Application Deployment

3rd Party App Patching in your Home Lab - Patch My PC Home Updater

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There are a few companies I really like, Recast Software with their reports and right click tools, 2PintSoftware, leading the way with their peering and delivery optimization tools, and Patch My PC with their amazing patching service. I have a personal lab for testing ideas and staying current with technology. It consists of a HyperV ... Read more

Task Sequence Deployment - Popups

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So you're using at Task Sequence to deploy something other than an Operating System, but it's really important, and you want the popups for "High Risk" like you do with in place upgrades. NOTE: Setting "High Risk" on your TS Properties will move the Deployment in the software center from the Applications Tab, to the ... Read more

Test Low Disk Space / Create Large Test File

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So I stole this code from my friend Keith G, who provided it to assist with testing scenarios to see if our safe guards would work.
Basically, the 1 line command will check your drive, then create a dynamically sized file to leave “XX” GB remaining.  In my command, I leave only 15GB Free, which is low enough to trigger a failure on our in place upgrades.  Then I can test to make sure the the IPU TS fails the way I expect, running the proper remediation steps, and records the metrics for reporting.

Code: (run in elevated PowerShell Console)

get-volume c | % {$_.SizeRemaining - 15GB} |  % {Fsutil file createnew c:\TestFile.id $_}

So I made it into an App, I’ve added a few items into the app model to allow me to “install” it quickly on a machine to test failure scenarios.

App Code:

powershell.exe -command "get-volume c | % {$_.SizeRemaining - 15GB} |  % {Fsutil file createnew c:\TestFile.id $_}"

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ConfigMgr Lab - Adding Ninite Apps

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So you have a Personal ConfigMgr lab, but you want to add some app deployments to better simulate your actual environment.  So you add Chrome, Reader, and a couple others (NOT JAVA).  Next Month, they are out of date.  You probably don’t have time to keep your personal lab app deployments updated, so you keep deploying old versions.  How about, you leverage ninite.com’s ability to dynamically install the latest version of the app every time?  Now you're asking, "Isn't the command line version that supports silent install cost money?"  Yes, yes, it does, to use ninite’s silent install, you need the Pro version.  What, you don't want to pay for pro when it’s your personal lab?  I hear you.  Powershell to the rescue!  It doesn’t make it completely silent, but it will allow you to automate it to work with the ConfigMgr App Model during OSD and Post OSD.

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