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Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

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MDT Installation

  1. Download MDT from Microsoft here
  1. Accept the terms of the EULA and click next.
  1. Change the install Path if needed and accept the default components by clicking next.
  1. Accept or deny CEP and click next.
  1. Install and allow MDT to make changes in UAC.
  1. When completed, click finish.

Creating a new Deployment Share

  1. Launch the Deployment Workbench.
  1. Right click on Deployment Shares and click New Deployment Share.
  1. Select your non-boot volume and create a folder then clock next.
  1. Name the Deployment Share and click next.
  1. Enter the description of the Share and click next.
  1. Accept the defaults and click next.
  1. Verify the summary and click next.
  1. When the install is complete, click finish.
  1. Verify the share is created, it should look like the screenshot.
  1. Check your deployment share folder in File Explorer, it should look like this.

Configuring the Deployment Share

  1. Right click on the Deployment Share and click Properties.
  1. On the general tab Make sure you have your target architecture(s) selected and if needed select Enable Multicast.
  1. On the rules tab you can modify how WindowsPE behaves during deployment. Here you can customize branding information, regional settings, AD admin account information, backup and restore settings and more. I will get into this more in a future addition to this collection.
  1. The WinPE tab will allow you to modify the Lite Touch boot image as well as the look and feel of Lite Touch itself.
  1. In the monitoring tab you can configure Progress monitoring to troubleshoot or track the progress of the deployment process.

WinPE Image generation

Anytime you make any changes to the previous sections you will have to do this step again for them to take effect

  1. On the WindowsPE tab, select your architecture and description, set the ISO name.
  1. Click on the Features sub-tab and add additional features before applying the settings and clicking OK.
  1. Right click on the Deployment Share and click Update Deployment Share.
  1. Accept the defaults, unless you need to regenerate the image from scratch, and click Next. If you ae following this guide for initial setup you can use the defaults as this will generate the image from scratch anyways.
  1. On the summary sceen, verify the settings are correct and click next.
  1. Once the process completes, click Finish.
  1. You can now go to the boot folder to get your boot images.

This process generates 2 images per architecture. The ISO can be burned to a disk or thumb drive, or you can 3use it to boot a VM for imaging with MDT. If you are planning to boot over the network using PXE using WDS you will need the wim file to add it there.

Adding install images

This article will only cover adding reference images, I will cover creating and adding custom images in a later addition to this collection.