Category: configmgr

Customize the Default user profile during your Windows 10 OSD

09-Jul-2017 / David / 0 Comments

Introdcution

In this article, I will show how you can edit the default user profile, as part of your Windows 10 deployment task. There are multiple methods available to edit the default user profile (GPO’s, logon scripts, copy configured profile over the default profile,…), but my preferred method for modifying the default user experience is to edit the default user profile directly using a script that is run during Windows deployment.
This script can also be run on existing machines. This approach can easily be adjusted to your likings, is easy to perform, and does not require lots of preparation.

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Silent installation and removal of MSI packages

01-Nov-2016 / David / 0 Comments

Installing MSI files silently

To perform the really silent installation of an MSI file, you can use a command line which looks like this:

msiexec.exe /i ApplicationName.msi /qn /norestart

Some MSI files provide more options, usually to let you customize the application (apply settings, install only some parts,…).

Removing MSI files silently

To perform the silent removal (uninstallation) of an MSI file, use a command line which looks like this:

msiexec.exe /x {ProductCode} /qn

There is also a more generic command to remove applications that were installed by MSI files:

wmic product where "caption like '%Google Chrome%'" call uninstall /nointeractive

In this example, Google Chrome would be uninstalled silently (or more specifically, apps with “Google Chrome” in their name).

How to find the MSI product code

A simple one-liner in Powershell will do:

get-wmiobject Win32_Product | Format-Table IdentifyingNumber, Name

This will produce output looking much like this:

{26A24AE4-039D-4CA4-87B4-2F32180102F0} Java 8 Update 102
{E1201675-B966-4B97-82D9-01F292173B49} Client Center for Configuration Manager
{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100} Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
{343D4507-997F-4553-9F86-2BB81F19A05E} Configuration Manager Client
{BBAF8C17-51A4-3A52-A9C7-08229B38346E} Google Chrome
{90D295B8-BA08-487E-B904-0E624209A410} Microsoft Policy Platform
{B175520C-86A2-35A7-8619-86DC379688B9} Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 x86 Additional Runtime 
{1F1C2DFC-2D24-3E06-BCB8-725134ADF989} Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x86
{165CC34D-37E9-4B88-A5AA-D0FA2EB5A8CE} DameWare Mini Remote Control 7.5
{EC542D5D-B608-4145-A8F7-749C02BE6D94} Dell Command | Update

The productcodes can then be found in the left colum of the output. Note that the above line of code will return the productcodes of all the MSI-based software, installed on your system. This might take quite some time.

If you want to lookup the productcode of a specific software, the next code example might be more useful:

get-wmiobject Win32_Product | where Name -Like "*Acrobat Reader*" | Format-Table IdentifyingNumber, Name

In this case, the output returns the productcode for just 1 product:

IdentifyingNumber                      Name                   
-----------------                      ----                   
{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100} Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

Enjoy 🙂

How to modify the Configuration Manager Client Cache Size

31-Oct-2016 / David / 0 Comments

Intro

When using SCCM 2012, the default cache size for the ConfigMgr client is 5 GB (5120 MB). This setting could cause problems when you have large applications to deploy during an OSD. These deployments could fail simply because the size of the SCCM Client Cache is not big enough to cache all of the application installation files.
Note that Software updates also use the client cache, but software updates are not restricted by the configured cache size and will always attempt to download to the cache folder. The cache folder is usually C:\Windows\ccmcache.

How to set the SCCM client cache size

Changing the cache size can be done using the wmic command. You also need to restart the CCMEXEC service on the client computer to have it use the new cache size. The following script shows you how:

@echo off
cls
REM -- in this example, set cache size to 12000 MB
wmic /namespace:\\ROOT\CCM\SoftMgmtAgent path cacheconfig set size=12000

REM -- then restart SCCM client service
sc.exe stop ccmexec
timeout /T 4
sc.exe start ccmexec

Save it as .bat file, create a package for this script, include it in your OSD task sequence, or deploy it to your clients collection.

Enjoy 🙂