How to: Disable network selection OOBE during a task sequence in ConfigMgr 2012 R2

During a deployment of Microsoft Windows 8/8.1, you’ll receive a question to select a prefered network connection. This is also happening during a task sequence within Microsoft SCCM 2012 R2. It’s easy to disable this
question during the task sequence, using an unattend XML file.

1.) First open the “Windows System Image Manager”, also known as WSIM
2.) Select the image you want to deploy. In my example “Install.WIM” from the Windows 8.1 source files
3.) Create a new catalog for this image
4.) After the catalog has succesfully created, create a “New Answer File”
5.) Navigate to the following selection
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.3.9600.17031_neutral
6.) Select the “+” on the left side and naviagte to “OOBE”
7.) Right-click on “OOBE” and select “Add Settings to Pass7oobeSystem
8.) Select in the right pane OOBE
9.) Select in the properties pane “HideWirelessSetupInOOBE” and set the value to “True”
10.) Save the XML file on your “source” directory on your primary site server
11.) Create a new package with the source directory to the directory you’ve created in the stap before
12.) Do NOT create any program in the package, so select “Do not create a program”
13.) Distribute the new package to your distribution point(s)
14.) Open your task sequence and navigate to stap “Apply Operating System”
15.) Select the option “Use an unattended or Sysprep answer file for a custom installation
16.) Select the package you’ve created before and type the name of your XML file within that package source location
17.) Boot a client from the network (PXE) and select the task sequence.

If you follow the steps within the task sequence, you’ll see that you didn’t receive a network connection screen anymore.

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How to: Install Exchange 2013 fully unattended

When you’ve to install a new Microsoft Exchange 2013 environment, you can start collecting all the necessary things, just lik pre-requisites etc…but there is a script available in the Microsoft TechNet Gallery. This script does the trick for you fully unattended. You just have to give in some names and paths. The script downloads all the pre-requisites, installs all the necessary Windows roles and features and installs Exchange 2013 the way you like 🙂

The script can be found here.

All you have to download is the Microsoft Exchange 2013 ISO and create some destination folders, that’s it!! You can also choose to install a multi role Exchange 2013 environment or maybe a multi server Exchange 2013 environment where you’ve multiple mailbox (MBX) and client access (CAS) servers. In my lab environment I’ve installed one multi role server in just a few clicks!! Below the commands I’ve used.

#######################################################################
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

mkdir E:\Install\E2K13_ISO
mkdir E:\Databases\MDT01
mkdir E:\Logs\MDB01
mkdir E:\Install\Prereq

$Cred=Get-Credential
E:\Install\Install-Exchange2013.ps1 -Organization DemoLab -InstallMultirole -MDBDBPath E:\Databases\MDB01 -MDBLogPath E:\Logs\MDB01 -MDBName MDB01 -InstallPath E:\Install\Prereq -AutoPilot -Credentials $Cred -SourcePath E:\Install\E2K13_ISO -IncludeFixes -InstallFilterPack -Verbose
#######################################################################

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