All System Center 2012 products are available now … including:

The latest version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit has been released:

Download here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=25175

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 is the newest version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. MDT 2012 supports deployment of Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

Overview

Deploy Windows 7, Office 2010 and 365, and Windows Server 2008 R2 with the newly released Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012. MDT is the recommended process and toolset for automating desktop and server deployment. MDT provides you with the following benefits:

• Unified tools and processes, including a set of guidance, for deploying desktops and servers in a common deployment console
• Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management.

Some of the key changes in MDT 2012 are:

• Comprehensive tools and guidance to efficiently manage large-scale deployments of Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 365
• An enhanced user-Driven Installation (UDI) deployment method that utilizes System Center Configuration Manager 2012. UDI lets end users initiate and customize an OS deployment on their PCs—via an easy-to-use wizard
• Ease Lite Touch installation through integration with Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT)

This release provides support for deploying Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a lab environment.

HP has finally released full Driver Packs for their hardware, see www.hp.com/go/sdm

These individual Make/Model Driver Packages can be downloaded and easily integrated into SCCM Driver Packages or MDT Driver Packages for hardware independent Operating System deployment

See Johan Arwidmark’s excellent blog (http://www.deploymentresearch.com/) for more details.

Dell have lead the way in this area, and offer XP/7 Driver Packages for all recent Make/Models and have made a great effort to support most legacy models, see http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/2065.dell-driver-cab-files-for-enterprise-client-os-deployment.aspx

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit  (MDT) 2012 Beta 2 Released

The latest version of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) is now available on Connect (Join the MDT 2012 Beta 2 Connect program here!)

MDT 2012 Beta 2 offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012 as well as integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for Lite Touch Installation remote control and diagnostics.

Key benefits include:

• Full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment.
• Improved Lite Touch user experience and functionality.
• A smooth and simple upgrade process for all existing MDT users.

New features For System Center Configuration Manager customers:

• Support for Configuration Manager 2012 (while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007)
• New User-Driven Installation components for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012
  • Extensible wizard and designer, additional integration with Configuration Manager to deliver a more customized OS experience, support for more imaging scenarios, and an enhanced end-user deployment experience
• Ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to Configuration Manager 2012

New features For Lite Touch Installation:

• Integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for remote control and diagnostics
• New monitoring capabilities to see the progress of currently running deployments
• Support for deploying Windows to computers using UEFI
• Ability to deploy Windows 7 so that the computer will start from a new VHD file, “Deploy to VHD”
• Improved deployment wizard user experience

MDT 2012 Beta 2 will be available for beta download through to January 2012.  

System Centre Configuration Manager 2012 and System Centre Endpoint Protection 2012 RCs Released!

Download Details – Microsoft Download Center – System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection RCs

Download from the link above!

Here is the main product page: System Center Configuration Manager 2012 | New Next Version

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Release Candidate is Here!

In the Release Candidate, we’ve introduced some additional and enhanced capabilities, including:

• Improved endpoint protection functionality, with integrated setup, management and reporting for System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection.
• Improved application catalog design that provides a better, more responsive experience when requesting and downloading applications.
• New support for Windows Embedded devices, including Windows Embedded 7 SP1, POSReady 7, Windows 7 Think PC, and Windows Embedded Compact 7.
• Improved client status checks for Configuration Manager services and features.
• Improved compliance enforcement and tracking, with the ability to create dynamic collections of baseline compliance and the generation of hourly compliance summaries.
• Platform support for deep mobile device management of Nokia Symbian Belle devices. Pending a platform update by Nokia later this calendar year for these devices, customers will be able to try out the management of these Nokia devices with ConfigMgr.
• Additional scalability and performance improvements.

We hope to update our technical blog regularly with technical solutions and tips and tricks discovered from the field.

Our aim is to provide a valuable resource for other System Centre consultants and our customers that can be referred to any time and can be trusted to provide the best technical solutions and resolutions in the System Centre space.