First published on MSDN on Mar 02, 2007
In the SMS 2003 OSD feature pack one of the common challenges was having the correct drivers on hand ahead of time to ensure smooth operation during the imaging process. Further, seeing into the OSD process during the Windows PE phase required replacing the OSDSHELL ahead of time with the lab version. SCCM 2007 makes this easier.
Now, the driver import process is a simple matter of pointing at a directory - SCCM will scan every folder in that directory and import all drivers found - including audio, video, others. When you want to ensure the drivers are available for the PE portion of the install all you have to do is choose the boot image (which is the PE image) where you want to add the drivers, select the drivers to add and create the "image install" task sequence media. If you want to ensure the lab shell is available in PE, there is a single check box that will turn this on - so make sure you do this before burning the media.
Another welcome addition is the ability to "burn" the task sequence media onto a USB thumb drive. Not only does this increase the speed of loading PE but also makes updating the PE image easier - you don't have to have blank CD's on hand!
