How do you automatically configure a new Windows PC?
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I've been playing around with Ansible, Terraform, etc to provision VMs, I was wondering what do you guys use to automatically configure brand new PCs to your liking? Do you write powershell scripts or similar to install all the software and configure, shortcuts, environment variables, etc? Is there a tool like ansible to locally configure a system based on a configuration file? Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years. Note: I'm only refering to literal personal computers. Not the ones provided by your employer, VM in clouds, etc
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I've been playing around with Ansible, Terraform, etc to provision VMs, I was wondering what do you guys use to automatically configure brand new PCs to your liking? Do you write powershell scripts or similar to install all the software and configure, shortcuts, environment variables, etc? Is there a tool like ansible to locally configure a system based on a configuration file? Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years. Note: I'm only refering to literal personal computers. Not the ones provided by your employer, VM in clouds, etc
I have loooooonnng done no format. When I get a new pc / laptop, I install windows offline. Do an image #1. I install my MUST software. Do an image #2. I install all needed updates, windows included. Do an image #3 I install all my NICE software. Do an image #4 I install all the fast paced software (browsers, antivirus...). Do an image #5 Start using the computer. Every time I feel like a good moment, I restore from image #5. Update what I have to update. Do an image overwriting #5 If I change some consumable hardware (i.e. printer). I restore from #4, do all updates, overwrite image #4. Install fast paced software. Overwrite image #5 Continue using the computer. The only time I start over again is when something really serious happens or when I change the windows version. I do not like the version update, I prefer a "clean" install with the VMs is something similar. I prefer to have minimalistic dedicated VMs for special software. So I have a VM like #1, #2, #3. Then a couple of VMs of #4 and several of #5
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I have loooooonnng done no format. When I get a new pc / laptop, I install windows offline. Do an image #1. I install my MUST software. Do an image #2. I install all needed updates, windows included. Do an image #3 I install all my NICE software. Do an image #4 I install all the fast paced software (browsers, antivirus...). Do an image #5 Start using the computer. Every time I feel like a good moment, I restore from image #5. Update what I have to update. Do an image overwriting #5 If I change some consumable hardware (i.e. printer). I restore from #4, do all updates, overwrite image #4. Install fast paced software. Overwrite image #5 Continue using the computer. The only time I start over again is when something really serious happens or when I change the windows version. I do not like the version update, I prefer a "clean" install with the VMs is something similar. I prefer to have minimalistic dedicated VMs for special software. So I have a VM like #1, #2, #3. Then a couple of VMs of #4 and several of #5
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
For some reason, imaging my system didn't even cross my mind. I'll have to give that a try! How to you make image 5? Do you format your pc, restore the image, update and create a new image? Or do you do it using a VM/second PC/other? Also any software suggestions for creating the images?
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For some reason, imaging my system didn't even cross my mind. I'll have to give that a try! How to you make image 5? Do you format your pc, restore the image, update and create a new image? Or do you do it using a VM/second PC/other? Also any software suggestions for creating the images?
restoring image alrady overwrites the system partition. Format no needed
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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For some reason, imaging my system didn't even cross my mind. I'll have to give that a try! How to you make image 5? Do you format your pc, restore the image, update and create a new image? Or do you do it using a VM/second PC/other? Also any software suggestions for creating the images?
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How to you make image 5?Do you format your pc, restore the image, update and create a new image?
The first ime comes after all others from clean install. Then after some months of usage, I restore from old #5, update all what I want to update, make the changes I want to make and do an image overwriting #5. You can do a #6 first and if the process is OK, then delete #5 and rename #6 to #5
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Also any software suggestions for creating the images?
I have used Norton Ghost from the beginning until Windows 10. I now use Macrium Reflect. Installed it and created a bootable CD with it. I always do images and restoration booting from other device, so I can overwrite the whole System Partition
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I've been playing around with Ansible, Terraform, etc to provision VMs, I was wondering what do you guys use to automatically configure brand new PCs to your liking? Do you write powershell scripts or similar to install all the software and configure, shortcuts, environment variables, etc? Is there a tool like ansible to locally configure a system based on a configuration file? Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years. Note: I'm only refering to literal personal computers. Not the ones provided by your employer, VM in clouds, etc
I don't think I've ever considered automating setup of a personal PC, or even my development machine at work. Neither case happens often enough to spend the time automating the process, especially considering most of the application installs aren't amenable to automation. At the other end of the spectrum, at work I create the system images for our products, industrial PC's that control our commercial ink-jet printing systems. You start with a bootable USB Flash drive and a PC, and end with a Windows 10 or 11 system with appropriate device drivers installed and ready for the product application. This is fully automated since it's used most often by our service folks out in the field. Creating the Windows 10 images took over a month given the relatively poor guidance from Microsoft for the process and the fact that I had four different models of hardware to handle. Windows 11 only took a week thanks to greatly improved Microsoft documentation and only two sets of hardware.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I've been playing around with Ansible, Terraform, etc to provision VMs, I was wondering what do you guys use to automatically configure brand new PCs to your liking? Do you write powershell scripts or similar to install all the software and configure, shortcuts, environment variables, etc? Is there a tool like ansible to locally configure a system based on a configuration file? Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years. Note: I'm only refering to literal personal computers. Not the ones provided by your employer, VM in clouds, etc
"configure brand new PCs to your liking?" All your questions seem like overkill - then again, I'm AR so take no offense. My current work laptop is pushing 6 years, no reformats. But it's mainly used for work - no games, random s/w, silly tests, etc. Over the past few years, I have been migrating to virtual machines. The Xp one I have has been in use for over 10 years. Rock solid. The beauty of VMs is that you just don't give a flying elephant about images or backups. It's a control C/control V to an external drive and you go get a beer. Scripts, esp powershell? ewwwww.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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I've been playing around with Ansible, Terraform, etc to provision VMs, I was wondering what do you guys use to automatically configure brand new PCs to your liking? Do you write powershell scripts or similar to install all the software and configure, shortcuts, environment variables, etc? Is there a tool like ansible to locally configure a system based on a configuration file? Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years. Note: I'm only refering to literal personal computers. Not the ones provided by your employer, VM in clouds, etc
DeltaOrionis wrote:
Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years.
I've just checked and my current Windows 10 has been on the PC since June 2015! This was an in-place upgrade from Windows 7 which I installed in May 2014 when moving to 64 bit. For those of you who are cringing already, please note that I have changed mobos twice in that period.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
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"configure brand new PCs to your liking?" All your questions seem like overkill - then again, I'm AR so take no offense. My current work laptop is pushing 6 years, no reformats. But it's mainly used for work - no games, random s/w, silly tests, etc. Over the past few years, I have been migrating to virtual machines. The Xp one I have has been in use for over 10 years. Rock solid. The beauty of VMs is that you just don't give a flying elephant about images or backups. It's a control C/control V to an external drive and you go get a beer. Scripts, esp powershell? ewwwww.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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All your questions seem like overkill - then again, I'm AR so take no offense
None taken :) but what does AR mean? My work laptop is about the same age but it hs so much corporate crap that formatting probably wouldn't change much anyway... And it's definitely overkill but I work on DevOps all day so it would be cool to have something that could do that for personal computers. I want to format my desktop but I dread having to find all the configurations, env variables, installed software, custom shortcuts, etc :S
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Over the past few years, I have been migrating to virtual machines. The Xp one I have has been in use for over 10 years. Rock solid. The beauty of VMs is that you just don't give a flying elephant about images or backups. It's a control C/control V to an external drive and you go get a beer.
The thing with VMs is that sometimes there's problems with USB devices, especially embeded suff :/
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Scripts, esp powershell? ewwwww.
Let's not go there ehehe 😝
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I don't think I've ever considered automating setup of a personal PC, or even my development machine at work. Neither case happens often enough to spend the time automating the process, especially considering most of the application installs aren't amenable to automation. At the other end of the spectrum, at work I create the system images for our products, industrial PC's that control our commercial ink-jet printing systems. You start with a bootable USB Flash drive and a PC, and end with a Windows 10 or 11 system with appropriate device drivers installed and ready for the product application. This is fully automated since it's used most often by our service folks out in the field. Creating the Windows 10 images took over a month given the relatively poor guidance from Microsoft for the process and the fact that I had four different models of hardware to handle. Windows 11 only took a week thanks to greatly improved Microsoft documentation and only two sets of hardware.
Software Zen:
delete this;Quote:
I don't think I've ever considered automating setup of a personal PC, or even my development machine at work. Neither case happens often enough to spend the time automating the process,
Me too, but something I didn't mention in my original post is that I have a website running on a Raspberry Pi (like a mini computer) and the install gets borked very often, either due to updates, the power going down and corrupts the file system, etc and creating images is a pain because I have to remove the SD Card, make a copy on my desktop and then put the SD card back. That was my main motivation for this post, to see if someone had comeup with a tool of sorts that I could point to a system (local or not) and it would just configure everything.
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especially considering most of the application installs aren't amenable to automation.
This is my biggest gripe.. Especially with "consumer" apps like Photoshop and the like.
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Creating the Windows 10 images took over a month given the relatively poor guidance from Microsoft for the process and the fact that I had four different models of hardware to handle. Windows 11 only took a week thanks to greatly improved Microsoft documentation and only two sets of hardware.
Ouch! That's a lot of work for something that should be "simple" but yeah I agree, Microsofts documentation is a bit it or miss to put it mildly. Azure is great but older stuff...
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I don't think I've ever considered automating setup of a personal PC, or even my development machine at work. Neither case happens often enough to spend the time automating the process,
Me too, but something I didn't mention in my original post is that I have a website running on a Raspberry Pi (like a mini computer) and the install gets borked very often, either due to updates, the power going down and corrupts the file system, etc and creating images is a pain because I have to remove the SD Card, make a copy on my desktop and then put the SD card back. That was my main motivation for this post, to see if someone had comeup with a tool of sorts that I could point to a system (local or not) and it would just configure everything.
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especially considering most of the application installs aren't amenable to automation.
This is my biggest gripe.. Especially with "consumer" apps like Photoshop and the like.
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Creating the Windows 10 images took over a month given the relatively poor guidance from Microsoft for the process and the fact that I had four different models of hardware to handle. Windows 11 only took a week thanks to greatly improved Microsoft documentation and only two sets of hardware.
Ouch! That's a lot of work for something that should be "simple" but yeah I agree, Microsofts documentation is a bit it or miss to put it mildly. Azure is great but older stuff...
DeltaOrionis wrote:
Ouch! That's a lot of work for something that should be "simple"
Microsoft's problem is that over time they've developed several systems to let IT manage their PC farm, and the number of tools for constructing system images have grown along with that. As a result for a given goal ("set the default wallpaper" for example) there are multiple ways to reach the goal depending upon the tools you are using and where in the image construction process you're using the tool. Some combinations of goal and tool simply don't work together, and those aren't documented. Also, updating images for minor tweaks is tedious and time-consuming. We have several configuration tasks that should be part of the image that we do in post-install script just because it's such a PITA.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
DeltaOrionis wrote:
Also, out of curiosity, how long have been without formating a Windows computer? My current record seems to be around 3 years.
I've just checked and my current Windows 10 has been on the PC since June 2015! This was an in-place upgrade from Windows 7 which I installed in May 2014 when moving to 64 bit. For those of you who are cringing already, please note that I have changed mobos twice in that period.
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
Ok that's way more than I ever expected xD Nice! I don't think I ever did an in-place update. I just love the feeling of a completely new install with no left overs ;P