Windows Server Essentials Connector An Unexpected Error Occurred

mslogo1Just recently i decided to rebuild my lab setup, which sits on a physical server in my office.

Unfortunately after painstakingly moving VHDs around my system to adjust disk space and rebuild arrays, i managed to format the wrong disk and lost it all! Being a lab setup i had not backed any of it up either.

Not the end of the world of course, more annoyed with myself than worried about the test VMs i lost.

Anyway, i noticed a thread in the TechNet forum (at least two actually) mentioning slow network performance with WIndows 10 after the latest update, and that removing the Essentials connector would remedy it.

So i set about building a Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials VM and a Windows 10 client. When trying to launch the connector I received this error:

An Error Occurred

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WSUS 2012 R2 and Windows 10 1703

DKIMI have been working on WSUS and Windows 10 for the last few days, following some rather annoying updates to newly deployed Surface Pro devices, and more importantly a grumbling comment from a co-worker ‘can’t we automate this stuff anymore?’.

Well i have to say that was the final straw. Windows 10 and WSUS has been a pain for me since it was released.

With hotfixes, tweaks and dances required and failing to get Windows 10 talking and working with WSUS consistently it perhaps was no surprise that i had opted to point 10 directly to Windows update and only control the schedule and ring, rather than the more traditional granular approach taken with Windows 7 and 8.

So, Yes, the answer is we should be able to manage patching with Windows 10.

Yes, we are going to manage it.

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MDT 2013 Windows 10 and the MSP Part 6

mslogo4Part 6, I feel like I have written a lot, yet still not scratched the surface of what MDT can do. I am confident I am right about that.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was how your Task Sequence can be further controlled based on the Client Hardware.

Everything I have written so far in my examples is based around a single Task Sequence to deploy Windows 10. You can create multiple Task Sequences of course, and it is straight forward enough to make them, you can even copy and paste them if you want to. Creating one Task Sequence for HP, one for Dell, one for the Microsoft Surface perhaps? That’s fine but we have three Task Sequences to manage now, and where is the fun in that?

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MDT 2013 Windows 10 and the MSP Part 5

mslogo6In Parts 1 – 4 we have covered topics like Installing and customising MDT, adding Operating Systems and Applications and creating Task Sequences.

Catch up here!

http://wp.me/p1i7Su-1Di – Part 1
http://wp.me/p1i7Su-1Dk – Part 2
http://wp.me/p1i7Su-1FR – Part 3
http://wp.me/p1i7Su-1EY – Part 4

In Part 5 we will look at more customisation, but of the Deployed Operating System.

I expect most people reading this will have deployed at least one Windows 10 device. You will also no doubt be familiar with some preinstalled Apps, such as Candy Crush or the plethora of other crap items that are loaded into the default start menu.

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MDT 2013 Windows 10 and the MSP Part 4

mslogo6In Part 1 we looked at installing MDT, In part 2 we configured MDT and deployed a Windows 10 computer via PXE boot, in Part 3 we looked at some more advanced customisations of MDT.

In part 4 we will add some Applications and Operating System Packages.

A computer is not much use without applications. Installing applications is a day to day and frankly boring task. Especially when deploying 20 computers and each need 4 or 5 applications. Read more of this post

MDT 2013 Windows 10 and the MSP Part 3

mslogo2In Part 1 we looked at Installation, Part 2 was configuring the basics of MDT. In Part 3 we will look at some more advanced settings for CustomSettings.ini.

When a client connects up to MDT, via PXE, USB or UNC it will launch LiteTouch.vbs. This is the script that kicks off the whole MDT process.

LiteTouch.vbs itself then kicks off a lot of other scripts and wizards that finally present you with your TaskID choices that you create with Task Sequences.

Before those TaskIDs are shown, your system has been interrogated for information about the architecture, vendor, bios version etc. This information can be used to shape the choices that MDT presents to you.

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MDT 2013 Windows 10 and the MSP Part 2

mslogo3In part 1 we looked at installing our MDT Server. In Part 2 we will look at some initial configuration of MDT.

The first time you open the Deployment Workbench you will want to create a Deployment Share.

A deployment share is the resource that holds all of your MDT Data, including Operating System Images, Applications, Drivers and Patches.

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