Mind Circus

Here’s a sample of the UK rules we use at DisplayLink for our MDT 2010 Deployment Shares:

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]
OSInstall=Y
SkipAppsOnUpgrade=YES
SkipCapture=YES
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES

;Skips Welcome Screen
SkipBDDWelcome=YES

; VISTA LOCALE SETTINGS
KeyboardLocale=0809:00000809
UserLocale=en-GB
InputLocale=0809:00000809
SystemLocale=en-GB
UILanguage=en-US

;BitLocker
OSDBitLockerWaitForEncryption = "FALSE"
BdeRecoveryKey=AD
BDEInstall=TPMPin
BdeInstallSupress=NO
OSDBitLockerMode=TPMKey
OSDBitLockerCreateRecoveryPassword=AD

;SkipTimeZone=YES
TimeZone=85
TimeZoneName=GMT Standard Time

UserDataLocation=AUTO

SkipComputerBackup=YES

Here’s a sample BOOTSTRAP.INI that we use at DisplayLink for MDT deployments.

This will pre-fill a number of options throughout the MDT WinPE Deployment Wizard.

Share and enjoy

[Settings]
Priority=Default

[Default]
DeployRoot=\\MDTSERVER\Distribution$

SkipBDDWelcome=YES



KeyboardLocale=0809:00000809
UserLocale=en-GB
InputLocale=0809:00000809
SystemLocale=en-GB
UILanguage=en-US
UserDomain=YOURDOMAIN

Need to hot-add RAM to a Linux Guest OS in VMware vShpere 4? Some good instructions are provided here

Some quick notes on how we deploy DisplayLink drivers internally here at DisplayLink. Due to our unique requirements, we don’t deploy our software via GPSI, as our Developers need to use bleeding-edge drivers, rather than the publicly released ones!

Instead we deploy them manually when setting up a PC. DisplayLink IT uses the publicly available Corporare Install files, which are distributed as MSIs. This allows you to do silent, automated installs of our software without having to accept a EULA each time. For ease, I  use AutoIT to do the actual installation as it’s nice and flexible, and we tend to buy laptops on an ad-hoc/purpose specific basis, so Drive Imaging would consume more time than it would save!

1. Get the DisplayLink Corporate Install files from here: http://www.displaylink.com/corporateinstall/ (You’ll need to register, but it’s a one-time thing)
2. Extract the both the 32-bit and 64-bit MSIs in the zip file to somewhere useful. If you want to deploy them via GPSI, check out the PDF (I wrote it, and welcome any comments/suggestions, as I have a lot to learn about GPSI!)
3. For silent installations, I put the MSIs all in one directory and just rename the files as appropriate for each architecture (see below for the naming I use)

The main command lines you need are:

32-bit:

msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkCore-32bit.msi /norestart /passive

msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkSetup-32bit.msi /norestart /passive

64-bit:

msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkCore-64bit.msi /norestart /passive

msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkSetup-64bit.msi /norestart /passive

Here’s the AutoIT code, should you need it:

If @OSArch = "X86" Then

$PID = Run('msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkCore-32bit.msi /norestart /passive')
ProcessWaitClose($PID)
$PID = Run('msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkSetup-32bit.msi /norestart /passive')
ProcessWaitClose($PID)

ElseIf @OSArch = "X64" Then

$PID = Run('msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkCore-64bit.msi /norestart /passive')
ProcessWaitClose($PID)
$PID = Run('msiexec /i \\server\share\DisplayLinkSetup-64bit.msi /norestart /passive')
ProcessWaitClose($PID)

EndIf

Some brief notes on how to change the source UNC path in a GPSI GPO

Instructions are for Server 2008.

Backup the GPO…

1. Open up “Group Policy Management” console
2. Find the GPO with the GPSI source UNC you’d like to change
3. Right click it, choose “Backup”
4. Back up the GPO a directory, eg C:\GPOs\

Now we need to edit the GPO and change the UNC…

1. In the GPMC left-hand pane, click on Domains
2. In the GPMC toolbar, click on Actions, then Open Migration Table Editor
3. In the Migration Table Editor, click on “Tools” then “populate from Backup”
4. Choose the backup you want to change
5. In the Table Editor, change the Destination name to the new UNC path
6. Now we need to save the migration table.
7. Click File, Save.
8. Save the file as something meaningful, preferably in C:\GPOs\

Now we need to apply the new settings…

1. Go back to the Group Policy Management Console
2. Find the GPO you need to change and Right-click on it
3. Choose “Import Settings…”
4. Click Next twice.
5. Browse to your backup folder (C:\GPOs)
6. Confirm the GPO backup whose settings you want to import, then click next.
7. After the scan is complete, click Next
8. Now we need to apply the Migration Table mapping:
   1. Choose “Using this migration table…”
   2. Browse to your migration table settings that you saved earlier.
   3. Now click Next, and then Finish
   4. That’s it!