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Blue Screen of Death Appears at TechDays Ottawa

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The dreaded blue screen of death has appeared at TechDays here in Ottawa.

Blue Screen of Death in WINRE TechDays Demo

This was in the Windows Recovery session and it was part of the demo. They made it appear by feeding “Green Eggs and Ham” to SAM. When the SAM is replaced by something that is not supposed to be there, this is what happens. WINRE was used to recover the SAM and make the computer boot again.

This was just one of the many great sessions on Day 1 of TechDays in Ottawa. I presented the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 (MDT 2010) on Day 1; Day 2 is running today and I will be presenting Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 (WSUS). There are many great sessions going on today; Exchange 2010, DirectAccess and Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 (ACT) are some of today’s great sessions, so be sure to check them out.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Released

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The new version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2010) has been released today. MDT is the recommended toolset to automate server and desktop deployments. Having used it for about 2 years I find it the best tool for deploying new Windows computers. Every computer which enters into service in the library system has its operating system and its applications deployed onto using MDT.

Highlights of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010

  • Unified tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance.
  • Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.
  • Fully automated Zero Touch Installation deployments by leveraging System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate and Windows deployment tools. For those without a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure, MDT leverages Windows deployment tools for Lite Touch Installation deployments.

New Features for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)2010

  • Access deployment shares from anywhere on the network and replicate files and settings across organizational boundaries or sites.
  • Organize and manage drivers, operating systems, applications, packages, and task sequences with an improved UI.
  • Automate UI functionality using the new Windows PowerShell command line interface.

Now that you know what it can do for you, your next step is to download Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010. You can learn more about MDT by visiting the MDT site on TechNet.

Using MDT 2010 to Deploy Windows 7 to a VHD

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I was getting caught up on some blog reading over my lunch hour and noticed a new post by the Deployment Guys on their blog. If you didn’t know, with Windows 7, you can now boot from VHD; there is even a trick to make Windows Vista boot from VHD. Booting loads the VHD and uses your physical hardware, its a great way multi-boot a computer into an OS that is VHD aware. In the Microsoft world, at this point in time, this means Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

The post from the Deployment Guys blog explains how to deploy Windows 7 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 (MDT 2010) to a computer and instead of deploying to Disk 0 Partition 1, it is set to deploy to VHD file.

How to Setup MDT to Create a Boot from VHD Deployment

So how do we do this? Here’s the point form version. (You can get pictures from the Deployment Guys blog)

  1. Create a task sequence to deploy Windows 7
  2. You are going to insert 3 steps in the Pre-Install \ New Computer only phase
  3. Edit the task sequence that changes how the drive is partitioned (I presented how to do this at TechDays Ottawa). In this case we don’t want to partition or format the drive. Disable this task sequence.
  4. Insert a Set Task Sequence Variable Step named Set Boot VHD Location. You set the location of the VHD file is by setting the Task Sequence Variable to BootVHDLocation and set the Value to the location where you want the file to exist. (for example C:\Boot1Windows7.vhd) Ensure that the file you named in the variable doesn’t already exist.
  5. Insert a Set Task Sequence Variable Step named Set Boot VHD Size. Set the task sequence variable to BootVHDSize and set the value to the maximum size you want the VHD to be. Ensure you have enough space to grow to the maximum.
  6. Insert a Run Command Line Step and call it Setup VHD. The command line is cscript.exe “%SCRIPTROOT%\ZTIDiskPartVHD.wsf (There is no start in value.)
  7. Download the script ZTIDiskPartVHD.wsf and copy is to your Distrobution$\Scripts folder. The link to the script is at ZTIDiskpartVHD.zip
  8. Run your task sequence on a computer and it will install Windows 7 into a VHD.

This doesn’t work on machines that use Bitlocker to encrypt the drive.

The full article can be found at: http://blogs.technet.com/deploymentguys/archive/2009/03/03/deploying-win-7-to-boot-from-vhd-with-mdt-2010.aspx. They have pretty pictures to help you out.

This is a really smart way to boot into different environments. You can have different VHD images for different tasks, ie. One for programming, one for gaming, etc. Pretty sweet and easy to deploy when using MDT