Here I will blog about putting the recently released Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 ‘Convenience Rollup Update’, into MDT. Pretty straight forward task as all the updates come as .MSU files from the update catalogue so they’re simple enough to work with, so lets get started. For additional reading here is a link to some command line switches for .MSU update files: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/262841. At the bottom of the article I will also go over the latest Remote Management Framework and .NET installers for MDT also.
For those that are unaware, Microsoft have recently released a so called ‘Convenience Roll Up’ which some are referring to as ”Service Pack 2” and although its not Service pack 2, you may hear people referring to that as I have done in the field. Its a slightly different type of update owing to the way the updates will be ‘serviced’ from now on. You can find information about it here, however I will outline the main details for you below.
Prerequisite work
Firstly you’ll need to download the update files themselves. The rollup update covers three operating systems - Windows 7 SP1 x86, Windows 7 SP1 x64 and Server 2008R2 SP1. Therefore if you don’t have the Service packs installed on your windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 operating systems you will need to download them (although you should be deploying the ISO’s that come with SP1 already by now!). In addition to this you need to install one other update, a ‘Servicing Stack’ update from April 2015. Here are links for them both as well as the link to download the rollup itself. Lets get them all collected in. Make sure when you download them you organise them neatly into folders
- KB976932 - Service pack 1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 (KB976932)
- KB3020369– April 2015 Serving stack update (KB3020369)
- KB3125574– Convenience Roll Up (KB3125574)
MDT Application work
The ISO I use to build my images already has SP1 so I don't need to download and install that one. Therefore I am going to collect KB3020369 and KB3125574 and I’m going to organise them into folders. Within MDT I now create a folder to put the applications in and add them in one by one, all are the same commands really so I’ll just demo one of them below. Use the same format for the rest of the updates as you add them into MDT as applications.
- Application Name – Update – [Description of Update] – Win7x86
- Install Command - wusa.exe [NameOfUpdateGoesHere].msu /quiet /norestart
Finally you need to make the Convenience Rollup have a dependency of the Service Stack like so.
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This way, although you’ll have two ‘Applications’ within MDT, you’ll only need to call one from your build and capture task sequence as the dependency will always be installed first.
Simply add the step in, but place a restart step afterwards so that it applies the update after installing it.
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Now when you build and capture this should save you a lot of time.
Another Option is to run this step before any Windows Update Steps in the task sequence to save time checking WSUS and pulling in updates before this is applied. Like this:
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Additional Pointers
You could always use an application wrapper for logging purposes, wrapping the application using VB for example and then the application will receive its own log you can check for errors but if you do it the way I have done it above you shouldn’t get any installation errors.
Whilst we’re at it
We may as well do the latest .NET Framework and the latest Windows Management Framework installations also. Straight forward enough.
Download - .NET Framework 4.6.1 Offline Installer (4.6.2 is still in preview so I’d go for 4.6.1 at the date of this article)
MDT Application Name: Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1
Silent Install Command: NDP461-KB3102436-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe /passive /norestart
Download– Windows Remote Management Framework 5.0 – Windows 7 (x64)
MDT Application Name: Update – WRMF 5.0 (Win7x64)
Silent Install Command: wusa.exe Win7AndW2K8R2-KB3134760-x64.msu /quiet /norestart
Important Note: Remote Management Framework 4.0 must be installed as a prerequisite, so make it a dependency
Download– Windows Remote Management Framework 5.0 – Windows 7 (x86)
MDT Application Name: Update – WRMF 5.0 (Win7x86)
Silent Install Command: wusa.exe Win7-KB3134760-x86.msu /quiet /norestart
Important Note: Remote Management Framework 4.0 must be installed as a prerequisite, so make it a dependency
Closing
And so, if like many many clients out there in the field they are not ready to make the jump from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for whatever reason, when you re-do your base images using your build and capture task sequences, put these additional steps in place and you’ll be on top of your game.
I hope this is of use for you.
Jonathan.