Windows 8 deployment using Zenworks imaging services

Question

Hi,
I would like to find some guidelines or best practices stuff in order to help me with the deployment of Windows 8.1
For our current method with Windows 7, we used SYSPREP with offline drivers for multiples machines in a local folder ex. C:\Drivers.
Now it seems that it won't work anymore with Windows 8, and when we ask for help in the Microsoft forums we are pushed to products like MDT,WDS and SCCM.
Does anyone here had a successful Windows 8 deployment ?
Thank you in advance for your input

Answer 1

Originally Posted by anto28
Yes i have
I asked this question a multiple forums but i have not received any satisfying answer yet...
Can you elaborate with the DPinst way ?
At what point do you use this command to inject drivers ? In the audit mode ?
I think DPInst require the hardware to be present in order to work, no ?
What if you want to install drivers for 7-10 different machine type in your image ?
Thank you Thomas.
Simply put, you call dpinst on first login after the image is deployed on the workstation by adding the following to sysprep unattend xml:
<FirstLogonCommands>
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<CommandLine>c:\drivers\dpinst.exe /path C:\drivers\pnp</CommandLine>
<Order>1</Order>
<RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
</SynchronousCommand>
and dpinst xml should look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<dpinst>
<search>
<subDirectory>*</subDirectory>
</search>
<legacyMode/>
<quietInstall/>
<suppressWizard/>
<scanHardware/>
</dpinst>
You could add all the drivers to the base image or then use addon images for specific workstations models that places the workstation specific driver into: C:\drivers\pnp.
Thomas