Deploying Windows 10

Brass Contributor

What's the most elegant and sustainable means by which to first customise and second deploy Windows 10 Pro to several PCs, all of which have identical hardware; individual Windows licences and; the same software and configuration requirements?

 

I'm trying to create a deployment solution that delivers a standardised build, one that I can manage and perform minor configuration changes to remotely, but one that I can also update centrally and redeploy as necessary.

 

Unfortunately, I do not have to a PC running Windows Server so please bear this in mind when making your recommendations.

 

There appear to be so many options these days, and it's difficult to identify the approach with the greatest longevity.

 

PS. I'm working my way through Deploying Windows 10 Anniversary Edition on Pluralsight, but not only is it out of date, it may not be the best approach/solution for my needs?

1 Reply

If you don't have anything right now, I would recommend using MDT as its free and is a great solution for deploying Windows 10. You would essentially build 2 deployment shares. One as a Windows 10 Factory and one as a Windows 10 Deploy. You can install Hyper-V on a regular Windows 10 system to build, test and deploy your task sequences. 

The factory will contain a link to your own managed WSUS server if you have one or you can point to MS directly and collect patches straight from them. The factory will also contain things like Office, .NET, redistributes etc in your task sequence - things that don't change often. You will run this and it will capture a wim of your OS and software and any other settings you added. 

The deploy share will contain a task sequence with that wim you captured, drivers and other additional software that tends to change. This way you can replace and update software on the fly. 

My suggestion would be to limit your customization's outside of the start menu. Don't over engineer your task sequences because they will be very difficult to update with the ongoing feature updates moving forward. Keep things simple. 

The Windows Configuration Designer is another tool but its premature. 

SCCM is another great tool but its built for the enterprise and has costly infrastructure that's needed.