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thadkew

BGInfo and VNC for MDT 2010

Question

Recently, I started pushing our "field agents" into using the MDT at other sites. Sometimes I'll get a call asking what to do in "this" situation or "that" situation. As many times as I've tried to point folks to our knowledge base articles, I always wished I had a way to "look over their shoulder" so to speak.

I've been all over the google and bing to figure out how to accomplish this. Some will say that you need to edit the Unattend.xml file for the WinPE (that didn't work). Others will say "change the winpeshl.ini" (that didn't work either).

 

I'm sure there is a "prettier" way to do it, but this is what I've discovered:

---Ingredients---

UltraVNC

Notepad++

BGInfo

ConsoleSize (optional)

 

----Before we start----

customize your BGInfo file and name the output STEP0.bgi

customize your ultraVNC installation to make sure you have an ultravnc.ini file.

 

---Steps---

1: mount your LiteTouch PE image with dism (example: dism /mount-wim /wimfile:g:\boot\LiteTouchPE_x86.wim /index:1 /mountdir:e:\mnt_x86

2: navigiate to your mounted image and go to Deploy\Tools\x86 directory.

3: add the following files:

Winvnc.exe

vnchooks.dll

ultravnc.ini

bginfo.exe

STEP0.bgi

4: go to your mounted directory (e:\mnt_x86) and navigate to Windows\System32. Rename the file "winpeshl.ini" to "winpeshl.old" (we rename this file because the existence of his file will not allow startnet.cmd to run)

5: Edit the Startnet.cmd file with notepad++ and add these lines:

wpeutil InitializeNetwork

x:\deploy\tools\x86\Bginfo.exe X:\deploy\Tools\x86\STEP0.bgi /nolicprompt /silent /timer:0

x:\deploy\tools\x86\winvnc.exe -install

wpeutil DisableFirewall

wscript.exe X:\Deploy\Scripts\LiteTouch.wsf

(One note: it may be worthwhile to download the free tool "ConsoleSize." I use this to minimize the StartNet.cmd box If you do this, simply add ConsoleSize.exe to the Windows\system32 directory and add ConsoleSize MIN to the beginning of your startnet.cmd file)

6: Close out of all files and use dism to commit your new LiteTouchPE image (example: dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:e:\mnt_x86 /commit

7: Add the boot image to your WDS

 

You should be able to boot into your new image and notice that the command prompt will start. After a few moments, you will see the BGInfo background and you should be able to VNC into the PC now.

 

One thing I noticed is that the task sequence will start and run. Eventually the install will get to a point that it needs to reboot. However, the command prompt will still be open. You will need to manually close it so the process will continue.

 

Like I say, there are probably prettier ways to do it. But I spent two days mucking about and found this to my liking. Please add any comments or thoughts that might make this better.

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Figured out the command prompt issue. I just added a "Run Command Prompt" task in the sequence that will restart the machine and resume the process. The VNC session is cut (obviously), but by then the PC is most likely completing the imaging process anyway. My task sequence now looks like the attached. One caveat: Make sure to set the Options to "Continue on error"

post-6175-0-07252400-1304001772_thumb.png

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