News

Windows 10 Deployment Toolkit Reissued

• By Kurt Mackie
• 09/17/2015

Microsoft this week has rereleased its free Windows 10 deployments automation toolkit.

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 Update 1, which supports Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7 deployments, is now updated at Microsoft's download page with a September 15 release date. This new release is build 8298. It supersedes the original release last month, which was build 8290, according to Microsoft's announcement today.

The original release of MDT 2013 Update 1 apparently had lots of problems and Microsoft has fixed some of them. It fixed multiple drive partition issues. It fixed an issue that prevented the deployment of UEFI systems. Glitches associated with XML processing got addressed, among other matters.

Unfortunately, MDT 2013 Update 1 also comes with its own "known issues" that are still under investigation by Microsoft. The toolkit has problems with static IP addresses when deploying from media. Windows 10 Language Packs may not install. Even after Windows 10 successfully installs using the toolkit, "monitoring will continue to show the task sequence in progress until a user logs on," Microsoft's announcement explained.

On top of that, IT pros looking for the latest published guide won't find it. Documentation still isn't available at the TechNet library page, according to Microsoft's announcement.

Microsoft's list of problems with MDT 2013 Update 1 is long and nuanced. There are some basic caveats, too.

For instance, the company advises against trying to upgrade the toolkit from the earlier released preview version. Instead, users should uninstall the preview version before installing the new toolkit build.

In addition, MDT 2013 Update 1 just works with the Windows 10 Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK), which can be downloaded from this page. If integrating MDT 2013 Update 1 with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), IT pros have to use a version of SCCM that supports the Windows 10 ADK.

There's no indication from Microsoft when another build of the toolkit might be available.