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Fully Automated: DeployStudio Dual Boot

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 side of things.

I did need to learn how to make Windows 10 into a deployable .pkg, which was the final piece needed to automate the entire dual-boot deployment process. Continue reading “Fully Automated: DeployStudio Dual Boot”

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How To Make An Automagic Windows 10 Boot Camp Install .pkg

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 single piece of hardware in an automated fashion is a challenge.

This post describes how I went about creating a sysprep’d Windows image in a .pkg format, so it could be easily run on a Mac or deployed through something like JAMF. Continue reading “How To Make An Automagic Windows 10 Boot Camp Install .pkg”

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How To Image A Computer With Windows 10 Using dism

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 the initial setup screens
    • create a local admin account
    • activate Windows with a product key
    • (optionally) configure other Window settings
  • capture a deployable Windows 10 .wim file using sysprep
  • deploy the image to multiple computers using the dism command line tool and WinPE
  • (optionally) add drivers to the .wim file

Continue reading “How To Image A Computer With Windows 10 Using dism”

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Windows: Uninstall Programs Via Command Line (Sudo Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall)

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 name

Continue reading “Windows: Uninstall Programs Via Command Line (Sudo Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall)”

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Altiris: Fix Error 1618: Another Installation Is Already In Progress

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 this error and then I can finish running the failing job. Continue reading “Altiris: Fix Error 1618: Another Installation Is Already In Progress”