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Showing posts from June, 2017

New Microsoft Update Model & SCCM Automatic Deployment Rule Filters

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When Microsoft introduced the new Windows servicing changes in 2016, everyone was confused. Why are we all being forced to change the way we have managed updates for years? Change is bad! There are three types of monthly updates for the impacted products (my opinion for enterprise use is color coded, green good / red bad) in the new monthly update model: Option 1 is the Security Only Quality Update which is just security updates for the month. Option 2 is the Security Monthly Quality Rollup which contains updates for the month, along with all previous months back to October 2016 ... think of this like a monthly service pack. Option 3 is the Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup which is released one week after Patch Tuesday and contains everything from Option 2, along with a preview of all the non-security features slated for Option 2 next month. Think of this like a beta or early release. Products impacted by these update models:  ...

SCCM Task Sequences Are Slow To Appear

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New task sequence deployments in SCCM often take FOREVER to show up in the Task Sequence Wizard and Software Center, but it doesn't have to be that way! Why does this happen? The answer is actually quite simple. If you don't pick an available time, SCCM sets the available time as whenever you ran the Deploy Software Wizard. In theory, it will go with your local time if you don't check the box for "UTC" time. SCCM doesn't do well with theory so the available time is often hours from the time you ran the wizard. To get around this issue, check the box for the deployment available time and set it to about 23 hours in the past. The SCCM DeLorean won't let you travel back farther than 24 hours in time so I always find it easy to change the date one day back and then add an hour, hence 23 hours. If you create your deployment like this, your task sequence will show up instantly in the Task Sequence Wizard and Software Center.  In theory, this ...