Installing .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Causes Windows Setup Error

For having my images up-to-date I started this week testing the deployment for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
At first everything looks ok, and the software installs silenty.

The problem was then deploying the image. For some reason during the setup I was getting this error message:

NETFramwork3_5_SP1_Error_001

Because I’ve made some other changes to the proccess I needed to have sure that .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 was the problem here, so I’ve disable this step on the Task Sequence and then created a new image again.
Now the problem didn’t happen.
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After some research, asking people about it I’ve run out of options so I’ve installed .NET manually to see if I could understand where the problem was.
After installing I’ve reboot the system and then realized that after restart the .NET installation need to update something on the system (similar to the process after installing some hotfixes via Windows Update).

I’ve then enabled the .NET installation step again and add a Restart Computer step to my Task Sequence. Before this the space between installing .NET and Sysprep the machine had no reboot.

Create the image and now everything works correctly.

2 New Webcasts from Richard Smith

Richard Smith, a worker at Microsoft Consulting Services, just launched 2 new webcasts about deployment, at DeploymentForum.com

On the firts webcast, the focus goes to building and deploying images using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 (MDT 2008) on a Lite Touch Installation (LTI) scenario:

http://www.deploymentforum.com/Library/Webcasts/Player/tabid/162/VideoId/26/Using-MDT-2008-For-Lite-Touch-Installation.aspx

The second one it’s about using MDT 2008 and Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM 2007) for a Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) scenario:

http://www.deploymentforum.com/Library/Webcasts/Player/tabid/162/VideoId/27/Using-MDT-2008-And-SCCM-2007-For-Zero-Touch-Installation.aspx

Like allways with the Richard Smith’s quality presentations.

All this and more can be found on: www.deploymentforum.com

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008: Now Available

Microsoft makes available a new version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

MDT 2008 extends existing functionality to deploy Windows Vista SP1 and Windows 2008 for both LTI and ZTI deployments.

This new version also support Windows AIK 1.1.

You can download it at:
Microsoft Download Center

New Richard Smith LTI Walkthrough

Here it is a new MDT LTI walkthrough video from Richard Smith.

On this video Richard talks and explains the following topics:

Add operating systems, applications, drivers and packages to MDT

Configure Office 2007 into the build process

Create a MDT Lite Touch task sequence 

Setup a lab based deployment point

Create a customised build to a reference computer

Capture the reference computer as a customised WIM

Add the customised WIM back into MDT for deployment

Download Link:
Video Download

Full post:
Blog post link

Vista Unattended – KB929399-v2 Deployment Issues

At my job, we should start to deploy Windows Vista to agencies and central branchs next year, and a lot of work must be done.
The redesigned BDD (now known as Microsoft Depoloyment), the redesigned RIS (now known as Windows Deployment Services(WDS)) and Windows Automatic Installation Kit (WAIK), give a lot of new tools and deployment methods that need some comprehensive reading.

So…last week I started to take a more deep look at the Windows Vista Deployment.
After creating a simple answer file, that by the way has changed name and type (unattend.txt/Unattended.xml), I started looking to the new feature that makes possible to install OS hotfixes (system updates and security updates) in a very simple way.
After making some tests with just a couple of hotifxes, I’ve run Windows Update and Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.1 on a reference machine and downloaded all the updates. I’ve then applied the hotfixes via Deployment Workbench (WAIK) and started deploying the image using WDS.

On the Install Update Passe I found an error that was killing the unattended installation:

Setup failed applying image \\S-W2K8WDS-V01\Distribution$\OperationSystems\Windows Vista Ent\Sources\install.wim, rc = 31
ZTI ERROR – Non-zero return code by LTIApply, rc = 31
Non-zero return code executing command “X:\Deploy\Tools\X86\TsmBootstrap.exe” /env:SAStartm, rc = -2147467259

This is a very very generic error, with no reference about what has failed in all log files you can fin, and after a while you will feel lost!
In  my case I had applied 39 hotfixes…
So to understand where the error was, I had to start deploying the hotfixes almost one-by-one to figure out where the bad file was.

After a lot of time I’ve found that the hotfix giving the problem was WindowsMedia11-KB929399-v2-x86-INTL.exe(a Windows Media Player 11 SDK Update).

I’ve Googled a little and found this:
http://www.myitforum.com/forums/m_166236/mpage_1/tm.htm#167364

I’ve not tested it yet!