RIP - MDT

[buzzard]

SO knew to come here for this, what are people considering replacing MDT with, I've only really used SCCM etc but that's not something I'd consider for the little on prem AD stuff I still have left? OSD Cloud look interesting but I've never really come across it or know of anyone who could vouch for it? Interested in peoples opinions! 

[itskdog]

8 minutes ago, buzzard said:

SO knew to come here for this, what are people considering replacing MDT with, I've only really used SCCM etc but that's not something I'd consider for the little on prem AD stuff I still have left? OSD Cloud look interesting but I've never really come across it or know of anyone who could vouch for it? Interested in peoples opinions! 

 

If you want something you can load onto a USB stick, I personally use

this tool: https://github.com/rbalsleyMSFT/FFU

 

You can build a custom, clean Windows image with the latest Cumulative Update and have Office/OneDrive/Teams up-to-date, plus other apps if you need them (I leave that to Autopilot/Intune, though).

 

Drivers are injected by just loading them onto the USB after it's all set up by the script, and then you just pick which folder of drivers to inject after booting the USB, and the UI (currently in beta, but works fine in my experience) makes it easy to download apps from Winget & drivers from Microsoft/HP/Dell/Lenovo.

 

As it's using an FFU rather than a WIM, it's much quicker to deploy to the machine than a vanilla Windows image.

[icttech1981]

On 20/01/2026 at 14:44, buzzard said:

SO knew to come here for this, what are people considering replacing MDT with, I've only really used SCCM etc but that's not something I'd consider for the little on prem AD stuff I still have left? OSD Cloud look interesting but I've never really come across it or know of anyone who could vouch for it? Interested in peoples opinions! 

 

I'm currently setting up FOG Project and seeing how that performs.

 

It's not too taxing to setup a VM running the FOG Server and pulling an image from a W11 machine is currently in progress. I'll report back on how this works out.

 

It's open source too so the only cost is your time.

 

https://github.com/FOGProject/fogproject

[garethEds]

On 20/01/2026 at 14:53, itskdog said:

 

If you want something you can load onto a USB stick, I personally use

this tool: https://github.com/rbalsleyMSFT/FFU

 

You can build a custom, clean Windows image with the latest Cumulative Update and have Office/OneDrive/Teams up-to-date, plus other apps if you need them (I leave that to Autopilot/Intune, though).

 

Drivers are injected by just loading them onto the USB after it's all set up by the script, and then you just pick which folder of drivers to inject after booting the USB, and the UI (currently in beta, but works fine in my experience) makes it easy to download apps from Winget & drivers from Microsoft/HP/Dell/Lenovo.

 

As it's using an FFU rather than a WIM, it's much quicker to deploy to the machine than a vanilla Windows image.

 

I've been meaning to look at this. Nothing will be as good as MDT though.

[altecsole]

16 minutes ago, garethedmondson said:

 

I've been meaning to look at this. Nothing will be as good as MDT though.

Configuration Manager is, if not better. Just a shame it's a bit of a long-winded process to install. 

[Norphy]

If all you're going to use it for is OSD, using ConfigMgr for that is using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

[tdk1069]

We went with OSDCloud delivered by iVentoy pxe in the end, lightweight and very customisable in it's powershell glory

[mavhc]

I just use wds

[mullet_man]

On 07/01/2026 at 09:22, Olliedawg said:

Knew the day was coming! We're still riding out on MDT for the time being, works perfectly fine for what we need it to do.

Yeah same here, we just use it to load a Windows 11 clean, and then let Intune install all the apps.  

 

Going to hang onto MDT as long as we can.  

[RobFuller]

I cannot recommend OSDCloud enough. It’s an incredibly clean, modern deployment solution, and coming from nearly a decade of working with SCCM/MECM, the simplicity of configuration and especially the way it handles drivers is honestly refreshing. The whole process feels lighter, faster, and far less cumbersome compared to the traditional on‑prem setup.
I’m particularly interested in experimenting with Option 59 for HTTP Boot to completely remove the need for any local infrastructure during deployment. The idea of being able to network‑boot straight into an OSDCloud environment without maintaining PXE servers or DP infrastructure on‑site is really appealing.

[mullet_man]

Never looked into OSDcloud, but will check it out! 

[garethEds]

The one thing I really like about MDT is that it will name machines based on MAC address stored in the inbuilt database. I've never liked naming machines based on %SerialNumber% or other general fields. I know where they are based on their name.

[RobFuller]

11 hours ago, garethedmondson said:

The one thing I really like about MDT is that it will name machines based on MAC address stored in the inbuilt database. I've never liked naming machines based on %SerialNumber% or other general fields. I know where they are based on their name.

 

I agree, hate automated names. We always ensure autopilot names are correct for their intended role and location.

[Boredguy]

I stopped using the Database integration when we started building Hybrid InTune machines, but instead created a PS script to rename computers post join which has it checking a central CSV file for the station mac address if it can't find a computername.txt file in a specific location on the computer post build.

[garethEds]

58 minutes ago, Boredguy said:

I stopped using the Database integration when we started building Hybrid InTune machines, but instead created a PS script to rename computers post join which has it checking a central CSV file for the station mac address if it can't find a computername.txt file in a specific location on the computer post build.

 

Morning @Boredguy - Would you be willing to share your script and csv format headers?

[Boredguy]

Here is the script below.

We customised the DeployWiz_ComputerName.wsf and XML files in MDT so that the OSDComputername value is written to the windows\logs\Software folder (needs Powershell functionality included in your litetouch boot wim from the additional options)

 

When the script runs, regardless of the filter limiting it to a specific set of stations, if it doesn't find the CheckComputernamePackageComplete log file in the folder it will see about renaming the PC.

If it fails to fine the computer name file, it fails over to CSV to match serial number (forgot I didn't use MAC) to rename the computer in those instances when a remote wipe has been done via InTune.

 

#Account used only allows computers to join domain, and is NOT a domain admin account, just a normal user account
$password = "PasswordHere" | ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force
$username = "Domain\Account"

#CSV should have as a minimum, "Device name and "Serial number" columns
$CSVFile = "\\Server\DeploymentShare\Info.csv"

#Check to see if OSDComputerName file exists from customised MDT DeployWiz_ComputerName script
if (Test-path("c:\windows\logs\Software\OSDComputerName.txt")){
    #File Exists
    #Check if the Completion log file exists, as we've already run the script once
    if (Test-path("c:\windows\logs\Software\CheckComputernamePackageComplete.log")){
        #Check File Exists, so we don't want to do anything
        write-host "Nothing to rename here, Check file exists"
    }
    else {
        #File doesn't exist, so lets check if we actually need to rename this workstation or not
        $NewComputerName = get-content c:\windows\logs\Software\OSDComputerName.txt
	    $NewComputerName=$NewComputerName.TrimEnd()
        if ($env:COMPUTERNAME -ne $NewComputerName){
            Write-Host "Computer name file and device name don't match so renaming"
            #Name doesn't match so lets rename the computer
            [PSCredential] $credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($username, $password)
            Rename-Computer -NewName $NewComputerName -DomainCredential $credential 
            echo "PC Renamed by Script" > c:\windows\logs\Software\CheckComputernamePackageComplete.log
            exit 3010

        }
    }
}
else {
    #File Doesn't exist so lets check the remote CSV file to see if it exists there
    #Grab the computers serial number so we can search the file
    $SerialNumber = Get-WmiObject -class win32_bios | Select-Object SerialNumber
    #Search the CSV file on Deployment server for specific serial number
    $list = Import-csv $CSVFile -Delimiter "," | Where-Object "Serial number" -eq $SerialNumber.SerialNumber
    #Check to see if there is a single entry, and if so grab the name.  If multiple then it's likely an old PC with no serial number stored in bios we can pull or does not exist in CSV
    if ($list.count -eq $null){
        #Write the value into the OSDComputerName file for future reference if needed
        echo $list.'Device name' > c:\windows\logs\Software\OSDComputerName.txt
        #Now lets rename the computer as we have a value
        [PSCredential] $credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($username, $password)
        Rename-Computer -NewName $list.'Device name' -DomainCredential $credential 
        echo "PC Renamed by Script" > c:\windows\logs\Software\CheckComputernamePackageComplete.log
        exit 3010
    }
    else {
        #We were not able to find a name, so leave it as is
        Write-host "No Computername file available, PC likely reset via InTune Console, so nothing to rename to so completing"
        echo "No OSD Computer File available to rename to" > c:\windows\logs\Software\CheckComputernamePackageComplete.log
    }
}

 

[kennysarmy]

15 hours ago, mullet_man said:

Never looked into OSDcloud, but will check it out! 

 

I only started looking at it last Monday and this morning I'm booting off a USB stick and it's currently installing Win11 25H2 after booting from a USB stick - pulling the image straight from Microsoft, I've added in the drivers for a test Stone PC so hopefully it will also install those - then the next thing would be to get it join the domain automatically and hand off remaining installation tasks to Intune. 

 

Saying all that I'm going to keep using MDT for as long as possible.

[itskdog]

1 minute ago, kennysarmy said:

join the domain automatically and hand off remaining installation tasks to Intune. 

 

Sounds like a job for Autopilot (presuming hybrid environment given you're talking about both Intune and AD) or a Provisioning Package made with Windows Configuration Designer saved to the root of the USB's filesystem.

[Boredguy]

One of the minor issues I see with OSDCloud compared to MDT, is that it wants to pull the OS from the cloud so for our sites with just 100mb FTTP connections it will become more of a bottleneck compared to the OS being local on the network server

[lparry]

3 minutes ago, kennysarmy said:

 

I only started looking at it last Monday and this morning I'm booting off a USB stick and it's currently installing Win11 25H2 after booting from a USB stick - pulling the image straight from Microsoft, I've added in the drivers for a test Stone PC so hopefully it will also install those - then the next thing would be to get it join the domain automatically and hand off remaining installation tasks to Intune. 

 

Saying all that I'm going to keep using MDT for as long as possible.

 

Just now, itskdog said:

 

Sounds like a job for Autopilot (presuming hybrid environment given you're talking about both Intune and AD) or a Provisioning Package made with Windows Configuration Designer saved to the root of the USB's filesystem.

The way I've done it - Autopilot.json profile gets injected during OSDCloud install adding it to Intune/Entra. This then falls into a dynamic group (enrollmentprofilename -eq "AutopilotID") which gives it the domain join config/renames the device etc.

No reason why you couldn't due a .PPKG though as thats built into OSDCloud as well I believe

[lparry]

6 minutes ago, Boredguy said:

One of the minor issues I see with OSDCloud compared to MDT, is that it wants to pull the OS from the cloud so for our sites with just 100mb FTTP connections it will become more of a bottleneck compared to the OS being local on the network server

I suspect you could specify it to pull from a local share fairly easily - I definitely know it can cache the download to the boot USB and just pull the files from that any subsequent deployments.

[kennysarmy]

12 minutes ago, Boredguy said:

One of the minor issues I see with OSDCloud compared to MDT, is that it wants to pull the OS from the cloud so for our sites with just 100mb FTTP connections it will become more of a bottleneck compared to the OS being local on the network server

 

 

In this video he explains how to use a local ESD or ISO so you don't need to download.

[garethEds]

I've just re-looked at https://www.osdcloud.com/ and it's all changed. I'm getting to old for this.

[ICT_GUY]

I have been using usb drives for years. 

I have an auto unnatend file that you can create using an online website. 

Then I have a bunch of scripts to install office, ask you what you want to rename the machine to, reboot. On reboot it joins the domain automatically, set a load of other settings, installs the wifi password automatically if on laptops.

I can image 20 laptops in an hour, no impact on the network and it is so simple my site manager helps me. 

Software is all installed via group policies. 

This has worked for me ever since windows 10 came out. 

I think this is the site I used to generate auto unattend. https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

Also you can inject drivers if you have some weird non standard hardware.

 

[BKGarry]

Well I went down the SCCM route, so much more "picky" than MDT.

 

Looking at you Adobe CC deployment, I had you working in MDT but SCCM seems to hate it right now.

 

Monday is going to be concentrating on that