The Elusive Cloud Based Windows Deployment

It's a bit like Bigfoot. Some have said they've seen it, and can suggest how it might work. Some think it will never eventuate the way we want. And Apple has had this capability for years!

There are some technical challenges from a Windows/x86/x64 perspective, but I would have thought it would be easier. My last couple of posts have been talking about building a Windows Deployment Server in your network, and while I was building this out it really made me look at the possibility of making this available over the Internet. I spent days trawling through Windows docs and lots of other pages trying to find a way to embed a VPN client into my WinPE Boot Image, but the answer was surprisingly MUCH simpler than that.

I've been sitting on this for a while and its been pretty exciting to get this working. 

If you want to know how to deploy a customised Windows 10 image to your staff, over the Internet, and have it automatically enroll into Workspace ONE read on.

Imaging Windows 10 Devices for Workspace ONE - Part 1: Installing Windows Deployment Services

Full disclose straight up - this is a long one.

I often get asked that once we remove SCCM from a customer's environment and provide full Modern Management with Workspace ONE, how do we image machines? Well, you can obviously just use what comes on the PC and enroll it then remove whatever you don't want. There's also Dell Factory Provisioning which allows you to provide the configuration and have the Dell Factory apply the image and have to directly sent ready to be used (GREAT by the way). What about if you're not using Dell? What about if the hard disk fails and needs to be replaced?

That's what I'm going to answer.