Windows 10 Deployment

[Simon Wright]

Who's got this down pat?

Most specifically the start menu and built-in/store apps. Everything else is just par for the course from Windows 7 days.

So ive gone through the whole laying out my start menu  and exporting it adding to a group policy to deploy, but for some reason its not always consistent at actually applying.

Especially when you add the section for pinning apps to the task bar.

What i'm playing/trying now is instead of redirecting the desktop and startmenu folder over the network is to create them locally and populate them via group policy/script.

this way i have a consistent location for the start menu layout to point to as some apps create shortcuts under the user rather than system wide etc.. 

The other thing is about removing or not displaying the built-in/store apps.

I'm googling all that now, i know from past readings that people used powershell scripts to remove them from the core image, then other say they just get reinstalled anyway.

So if anyone has got this sussed and has a foolproof way of doing all this or even mostly foolproof and is willing to share, i would be very grateful.

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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[Nick Steenson]

Also interested in this. It's been hell, even PC's with the same image + same GPOs being applied seem to have different start menu issues sometimes.

Nick

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Nick Steenson ICT Technician Mt Aspiring College p: +643 443 0463 (Ext 830) a: Plantation Rd, Wanaka 9305 e: stee...@mtaspiring.school.nz

[Matt Strickland]

Hi Simon,

I cheat a little and have 3 different images on my desktop in vmware (one a base W10 + office)  another with the same + adobe in limited form (no video edit tools) then the last with adobe fully deployed.

This is aimed at 3 sets of different hardware/spec around the school (cheap netbooks W10 no adobe stuff, teachers laptops W10 full adobe etc)

These images are often booted for latest updates and shutdown. I capture these every so often, then just revert the snapshot for next time.

I deploy browsers, symantec, other apps etc during the deployment phase as these are light, small and fast.

I also run a powershell script to remove provisioned apps (only some) but keep the store and a few others.

I don't currently modify the start menu however I would do this in the deployment phase, likely export a modified layout to xml and run this during the state restore phase.

If needed I can post up the remove app script but its a copy from online somewhere modified for personal preference. Some don't like doing this but it hasn't caused any issues for us.

Matt

[Simon Wright]

Thanks Matt.

So for student labs computers, do you not have a modified start layout?

The image i use is like yours in that is base windows with updates and office. I use MDT to deploy and add all the additional desktop apps, drivers, etc.. I have a task sequence for labs and one for staff computers.

Maybe i just leave the redirection for start menu on so the shortcuts for the apps are there along with everything else and just see what happens. At worst i have to blow a student's profile away on the server or reimage the desktop.

Just a random side note, does anyone else have issues for student not being able to open chrome? i usually get 1-2 students a week with this issue to which i just blow away their desktop and RDS profiles and usually their redirected appdata folder. 

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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[Matt Strickland]

Hi Simon,

At the moment no start menu layout change. But I'm going to give it a go during deployment. Disadvantage here is post deployment application changes - however anything major (new office version, new adobe) I often re-image anyway.

No issues with Chrome here but I no longer redirect app data or redirect chrome's user data. Not ideal but reliable. Flash on the other hand seems flaky at times for us in chrome (sometimes you just cant seem to activate it).

Matt

[Kevin Whelan]

the best way altho far from perfect is a combo of what your doing and the old school non supported way of editing the default user profile and public profile to set as much of it as you can which takes a lot of fudging to get working but is doable and does work for most of it.
pinned taskbars for example work if you edit the registry of the default user manually
I have found setting up student workstations is still best done this way, set up a user, copy that to default, re-edit the default user registry removing all personalised bits, Manually set up a whole lot of registry keys that Ive spent hell researching but have notes for now  to set certain things
then ghost to apply the images to workstations and touch wood it actually works as well as good old xp did, all locked down tight
still using gpos for a lot of security and configs as well ontop of this base image as normal

microsoft have put so little thought into schools and enterprise since windows 7 its embarrassing, the first version of windows 10 didnt even have the export script
they seem to have copied apples one user per desktop with admin install rights as a default
all there efforts have gone into this whic does away with paid techs and lets teachers do it themselves

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/education/windows/use-set-up-school-pcs-app
in the small print it mentions not for domain joined machines with gpos

[Simon Wright]

Thanks Kevin,

I'm starting to wonder know how many schools have transitioned to Window 10 for student/lab computers. Ive been putting it off for so long now that i can't any more really.

I think i will start with creating another base image specifically for labs computers and remove all the unneeded windows modern apps, setup a local user and copy it as the default profile and go from there.

Being under the MoE/MS agreement we get access to inTune, i might have a look at that and see what can be locked down etc... as its supposed to be used with Windows 10 S and all that non-domain/enterprise easy setup for schools.

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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[Kevin Whelan]

pinned taskbar
copy shortcuts from your test user to default user   location  defuser/roaming/microsoft/internet explorer/quicklaunch
and then also go to registry load the defuser profile into registry tree and copy the keys from your test user profile to the default user profile as well
HKCU\software\microsoft\windows\currentver\explorer\taskband
most of the custom settings are in currentver\explorer subkeys

[Nasser Muhandes]

Yes

On Friday, June 23, 2017 at 12:48:21 PM UTC+12, Simon - OBHS wrote:

[Nasser Muhandes]

We have successfully deployed windows 10 since April 2016 as follows

1) copy startmenu xml to local machine, either before sysprep, or before a user logon

2) install store apps (powershell) and pin apps (pinto10) after initial user logon, check a flag to only happen initial run

We only have one image, but several startmenu xml files and startup scripts customised to the machine group

Our image is vanilla, created in vmware, then apply windows updates every couple of months and repush it

Everything is dynamically scripted, and can be changed without having to update registry hives ;-p etc

-- Deploying Store-Apps + Pinning apps to taskbar --

Run at user shell eg GPO: User Config > Admin Templates > System > Logon > run these programs at user logon (startup-staff.vbs, startup-lab.vbs etc)

- startup-staff.vbs -

Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run """\\printserver\PCClient\win\pc-client-local-cache.exe""", 1, False
objShell.Run """\\sharedserver\path\Pinto10\taskbar-staff-portable.cmd""", 2, False
objShell.Run """\\sharedserver\path\Language_win10x64\Language Bar\languagebar-languages-staff-portable.cmd""", 2, False
objShell.Run """\\sharedserver\path\OneDrive\onedrive-setup.cmd""", 2, False
' NB - powershell must be allowed to execute on the system for following app store apps to install
' GPO - Local Security Policy > Local Policies > Security Options > UAC: Behavior Admin Approval = Elevate without prompting
' GPO - Admin Templates > Windows Components/Windows PowerShell > Turn on Script Execution = Allow all scripts
objShell.Run """\\sharedserver\path\Surface Pro\install-appstore.cmd""", 2, False

-- Custom start menu --

generate startmenu layout, copy to C:\users\default\appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\LayoutModification.xml

-- Custom lockscreen --

GPO: Admin Templates > Control Panel > Personalization > Force a specific default lock screen image

we have a script which calls bginfo to overlay the CPU info on a random image with the school logo

-- When creating an image before sysprep --

- clean.cmd -

:: remove insider hub
dism.exe /online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Microsoft-Windows-InsiderHub-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.10586.0
:: remove unwanted store apps (wont show on post sysprep)
move "C:\windows\systemapps\ContactSupport_cw5n1h2txyewy" "C:\windows\systemapps\_ContactSupport_cw5n1h2txyewy"
move "C:\windows\systemapps\InsiderHub_cw5n1h2txyewy" "C:\windows\systemapps\_InsiderHub_cw5n1h2txyewy"
move "C:\windows\systemapps\WindowsFeedback_cw5n1h2txyewy" "C:\windows\systemapps\_WindowsFeedback_cw5n1h2txyewy"

- rem-apps.ps1 -

echo "Elevating priviledges for this process"
$myWindowsID=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()
$myWindowsPrincipal=new-object System.Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal($myWindowsID)
$adminRole=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator
if ($myWindowsPrincipal.IsInRole($adminRole)) {
   $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = $myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition + "(Elevated)"
   $Host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = "DarkBlue"
   clear-host}
else {
   $newProcess = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo "PowerShell";
   $newProcess.Arguments = $myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition;  
   $newProcess.Verb = "runas";  
   [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($newProcess);
   exit}
echo "Uninstalling default apps"
$apps = @(
    # default Windows 10 apps
    #"Microsoft.3DBuilder"
    #"Microsoft.Appconnector"
    "Microsoft.BingFinance"
    "Microsoft.BingNews"
    "Microsoft.BingSports"
    #"Microsoft.BingWeather"
    #"Microsoft.FreshPaint"
    "Microsoft.Getstarted"
    "Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub"
    "Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection"
    #"Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes"
    "Microsoft.Office.OneNote"
    "Microsoft.OneConnect"
    "Microsoft.People"
    "Microsoft.SkypeApp"
    #"Microsoft.Windows.Photos"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsAlarms"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsCalculator"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsCamera"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsMaps"
    "Microsoft.WindowsPhone"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsStore"
    "Microsoft.XboxApp"
    "Microsoft.ZuneMusic"
    "Microsoft.ZuneVideo"
    #"microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps" - Windows Mail - keep!
    "Microsoft.MinecraftUWP"
    # Threshold 2 apps
    "Microsoft.CommsPhone"
    "Microsoft.ConnectivityStore"
    "Microsoft.Messaging"
    #"Microsoft.Office.Sway"
    #Redstone apps
    "Microsoft.BingFoodAndDrink"
    "Microsoft.BingTravel"
    "Microsoft.BingHealthAndFitness"
    "Microsoft.WindowsReadingList"
    #test
    "Microsoft.WindowsFeedback"
    "Microsoft.WindowsFeedbackHub"
    # non-Microsoft
    "9E2F88E3.Twitter"
    "PandoraMediaInc.29680B314EFC2"
    "Flipboard.Flipboard"
    "ShazamEntertainmentLtd.Shazam"
    "king.com.CandyCrushSaga"
    "king.com.CandyCrushSodaSaga"
    "king.com.*"
    "ClearChannelRadioDigital.iHeartRadio"
    "4DF9E0F8.Netflix"
    "6Wunderkinder.Wunderlist"
    "Drawboard.DrawboardPDF"
    "2FE3CB00.PicsArt-PhotoStudio"
    "D52A8D61.FarmVille2CountryEscape"
    "TuneIn.TuneInRadio"
    "GAMELOFTSA.Asphalt8Airborne"
    "TheNewYorkTimes.NYTCrossword"
    # apps which cannot be removed using Remove-AppxPackage
    #"Microsoft.BioEnrollment"
    #"Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge"
    #"Microsoft.Windows.Cortana"
    #"Microsoft.WindowsFeedback"
    #"Microsoft.XboxGameCallableUI"
    #"Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider"
    #"Windows.ContactSupport"
)


foreach ($app in $apps) {
    echo "Trying to remove $app"
    Get-AppxPackage -Name $app -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
    Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -Online | where DisplayName -EQ $app | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online
}

Follow this guide if creating and image for 1611+, there is a bug with DefaultUser0 persistance post-image, plus you need to create unattend.xml with additional settings

http://configmgrmusings.blogspot.co.nz/2017/06/windows-10-1703-osd-fixing-all-things.html

Nasser

On Friday, June 23, 2017 at 12:48:21 PM UTC+12, Simon - OBHS wrote:

[Sam McNeill]

Hi Simon,

re: your comments on Intune and the MSFT/MoE Agreement.

MSFT recently ran some training sessions for System Integrator Education Partners on how to use Intune in school deployments.

I could send along some of the information if you're interested (I don't want to appear to be spamming you with unsolicited information so have not sent this to you at this stage). Drop me a line on sam.m...@microsoft.com if you're interested or reply in this thread.

Cheers

Sam

[Simon Wright]

Awesome, thanks Nasser.

I shall take a close look at it today.

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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[Simon Wright]

Ok, so i think i have it all working!

There are no hacks, no messing with the default user profiles etc...

So i pretty much ended up starting from scratch.

I created a new base image the same as previously using MDT, expect this time i added a suspend task to pause the auto creation so i could run a powershell script to remove all the built in modern apps that i didn't want/need (this maybe considered a hack?). I used a pause so i could run it manually so i can use the same task sequence to create all base images.

Then i used this new image for my lab computer task sequence. I also included the same script in this sequence as well to make sure the apps didn't come back. Its probably overkill and i'm running out of time to test either scenario.

I ended up creating all new GPOs specifically targeting Windows 10 using the WMI filter. My older GPO's for the most part worked, but there was just some weird issues here and there, i wont go into.

To keep things cleaner, i separated out a lot of specific groupings of GPOs to their own file. i.e.

Now, some background on how i have things setup in our environment.

We use roaming profiles with folder redirection. The profiles are stored in a separate share than the users folders.

example:

folder redirection gpo

so when it comes to the start menu, microsoft doesn't really support them in roaming profiles.

there were apparently changes to this in the 1703 update (which is what i'm using).

So with windows 7 i would redirect the startmenu and desktop to a common share.

This time i decided to redirect locally and manage the shortcuts using group policy.

The startmenu/taskbar layout however is served from a folder in the NETLOGON folder on the DCs.

One thing i found is that if you want to support the taskbar layout inside your startmenu xml file you need to add

xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout"

to the <LayoutModificationTemplate> node at the top of the file. This is in the basic example for the taskbarlayout, but its overlooked when copying the main part into the startmenu xml file.

Example of mine is:

<LayoutModificationTemplate

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification"

    xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout"

    xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout"

    xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout"

    Version="1">

I also went through each tile i had setup and made sure it pointed to the local shortcuts in the local redirect folder for the start menu

So there will be no confusion as to where the shortcut actually is and will be consistent across all lab computers.

For the most part this all worked well, until i tested by removing the local cached profile of my test student account to simulate the user logging on for the first time with an already established profile.

Upon first logon, everything appeared fine as the desktop icons were there and so were the taskbar icons, however, when clicking on the startmenu, the layout was there, but only the store apps were showing, the rest of the layout was blank and there was only common apps in the programs list.

When logging out and back in, the startmenu layout was still missing icons, but the program list had all the shortcuts from the local directory.

This is probably what took me the longest to figure out.

After finding this thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-10/173918-start-menu-roaming-profiles-fix.html

which eventually lead me to this: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/jj649079.aspx

Step 7 was the saviour!

Adding this registry key into the GPO...

...now makes the startmenu for a roaming profile work, even if that user is logging in for the first time.

Ive tested several times now, removing the local copy of the profile, logging in, boom! perfect startmenu.

Just before sending this i also removed the profile from the server to test as well, first login, perfect! logon to another fresh computer, perfect again!

So from here, i could use a policy to copy the startmenu layout locally and use it from there and also define different ones for different groups of people, but its only a school and these are labs computers, students and staff can use the same layout.

The last thing to figure out is why my printers aren't applying anymore.

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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[Nick Steenson]

This is incredibly useful, thanks!

I think I'll build a new W10 image this week anyway, and take it from there.

Thanks again,

Nick

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[Simon Wright]

Attached are my GPO's that i have so far. Its got all the basics. i still need to probably tweak software like Office and Chrome.

Windows 10 WMI Filter for GPOs

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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Nick Steenson ICT Technician Mt Aspiring College p: +643 443 0463 (Ext 830) a: Plantation Rd, Wanaka 9305 e: stee...@mtaspiring.school.nz

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[Matt Strickland]

Nice work! Thanks for the detailed writeup!

I need to do the same, well just a few tweaks to tidy things up.

I'm not sure if it helps, attached is a script I grabbed from somewhere online (originally for 8.1, I changed a few things)

I run this in a task sequence during the state restore phase (ie on the destination client), and I just included the apps I want to remove (I keep the store, paint, edge, photos app)

I usually just use powershell to list the current provisioned apps on a VM or test machine (after updates) then modify the app remove script as required.

Or you can run it locally on any machine, just the logging output is changed.

Matt

[Kevin Whelan]

Ive been reassessing the whole control desktop option that I've steadfastly believed was necessary for a while.
Like you initially I was like I must tie this down like win 7 was but after living with it for a few years now.

We have been on Win 10 since the first version for all our desktops but as we are now BYOD the desktops are becoming a lot less used and aren't so mission critical. We've never used roaming profiles and all our labs have quite differing software installs. We also have different settings for teachers to students.
OSX went that way a while ago and It gets tiring removing all the default apps you dont want like itunes trying to keep the osx install lean and mean only to have them reappear on each software update.

I'm beginning to think worrying about the start menu and taskbar just isn't worth the bother. I've noticed students used to win 10 don't use the start menu at all,so if there's a few weird apps on that once the initial curiosity subsides people just ignore
anyway. Ive found a desktop folder full of appropriate shortcuts is all that's needed and used in the end by students.
Even as an admin user Once you get used to using the search as it was intended the start menu is pretty much unnecessary.
With office365 being so browser based and more apps going that way

Anyway point is I'm a lot more relaxed about how custom and locked the desktop images are. I think the logon process is no longer with either option and the biggest advice which teachers have all learnt is to get students to go to same machines because the cached logons are so much faster on win10. This is the single biggest issue with win10 over win 7.the initial logon is painfully slow.
As long as your security is in place, User and OU based GPOs take care of the necessary stuff.
Funnily the sky hasn't fallen, Ive had no more sabotage, or errors or work generated because of this so I'm slowly coming to realize that perhaps students and modern OS's are just generically better.

[Simon Wright]

Hey Kevin,

I do tend to agree with the start menu. Personally i don't use it much if at all. My main programs are all pinned on the task bar and anything else i just hit start key and type the program and hit enter.

For the student side of things, it is really just a carry over of win 7 and XP days of controlling the desktop. 

In this case it was more getting some reliability for displaying all the programs i want displayed in the programs list rather than the layout side of it. In windows 7 it was just redirect the start menu and that was it. The other part is probably my stubbornness to find solutions to issues.

As for windows 10 login, i wouldn't say its slow from what ive seen so far from testing.

We used to use mandatory profiles in xp and early win7 days, but that was just a nightmare. The roaming profile itself is only <5MB as the app data, docs, music, pictures, etc.. folders are all redirected to the server.

Just did a quick test....

Removed the profile folder from the server and local copy on the client, so full fresh login and creating profile, 21 sec to working desktop.

reboot and re-login (so cached login), 5 sec.

local cached profile removed, server profile still in place, 11 sec.

there are some gpo's that are recommended to enable/disable to help speed up the login and get rid of the first login animation.

I think your just lucky when it comes to students not messing around. From my point of view, its not that hard or rather worth the little bit of effort to do a little gpo work to limit what students can do to F'up a desktop. Also means less maintenance on my part. Its been probably 3 terms if not a year since i last imaged the labs and they are all still ticking along nicely.

Regards
Simon Wright
ICT Manager

Best for boys through the right learning
2 Arthur Street, Dunedin, 9016, New Zealand p: 03 477 5527 | f: 03 477 5468 | c: 021 773 229 | w: obhs.school.nz

Respect - Whakaute | Courage - Toa | Honour - Hōnore | Perseverance - Manawanui | Excellence - Hiranga

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[Sam McNeill]

Hi Guys,

I was doing some testing on using the Setup Schools PC App which creates a provisioning package and automatically enrolls the device into AAD and can be used to deploy apps as well (or in combination with Intune for Edu).

Initial log into a device (4GB RAM, pentium CPU) was about 25 seconds, then subsequent logins for a cached profile was 8 seconds consistently from entry of user/pass to usable desktop. 

I know that modern deployment methods are not suitable for every environment, but it cna be used in increasing situations now, especially where there are fewer users (admin staff, or teacher devices).  Having previously used OS X/MacOS for the last decade in previous jobs, I had used first QuickSilver (great little app launcher on steroids) and then Spotlight,. I've found coming to Win10 to be pretty simple because of the very effective search feature in the start menu.

Cheers

Sam