc.

 

When you say "quick", do you mean quick to initially set up the tooling, or quick client deployments (i.e. minimising the time required to deploy everything to a particular computer)?

[dhicks]

Something that I can setup and then when I need to setup laptops I can just boot from USB or something.

 

We use Ventoy to create a bootable USB-stick deployment:

 

https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

 

You make the USB stick bootable with Ventoy, that then lets you simply copy over the Windows ISO image and copy over / tinker with any files. We have a customised unattend.xml file and a setup script that installs some local software and sets a couple of registry values, you can also do things like join a domain and join a wireless network.

Edited May 17, 2024 by dhicks

[NicholasEsping]

I'm looking at the quickest way to deploy Windows 11, join to domain, install our selection of apps, set wallpaper, Wifi network, customise Taskbar, etc.

 

Something that I can setup and then when I need to setup laptops I can just boot from USB or something.

 

What do you recommend?

 

Thanks all.

 

I would go with Full Flash Update images and Windows Configuration Designer. Should be able to deploy images within minutes with this method.

Capture and apply Windows Full Flash Update (FFU) images | Microsoft Learn

GitHub - rbalsleyMSFT/FFU: Using Full Flash Update files to speed up Windows Deployment

[WHOAMI3904]

If you want some automation i'd say MDT, not mega complicated to get going - via task sequence you can install OS, auto join to domain, install apps etc..

 

You could also go down an older route. Create a golden image with all the apps etc you want installed, set it up how you need it & sysprep. Then use something like Clonezilla to clone the drive to another USB.

 

I'd 2nd this. MDT is the way to go if you want something free and fairly simple. Good if you don't have Intune licencing as well.

[Olliedawg]

I use MDT for all my deployment. We're on A1 so no intune licences at all. Works great for me, saves a lot of time.