cluberti

Probably because the original update (949425) was included in 2008 SP2, and thus won't install on an SP2 system as the binary already on the box includes that fix. The first update was released to fix an issue where the IPMI was disabled after OS boot, the second was to fix a deadlock/hang condition in the driver itself.

Is this a domain-joined machine, and do you log onto a domain with your account on that machine? It sounds as if you indeed have a roaming profile that is backed up (and restored, potentially) from a network share hosting your profile.

Jellybean does indeed find a product key, but that's the OEM's master key for imaging, and isn't used for activation at all (rather the certificates in the OS for auto-activation against the BIOS instead). You will have to use the product key from the COA sticker affixed to the laptop itself to actually input a key you can activate, as previous posters have mentioned, or you will have to restore the old image and back up the auto-activation information to be restored during a restore of an image onto that machine. Instructions on how to back up / restore OEM activation can be found elsewhere on this board.

Actually, SCCM relies on MDT for some things (if integration is enabled), but MDT itself is completely stand-alone. However, it's ok to find it daunting . I'd still recommend using MDT to build your answer files and task sequences, and boot to the MDT boot images from a PXE server or off of a bootable USB key rather than do things manually.

Have you looked into MDT?

It is indeed MSE.

Interesting. Could be a package incompat issue (using packages just applies all packages offline and lets the OS decide during specialize which updates to apply and which to discard). You will want to start by checking each package in your list and make sure you're not applying packages that update the same files, or switch to online package updating with WSUS.

Patching your image is ending up with packages having issues updating the WinSXS folder structure, and ultimately failing with E_ACCESSDENIED. What happens if, for instance, you simply download KB2487335, place it (and only it) in the Updates folder, and attempt to re-deploy your WIM file (so it should be pushing the Win7 SP1 image from the MSDN source with only that package) using a new stock task sequence with no changes whatsoever?

If you don't want to do this pre-build in WinPE (which is how Windows 7 is imaged and deployed, unlike XP), then yes, you have those limitations. Even Microsoft no longer recommends building and deploying images manually, the recommendation is to use MDT or SCCM.

I would doubt that by 2014 it will be any larger than about 25% other than asia (piracy, mostly), given the trends even this year in 2011. Microsoft usually keeps updates and such available for at least 5 years after an OS officially hits End Of Life, although this will be the first OS that required activation to hit EOL, so I suppose we'll see. I would expect activation servers to be online for a few years after 2014, and 2019 (given their previous behavior with updates and articles, etc) seems like a reasonable time. If you can still find hardware and drivers to install XP onto properly in 2019, I'd be very surprised. I guess "we'll see" is the answer, but Microsoft no longer supporting the OS but requiring activation will be the interesting bit once they start taking things down. Perhaps a hotfix to disable WPA is in the cards?

Hmmm. Could you zip up and attach your cbs.log from right after an install where this fails? In general, I'm not a fan of using the Packages node to install updates in MDT 2010, as it doesn't always work.... I generally recommend WSUS and the built-in Windows Update tasks.

It does not - boot.wim uses injected drivers only during it's own load (of WinPE). If you want drivers injected into the installed OS, you need to either inject them into the install.wim (and index) of the version of Windows you're installing, or use other methods like those described on Technet.

Given acquiring Windows XP nowadays isn't possible in the retail or OEM channels without a separate agreement from Microsoft (and OEM and volume versions of XP don't activate with Microsoft anyway), the actual amount of XP activations nowadays is probably a very small number. Not sure about when or if they'll turn them off, so to speak, but I think the quip above about DOS 6.0 is probably pretty accurate .

Does the package install manually on Windows 7 after it's installed?

Even at home I have two monitors attached to my desktop - one 21" monitor is in portrait mode (very tall, not very wide in this format) and running Outlook (very useful to have a tall monitor for email with the reading pane at the bottom); one 30" monitor is in landscape mode where most of my other work is done. Email is critical to my day-to-day, and as such it occupies one monitor entirely.

+1 - if you have an Acer that came with Windows, the product key is in a sticker affixed to the case or the power supply (some Acer laptops had the CoA / PID stuck on the power brick, and Samsung has been doing this lately too). That is your option, short of purchasing a copy of Windows.

It's been a wee bit slow for me the last few days from the west coast of the US, but I'm back home on the east coast and load speeds are fine with the same machine. Might want to do a tracert to see where the problem lies.

Please do not double post.

Disabling IPv6 is unsupported by Microsoft, and (as you've found with homegroup, some things will not work right (or at all) with it disabled. A better approach is to disable teredo, which is the component most people have issues with.

Not by default, no - it's part of the gather process. You could modify the scripts to handle it, but by default MDT and LTI is supposed to be resilient, so if you have existing content the utilities want to pick up where they left off, not whack and start over.

UEFI SecureBoot is a security mechanism to protect the OS in enterprise environments. However, it can be turned off (which allows dual-booting again), at the expense of some system security.

You can use vbscript to do it, but there's no command or API (by design) to handle this. http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2009/04/08/pin-items-to-the-start-menu-or-windows-7-taskbar-via-script.aspx

Note that LocalLow is specifically a Low Integrity location, so apps that run with Low IL can write to this folder (like IE and some of the others you see). These apps, running with Low IL, can't write to the Local or Roaming folder, which are Medium IL folder locations. More on MIC levels can be found here.

Recreate the profile path and shares (as configured in group policy) on a server with the same name (for offline files cache reasons), and make sure that the user has modify access to the share, and NTFS change control on all subfolders and files in their profile directory. This is (basically) the way policy creates the folder structure when a user first logs onto the domain with a roaming profile, so this is about all you need to do. As to it being a DC, make sure it holds no FSMO roles when you dcpromo it down (and you've allowed for replication), and rebuild it with the same name (removing the old computer object from AD before rebuilding). Name it the same, and rejoin the domain and re-dcpromo (if you still want it to be a DC).

Had a few Adaptec cards way back when that had actual UDMA/166 ports on them.