TravisG

So, I am revamping our deployment processing by using WIMs and PSADT. Sure it's a lot now, but should help easily update software down the line. That said, I typically would use MECM's ability to supersede an app. For example Solidworks 2022 would have an uninstaller, and then when I create the 2023 app, it would reference the 2022 app. But this meant I had to keep 2022 going for a while, which just seems unnecessary now. Now I am in the process of uninstalling all previous versions of an app within the pre-installation section of PSADT. For Solidworks, there is no all in one process of doing this. However, when building Solidworks with the admin image editor, there is an option to upgrade and/or uninstall a previous version, which means less work on my end. So, that's what I selected. So I ended up using that method so I can just call startswinstall and be done with it. When I do it manually and through the Software Center (when logged in), it works just fine. However, if a user never logged in and the app is required, it gets hung for some reason. Looking at the SummaryIMLog, it sets a registry key (which is just no feedback), and that's the last entry. Comparing that to a work install where it doesn't hang, it has the same line, but then a second later, the installer ends. So, with ath being said, I was wondering was anyone else running into a similar issue? I could just monitor that registry key, and then kill the installer process, but it just seems crazy to me how this is happening.

Hi Birty, I don't remember about preventing updates, but I think it's about changing something in the manifest files. I'm honestly not sure. Since I deployed this in November, it's been stuck on 4.27.1. I probably need to upgrade to 5 (is it out of beta?), but haven't had time to dig into it. The launcher trick is pretty much copying files to Program Files and granting access to either "Everyone" group or "Domain Users." For our labs, it really doesn't matter since we have login restrictions.

So this is going to be a weird request, and seem very backwards. So in our environment, every computer has the same lock screen. I force this by using a registry key: [color=#D4D4D4][font=Consolas]HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization /v LockScreenImage[/font][/color]. However, we have one particular user who actually wants to see the different images in Spotlight, and also get the tips and facts. Before Win11, I spent a few days researching what policies needed to be changed to get this working in Windows 10, and it worked. However, the same thing is not working in Windows 11. I'm not sure what has changed, but images assets are not being downloaded. I've re-registered the Content Delivery appx package, renamed the settings and roaming files, deleting many registry keys, and turned on most content delivery settings that I could see. When I set the lock screen to Spotlight, I only get the default blue flower. Also, we are not running on metered connection, and there should be no firewall blocking this. Again, from a network perspective, it is working fine in Windows 10 with the exact same firewall rules and GPOs. Normally, I would just shrug my shoulders and say oh well, but this is a VIP user (my boss's boss), and it is something I just cannot write off. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey all, So just like the title suggests, I would like to get rid of Teams as we are a G Suite school. Therefore, no need to have it automatically added. If a user needs to use it, they can either install the user-level app, or just use the browser (which is what we do on Windows 10). I'm ripping it out via a PowerShell script during OSD via MECM. But then I noticed that once OSD is completed, Teams gets installed upon the first login. So then I created a logon task to remove Teams using the SYSTEM account. And this works as intended. Then about 4 or 5 days later, Teams is reinstalled. And it's installed as a provisioned app. This tells me Microsoft is adding it back somehow. Just like I stated above, I don't want to completely Teams because there are a few legitimate cases, but for the most part it is not needed, and I'm trying to avoid confusing my users. Here is my code to remove it during logon. I know it's redundant, but it's a catch all, just in case. [color=#D4D4D4][font=Consolas][color=#9cdcfe]$TeamsProPkg[/color] = [color=#dcdcaa]Get-AppxProvisionedPackage[/color] -Online | [color=#dcdcaa]Where-Object[/color] { [color=#9cdcfe]$_[/color][color=#dcdcaa].DisplayName[/color] -like [color=#ce9178]'*Teams*'[/color] } | [color=#dcdcaa]Select-Object[/color] -ExpandProperty PackageName -First [color=#b5cea8]1[/color] [color=#dcdcaa]Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage[/color] -PackageName [color=#9cdcfe]$TeamsProPkg[/color] -Online -AllUsers -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue [color=#9cdcfe]$TeamsPkg[/color] = [color=#dcdcaa]Get-AppxPackage[/color] -AllUsers | [color=#dcdcaa]Where-Object[/color] PackageFullName -Match [color=#ce9178]'Teams'[/color] | [color=#dcdcaa]Select-Object[/color] -ExpandProperty PackageFullName -First [color=#b5cea8]1[/color] [color=#dcdcaa]Remove-AppxPackage[/color] -Package [color=#9cdcfe]$TeamsPkg[/color] -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -AllUsers | [color=#dcdcaa]Out-Null[/color] [/font][/color] Is there a registry key or something that tells Windows to install it? Checked the GPOs, but don't see anything but the chat icon. I haven't tried using dism.exe, but I'm sure the above cmdlets are the same as using dism.exe. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Again, definitely appreciate the reddit. This is to help people in the future. I can confirm this works on the date of me writing this post in Windows 10 21H2. Here is my list of files. Here is the command batch I use. I deploy this via MECM v2107. The DirectX is probably overkill, but better than nothing. I'm using the 2015 C++ Redsitrb files. Lastly, my PowerShell script installs .NET 3.5 based off the OS. Even though Add-Capability should work, I just use dism and grab the files from the sxs folder. Everything else is explained in the post above.

Alright, did you run into issues not seeing the manifest files?This is all I have: PS C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests> gci -Recurse | select fullname FullName -------- C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests\Pending C:\ProgramData\Epic\EpicGamesLauncher\Data\Manifests\96C4EF59435D60A882E1B28ADDB37329.item Also, are you in LTSB/C or running 20H2 (or some other Enterprise version)? I'll reach out on the reddit post, but since it's two years old, not hopeful I would get a reply.

This is extremely helpful. Not sure why I couldn't fine this post. Anywho, when you say the method worked for you, which one are you referring to? There's two in the comments, and then the Rich guy on his blog. Also, do you need to have the launcher installed to use it? It looks like you can call UE4Editor.exe, but I guess it needs the Launcher if that's the case. Students will be using their domain accounts, and I would like to prevent them from attempting to install anything else from the Launcher if possible. Again, thanks for the help!

I know I am grasping at air, but ayn help is greatly appreciated. Following practices of most universities, our students don't have administrative rights. We used to use DeepFreeze, but ran into problems with updates, GPOs, and just a hassle altogether. So we went with whitelisting, deleting profiles, and marking most of the C:\ drive as read-only. Not only do not have to worry about thawing and freezing, but it allows us to instantly deploy new programs easily. Anywho, I have a professor who is teaching using the Unreal Engine. Now, on my personal time, I personally use teh Epic Games Launcher for my games. However, it looks like Unreal is only tied to the Launcher, which requires administrative rights to at least update it. Now I can pre-isntall the pre-reqs, but not sure if I am missing anything else. I tried to download the source code from Github, and compile it using VS Studio 2022, but it seems likes a hassle. And I'm no compiling expert, but would this build work across similar machines, or only the machine I'm building it for? With all of that said, is there anyway to truly install the engine? I know it can't be done silently, but if I can do it one box, and then deploy it to the classroom and create shortcuts, that would be extremely helpful.

So, looks like I can add it to a non-lab computer running Windows 11. So that tells me it is some policy affecting it. Now, we did have to fumble around with settings to get Print Nightmare stuff to go away. I think the number one thing was fooling around with the Print Spooler files. I'm guessing when I reverted back to the September files, the W11 upgrade tried to install the latest files, but there was a conflict somewhere. I didn't even think to test this because it was working before the upgrade. But this is a good starting point.

Well, before Windows 11 hit GA, I ran a report and found 560 out of 870 machines that can't run Windows 11 (mostly 6th and 7th gens). I am testing it, but need to get printers working. I don't care about UI changes, because that's normal. I'm targeting Fall 2022 when I acutally deploy it. Definitely need to get some real-world testing, and have a few volunteers. One thing I'm looking forward to is WSL2 and finally getting rid of dual-booting.

I got mine working in Hyper-V. I set it for TPM and Secure Boot. For some reason, 4096MB failed, but 5000MB worked. Ended up graded my machine from 32GB to 64GB to support multiple VMs.

So probably looking over something really small, but I can't find it. Right now, I'm in the testing stages of deploying Windows 11 via a MECM task sequence. After about a week of tweaks and VM reverts, I finally got a successful upgrade without Teams and the other junk that gets installed. Before the upgrade, printers worked just fine...even with all the print nightmare updates. Instead of GPOs, re deploy printers from our print server using WMI. The reason we don't do a direct add is because we use pCounter. $printclass = [wmiclass]"win32_printer" $printclass.AddPrinterConnection("\\server.fqdn.edu\Sample Printer") And this worked with no issue. Then after I upgrade to Windows 11, this breaks. Gives me different error codes for different printers (3221225480 & 1722). I checked to see if the printers were configured any differently, but they're aren't. Again, these are in production with Windows 10 just fine. We also pre-install the Universal HP Drivers, so that's not a problem as well. I'm not sure if Windows 11 supports type 3 drivers or not, but that would be a bit weird if it didn't. Even then, pCounter is unable to support Type 3 drivers...according to my reading. I just can't figure out the issue here.