The previous part of the MDT deployment and administration article series:
MDT Deployment & Administration. Part 3: Creating a New Task Sequence
After adding the first Task Sequence, we can open the CustomSettings file as follows: go to the path C:\DeploymentShare\Control. The file we need is located there. You can open it with Notepad. If you configured the file according to the guide, its contents will look roughly like this:
[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty
[Default]
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=NO
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES
SkipComputerBackup=NO
SkipBitLocker=NOFor a more convenient and faster system deployment, we’ll add lines to the [Default] block to minimize the number of actions required for deployment. After all these changes, the file will look as follows:
[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty
[Default]
OSInstall=Y
SkipCapture=YES
SkipBuild=YES
SkipUserData=YES
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES
SkipComputerBackup=YES
SkipSummary=YES
SkipDomainMembership=YES
SkipApplications=YES
SkipTimeZone=YES
TimeZone=145
TimeZoneName=Russian Standard Time
SkipLocaleSelection=YES
UILanguage=ru-RU
UserLocale=ru-RU
KeyboardLocale=en-US;0409:00000409;ru-RU;0419:00000419
SkipBitLocker=YES
SkipUserData=YESWhat did we add to this file, and what changed? We won’t see the prompt to back up the current machine, since it isn’t needed — we’re using completely empty disks. We skip entering user data and the local administrator password. We skip entering the Windows activation key, because by design the key is obtained from the MDM system during domain enrollment. Domain join is skipped, since we use a non-on-prem domain enrollment. We skip setting the time zone and set the standard one for Russia, otherwise Pacific time would be applied. We also set two keyboard layouts: Russian and English. The user interface will also be in Russian. After that we skip the BitLocker setup, leaving us only to rename the devices to suit our needs (serial number, asset number, or something else).
After configuring CustomSettings.ini, you also need to change the Bootstrap.ini file. It will likewise help reduce the number of actions required from installation to the user’s local desktop. This file can be found at the same path as CustomSettings.ini, the path is given above in the guide.
The Bootstrap.ini file can also be opened with Notepad. Initially it contains the following:
[Settings]
Priority=Default
[Default]
DeployRoot=\\Your-MDT\DeploymentShare$We’ll configure it for minimal interaction during OS installation. The resulting code is:
[Settings]
Priority=Default
[Default]
DeployRoot=\\Your-MDT\DeploymentShare$
UserID=Administrator
UserPassword=$uperPassw0rd123!
UserDomain=WORKGROUP
SkipBDDWelcome=YESThis code lets you skip entering the local administrator credentials for MDT, allowing a connection to the machine. It also skips the welcome screen, going straight to entering the device name.
After all these settings, you need to rebuild the image following the instructions from the previous articles. After that, you can start using MDT!