Install-Language breaks Citrix HDX Teams optimization on Azure Windows 10 Multi-User

While building a Citrix DaaS Standard for Azure environment, we made use of the new Install-Language PowerShell command. Sadly, this broke the Citrix HDX Teams optimization. In this article, I show you how to work around this issue.

Install-Language…

During this project, we decided to build our Citrix Master images through Packer of Microsoft marketplace images. These images are en-US only, and the administrator has to provide a language pack as needed. For this use-case, Microsoft has introduced a new PowerShell command in the latest builds of Windows 10 and Windows 11 multi-user: Install-Language

This command replaces everything from the past and can be used as a simple one-liner during your master image build process:

…breaks the OS

But as far as we know, this is currently bugged. Continue reading “Install-Language breaks Citrix HDX Teams optimization on Azure Windows 10 Multi-User”

Transition from BIS-F version 6.1.3 to 7.1912.x

With the release of the Base Image Script Framework (BIS-F) version 7.1912.x a few minor changes in the ADMX template files occurred.

We are going to outline the changes necessary to your current deployment.

Continue reading “Transition from BIS-F version 6.1.3 to 7.1912.x”

Download and install latest Office 365 via Office Deployment Tool (ODT)

Inspired by Trond Eric Haavarstein’s evergreen PowerShell setup scripts, I created a download and install script for Office 365 Deployment Tool (ODT).

Microsoft Office 365 is the new standard in the EUC space right now. To honor this, we need a fast and reliable way to install it with our favorite deployment tools like MDT or PDQ,  for example when you rebuild your master images.

There are a few different ways to deploy Office 365, but they are all similar:

  • You need the Office 365 Click-to-run setup.exe (Office Deployment Tool (ODT))
  • You need a XML configuration file
  • You decide to deploy from a pre-build offline cache or the files are downloaded from Microsoft each and every time

And then you go: setup.exe /configure configuration.xml

Pretty straight forward you think, but non the less I had problems with this approach. And this is due to the fact, that the Office Deployment Tool itself gets updated pretty often. And this breaks your unattended deployments sooner or later, as the setup.exe stops working. Continue reading “Download and install latest Office 365 via Office Deployment Tool (ODT)”

Download and install latest Release of PowerShell

I created a PowerShell script to include the latest Version of PowerShell into your MDT Reference Image.

With the General Availability (GA) of PowerShell 7, it is time to think about updating our MDT Reference Images. Furthermore the increasing number of remote backends that require a minimum TLS 1.2 for remote connections with for example Invoke-WebRequest like PowerShell Gallery and several other JSON APIs.

Continue reading “Download and install latest Release of PowerShell”

Integrate PDQ Deploy with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

A PDQ Deploy Enterprise license is an easy way to integrate evergreen applications into your MDT master images. In this blog post I’m going to show you one way to do this.

Download the latest release of PDQ Deploy:
https://link.pdq.com/dl-deploy-release

Start the setup
Start the setup

Continue reading “Integrate PDQ Deploy with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)”