Overview
One of the most challenging aspects of my career has been working with Windows Drivers. I have spent the last several years looking for ways to reduce my Driver footprint, and I'm sure my situation is not unique
Driver Automation Tool
Let my start by saying that the Driver Automation Tool is the Gold Standard for Driver Management. MVP Maurice Daly has done an exceptional job and this is what you should be using in your Enterprise
If you are already invested in this, stick with it. You would be a complete fool to use anything else
My Challenges
I'll be the first to admit that as beautiful as Maurice's Driver Automation Tool is, its not a good fit for my Enterprise, so in this section of OSDeploy, I'll play the part of The Fool and detail as much as I can about my approach and why
I'm not using the Driver Automation Tool
Portability
The biggest need that I have with all methods of Driver Management is that I need a small footprint. I don't need Automation, or simplicity. I'll gladly trade the conveniences if I can reduce the size of my Driver Repository.
I work for a large Oil Services company and support about 40,000 computers, soon to be 70,000. We are Global, and I have to support systems wherever the oil is. Most of these computers are connected in the Office, but a very large number of computers are not. They don't sit on our Domain, but rather, on a Rig in the middle of the Gulf, a Vessel in the middle of the ocean, or even in the back of a Truck. These are my Workgroup computers
Additionally, I support computers that sit in Offices ... but these are not typical Offices. These are Offices that are connected through a Satellite link in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East.
I have to support all of these systems. So when I manage my OS Images and Drivers, I need them to be small. I need Portability
Universal
Another challenge that I have is that I need to be able to image a computer with Windows 10 in several different scenarios to support my Enterprise, so however I decide to Manage and Deploy Drivers, it must be Universal. These are some of the
- Network Connected
- Network Disconnected
- ConfigMgr
- MDT
- Windows Setup
- USB
- ISO
- WinPE Dism
- Clean OS Install
- OS Upgrade
- Domain
- Workgroup
- Many, many different Comptuer Models
Too many Computer Models
By far the largest hurdle I have is the number of Computer Models that I have to support. My company is a Dell shop, and we keep computers for much longer than I would like, so unfortunately, I have to support 115 different Computer Models on Windows 10
Latitude (47)
Precision W (27)
OptiPlex (21)
Precision M (17)
Venue (2)
XPS (1)
- 1.Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme (7404)
- 2.Latitude 5285
- 3.Latitude 5290 2-in-1
- 4.Latitude 5414
- 5.Latitude 5480
- 6.Latitude 5490
- 7.Latitude 5491
- 8.Latitude 7200 2-in-1
- 9.Latitude 7212 Rugged Extreme Tablet
- 10.Latitude 7280
- 11.Latitude 7290
- 12.Latitude 7390
- 13.Latitude 7400
- 14.Latitude 7414
- 15.Latitude 7480
- 16.Latitude D620
- 17.Latitude D630
- 18.Latitude E4200
- 19.Latitude E4310
- 20.Latitude E5430 non-vPro
- 21.Latitude E5440
- 22.Latitude E5450
- 23.Latitude E5470
- 24.Latitude E5520
- 25.Latitude E5530 non-vPro
- 26.Latitude E5540
- 27.Latitude E5550
- 28.Latitude E5570
- 29.Latitude E6220
- 30.Latitude E6230
- 31.Latitude E6320
- 32.Latitude E6330
- 33.Latitude E6400
- 34.Latitude E6410
- 35.Latitude E6420
- 36.Latitude E6430
- 37.Latitude E6440
- 38.Latitude E6500
- 39.Latitude E6510
- 40.Latitude E6520
- 41.Latitude E6530
- 42.Latitude E7240
- 43.Latitude E7250
- 44.Latitude E7270
- 45.Latitude E7440
- 46.Latitude E7450
- 47.Latitude E7470
- 1.Precision 5820 Tower
- 2.Precision 7820 Tower
- 3.Precision 7920 Rack
- 4.Precision 7920 Tower
- 5.Precision R7610
- 6.Precision Rack 7910
- 7.Precision T1600
- 8.Precision T1650
- 9.Precision T3600
- 10.Precision T3610
- 11.Precision T5600
- 12.Precision T5610
- 13.Precision T7600
- 14.Precision T7610
- 15.Precision Tower 3620
- 16.Precision Tower 5810
- 17.Precision Tower 7810
- 18.Precision Tower 7910
- 19.Precision WorkStation 380
- 20.Precision WorkStation 390
- 21.Precision WorkStation 690
- 22.Precision WorkStation T3400
- 23.Precision WorkStation T3500
- 24.Precision WorkStation T5400
- 25.Precision WorkStation T5500
- 26.Precision WorkStation T7400
- 27.Precision WorkStation T7500
- 1.OptiPlex 3020
- 2.OptiPlex 3020M
- 3.OptiPlex 390
- 4.OptiPlex 5040
- 5.OptiPlex 5050
- 6.OptiPlex 5060
- 7.OptiPlex 7010
- 8.OptiPlex 7020
- 9.OptiPlex 7040
- 10.OptiPlex 7060
- 11.OptiPlex 7440 AIO
- 12.OptiPlex 745
- 13.OptiPlex 755
- 14.OptiPlex 760
- 15.OptiPlex 780
- 16.OptiPlex 790
- 17.OptiPlex 9010
- 18.OptiPlex 9020
- 19.OptiPlex 9020 AIO
- 20.OptiPlex 990
- 21.OptiPlex GX520
- 1.Dell Precision M3800
- 2.Precision 5510
- 3.Precision 5520
- 4.Precision 5530
- 5.Precision 7510
- 6.Precision 7520
- 7.Precision 7530
- 8.Precision 7710
- 9.Precision 7720
- 10.Precision 7730
- 11.Precision M4500
- 12.Precision M4600
- 13.Precision M4700
- 14.Precision M4800
- 15.Precision M6600
- 16.Precision M6700
- 17.Precision M6800
- 1.Venue 11 Pro 5130
- 2.Venue 11 Pro 7130 vPro
- 1.XPS L322X
Next Steps
The rest of OSDDrivers will detail how I try to manage my Drivers to overcome my challenges
Last modified 2yr ago