I was recently tasked with deploying dual-boot Macs to all new staff. Naturally, I wanted this to be as automated as possible so it was repeatable and consistent. I already knew how to use an answer file to fully-automate the Windows side of the deployment. And I also knew how to fully automate the Mac […]
I spent a long time trying to automate a dual-boot deployment of macOS and Windows 10. The reason being is that it’s very useful to only buy a single piece of hardware (Apple) and have it run Windows and macOS (and maybe Linux, too). But getting two completely different operating systems to deploy to a […]
WinPE is a useful tool for booting a computer and laying down a new operating system. In this post, I’ll show you how to make WinPE a little more useful by automatically running a custom script at startup.
If you want to image a lot of computers with a clean Windows 10 image, Microsoft has lots of built-in tools to help do this, but it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed with their documentation. To alleviate that headache, I will explain step-by-step how to: create and use an Unattended.xml file that will: skip […]
I recently discovered this keyboard shortcut, which works in Windows 7 and 8. It has been around for a long time, but I never knew about it. The keyboard shortcut allows you to quickly snap windows the left, right, or top of the screen.
I love when Windows command line tools are actually useful and friendly. wmic is a rare one that fits the bill. I use the following command to uninstall programs silently (using Java as an example). Find The Program Name Run this command first to get the list of programs you can uninstall: wmic product get […]
I’m still stuck using Altiris 6.9DS. It works, but it’s also finicky. I often run into error 1618, which means another install is in progress (download the full error list here). This is not always the case, but sometimes, other jobs can make it seem this way. I run a simple command to clear out […]
One thing I have always found frustrating about buying a PC with windows re-installed (among many things) is you don’t always have easy access to the product code. Sometimes it is posted on a sticker, but often it is not. How To Geek shows how to get the product code using a simple script.
Install An IP Printer This will create a new printer port at the IP address 10.10.10.10 and name it IP_10.10.10.10. cscript %windir%\system32\printing_admin_scripts\en-us\prnport.vbs -a -r IP_10.10.10.10 -h 10.10.10.10 -o raw -n 9100 Then this will add the printer to that port with the correct driver (found on a network share).
I often use this command to create a scheduled shutdown. You could also use to run any program you want. schtasks /Create /SC daily /RU DOMAIN\user-account /RP myPassword /ST 18:00 /TN Auto-shutdown1800 /TR “%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe /s /f” Just replace your username, password, and give it a unique name.