4 Quick Automation Tips For Faster MDT Deployments

We often get asked to create processes and methods to speed up manual tasks within the IT department at our largest client of almost 400 people.

Here are 4 of my favourite tips for faster MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkits) automation that saves hundreds of hours of time, inconsistencies and mistakes:

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By Ben Chiciudean, NGneer®

7th December, 2016

Making the image smaller by cleaning the setup files for installed updates, temporary files, we don’t really need these for image base. We can do this using disk clean-up and run this command as well: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
Switch ImageX with DISM for MDT deploy/capture and you will get a reduction of between 5 and 15 minutes less. Ref on how to do it: https://deploymentbunny.com/2014/05/19/nice-to-know-switch-from-imagex-to-dism-in-mdt/
Enable High Performance on WinPE power management as described on this article: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/deploymentguys/2015/03/26/reducing-windows-deployment-time-using-power-management/.This can gain you again 5-15minutes depending on the hardware.
And LAST ONE if you have enough RAM, create a RAM DISK and store the capture/images there or hot plug 2-3 SSDs in RAID0.
1. Total time for client image to complete (+ BIOS Updates) & Without RAMDISK or SSDs: 40minutes
2. Compressed .WIM file: 30GB
3. Total size on the PC: 80GB

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