Blog Post

Core Infrastructure and Security Blog
1 MIN READ

Task Sequences and advertisements

StevenRachui's avatar
StevenRachui
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Jan 21, 2019

First published on MSDN on Jul 15, 2008

Have been working a fair amount lately with task sequences.  Task sequences are traditionally thought of as a part of OSD - which is certainly true - but task sequences can also be deployed as advertisements - similar to standard software distribution.  There are tons of possibilities that open up when using task sequences through advertisements - too many to list here - a few of interest include

 

-Controlling specific order of software distribution
-Providing a mechanism to handle required reboots during distributions
-Developing diagnostic task sequences - to analyze/fix problems/collect logging info/respond to DCM 'out of compliance findings/etc.

 

One particularly interesting option is the ability to reboot a system from the running OS into windows PE - a process that is done all the time for OSD deployments but hasn't been used much for non-OSD purposes.  All sorts of possibilities for diagnostic/maintenance task sequences are available if we reboot to PE.  It would be possible to build task sequences to run scandisk and fix errors, change or update system files (would need to be very careful), etc.

 

If you haven't taken a look at the power of task sequences outside of OSD, it definately is worth a few minutes to consider the possibilities!

Updated Apr 07, 2020
Version 3.0
No CommentsBe the first to comment