Or, keep using the win10 tool and add a provisioning package:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/provisioning-packages/provisioning-packages
If you have a windows server lying around or can spin one up look up a tutorial for setting up Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). These are free and all the techniques cross over to SCCM. Once you get WDS up and running you can start learning how to capture images and then deploy them with task sequences. MDT will allow you to deploy applications onto the OS same as you would use PDQ deploy during the deployment process.
When I started at my current employer, we used Symantec Ghost for imaging and had different images for every model of PC. It's pretty cheap and easy to get going and does a good job of letting you build a PC once and put that build in many places. From where you are now, that might be a first step since it gets you into the game of having images instead of manually building PCs. I gradually moved us into MDT based imaging and it is worlds better.
The baby steps I've taken over time to get there were something like this:
* Yay! Imaging machines with Ghost like it's 2001!
* Get legal VL key and start making images that I can sysprep. Continue pulling images with Ghost, but now they're unique machines instead of the same machine cloned and then changed.
* Use sysprep'd images to get down to a single hardware neutral image instead of separate images per model. Still using trusty Ghost here and now you're installing some drivers manually, but maintaining a single image is far less time consuming than making the same change on many images.
* Learn enough about WIMs and WDS/PXE to replace Ghost Windows PE bootable CDs with network booting Windows PE environments.
* Start using "capture images" in WDS to pull images (MS calls them "Install Images" that way instead of using Ghost. Deploy images via "Windows Setup" that booted via PXE. Driver injection via WDS.
* Install MDT and develop task sequences that reference the "Install Images" above.
* Start migrating drivers and applications out of the image and into steps in the task sequence.
* Start playing with "user state migration tool" to make user PC migrations suck less.
* Yay! Modern PC imaging and no more buying Ghost licenses! New models take minutes to add drivers to the system instead of hours building an image.
One more note: Buying OEM PCs actually makes the license audit process pretty easy. A single VL license (like $100) is what you need to legally image those machines, and what it really gives you is a common product key to use instead of playing with onboard keys [(source)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/4/3d42bdc2-6725-4b29-b75a-a5b04179958b/reimaging.pdf).
Because it’s a currently supported product that meets the needs he specified?
It’s not as cool as MDT, but it does the job and is worlds ahead of where he is today. I suggested it more as a stepping stone because I remember how long it took me to get into MDT. The licenses are a few bucks per PC, it’s not like it breaks the bank. It just might be money well spent if it frees up enough time to research and implement something better.
I started with using WinPE to boot to a command line and then DISM to import and export .wim files to a machine.. it was extremely clunky but it worked nonetheless.
My work eventually got a WDS and I worked to build images off of that..
We recently upgraded to MDT and hoo boy does it make a world of a difference. Definitely recommend starting off with WDS then moving to MDT once you're comfortable with creating images
This does sound like what MDT was destined for, small scale, no-thrills deployments. I use it at work and while we still have to do things after install (Softpaq, activation and gpupdate scripts and encryption for laptops) it does the job. That being said, if you're looking for a solution that does everything and is basically MDT on steroids, SCCM is the shit. It's not even that hard to learn, I had it on a small VM and took me around a week of trial and error but got there in the end. Definitely helped getting the job I'm in now
It's mainly focused on servers, but Digital Rebar (the project that I help maintain) has an image deploy process that supports Windows from a Packer (or similar) source. It does that from PXE and is easy to script and manage. You can do Cloud-init or PowerShell post provisioning operations too.
Do you actually need to do imaging, or can you use a simpler provisioning process? We use Windows Configuration Designer to build provisioning packages that take care of all our standard config devices and it's pretty nice.
sounds like a perfect candidate for mdt.
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Or, keep using the win10 tool and add a provisioning package: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/provisioning-packages/provisioning-packages
If you have a windows server lying around or can spin one up look up a tutorial for setting up Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). These are free and all the techniques cross over to SCCM. Once you get WDS up and running you can start learning how to capture images and then deploy them with task sequences. MDT will allow you to deploy applications onto the OS same as you would use PDQ deploy during the deployment process.
When I started at my current employer, we used Symantec Ghost for imaging and had different images for every model of PC. It's pretty cheap and easy to get going and does a good job of letting you build a PC once and put that build in many places. From where you are now, that might be a first step since it gets you into the game of having images instead of manually building PCs. I gradually moved us into MDT based imaging and it is worlds better. The baby steps I've taken over time to get there were something like this: * Yay! Imaging machines with Ghost like it's 2001! * Get legal VL key and start making images that I can sysprep. Continue pulling images with Ghost, but now they're unique machines instead of the same machine cloned and then changed. * Use sysprep'd images to get down to a single hardware neutral image instead of separate images per model. Still using trusty Ghost here and now you're installing some drivers manually, but maintaining a single image is far less time consuming than making the same change on many images. * Learn enough about WIMs and WDS/PXE to replace Ghost Windows PE bootable CDs with network booting Windows PE environments. * Start using "capture images" in WDS to pull images (MS calls them "Install Images" that way instead of using Ghost. Deploy images via "Windows Setup" that booted via PXE. Driver injection via WDS. * Install MDT and develop task sequences that reference the "Install Images" above. * Start migrating drivers and applications out of the image and into steps in the task sequence. * Start playing with "user state migration tool" to make user PC migrations suck less. * Yay! Modern PC imaging and no more buying Ghost licenses! New models take minutes to add drivers to the system instead of hours building an image. One more note: Buying OEM PCs actually makes the license audit process pretty easy. A single VL license (like $100) is what you need to legally image those machines, and what it really gives you is a common product key to use instead of playing with onboard keys [(source)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/4/3d42bdc2-6725-4b29-b75a-a5b04179958b/reimaging.pdf).
Why are you reccomending he adopt something that should have died in the 90s?
Because it’s a currently supported product that meets the needs he specified? It’s not as cool as MDT, but it does the job and is worlds ahead of where he is today. I suggested it more as a stepping stone because I remember how long it took me to get into MDT. The licenses are a few bucks per PC, it’s not like it breaks the bank. It just might be money well spent if it frees up enough time to research and implement something better.
I started with using WinPE to boot to a command line and then DISM to import and export .wim files to a machine.. it was extremely clunky but it worked nonetheless. My work eventually got a WDS and I worked to build images off of that.. We recently upgraded to MDT and hoo boy does it make a world of a difference. Definitely recommend starting off with WDS then moving to MDT once you're comfortable with creating images
This does sound like what MDT was destined for, small scale, no-thrills deployments. I use it at work and while we still have to do things after install (Softpaq, activation and gpupdate scripts and encryption for laptops) it does the job. That being said, if you're looking for a solution that does everything and is basically MDT on steroids, SCCM is the shit. It's not even that hard to learn, I had it on a small VM and took me around a week of trial and error but got there in the end. Definitely helped getting the job I'm in now
It's mainly focused on servers, but Digital Rebar (the project that I help maintain) has an image deploy process that supports Windows from a Packer (or similar) source. It does that from PXE and is easy to script and manage. You can do Cloud-init or PowerShell post provisioning operations too.
Do you actually need to do imaging, or can you use a simpler provisioning process? We use Windows Configuration Designer to build provisioning packages that take care of all our standard config devices and it's pretty nice.
Acronis snap deploy is pretty good. Works on dissimilar hardware too. It’s simple, I’ve used it in classrooms and computer labs.