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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. 1.
    Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme (7404)
  2. 2.
    Latitude 5285
  3. 3.
    Latitude 5290 2-in-1
  4. 4.
    Latitude 5414
  5. 5.
    Latitude 5480
  6. 6.
    Latitude 5490
  7. 7.
    Latitude 5491
  8. 8.
    Latitude 7200 2-in-1
  9. 9.
    Latitude 7212 Rugged Extreme Tablet
  10. 10.
    Latitude 7280
  11. 11.
    Latitude 7290
  12. 12.
    Latitude 7390
  13. 13.
    Latitude 7400
  14. 14.
    Latitude 7414
  15. 15.
    Latitude 7480
  16. 16.
    Latitude D620
  17. 17.
    Latitude D630
  18. 18.
    Latitude E4200
  19. 19.
    Latitude E4310
  20. 20.
    Latitude E5430 non-vPro
  21. 21.
    Latitude E5440
  22. 22.
    Latitude E5450
  23. 23.
    Latitude E5470
  24. 24.
    Latitude E5520
  25. 25.
    Latitude E5530 non-vPro
  26. 26.
    Latitude E5540
  27. 27.
    Latitude E5550
  28. 28.
    Latitude E5570
  29. 29.
    Latitude E6220
  30. 30.
    Latitude E6230
  31. 31.
    Latitude E6320
  32. 32.
    Latitude E6330
  33. 33.
    Latitude E6400
  34. 34.
    Latitude E6410
  35. 35.
    Latitude E6420
  36. 36.
    Latitude E6430
  37. 37.
    Latitude E6440
  38. 38.
    Latitude E6500
  39. 39.
    Latitude E6510
  40. 40.
    Latitude E6520
  41. 41.
    Latitude E6530
  42. 42.
    Latitude E7240
  43. 43.
    Latitude E7250
  44. 44.
    Latitude E7270
  45. 45.
    Latitude E7440
  46. 46.
    Latitude E7450
  47. 47.
    Latitude E7470
  1. 1.
    Precision 5820 Tower
  2. 2.
    Precision 7820 Tower
  3. 3.
    Precision 7920 Rack
  4. 4.
    Precision 7920 Tower
  5. 5.
    Precision R7610
  6. 6.
    Precision Rack 7910
  7. 7.
    Precision T1600
  8. 8.
    Precision T1650
  9. 9.
    Precision T3600
  10. 10.
    Precision T3610
  11. 11.
    Precision T5600
  12. 12.
    Precision T5610
  13. 13.
    Precision T7600
  14. 14.
    Precision T7610
  15. 15.
    Precision Tower 3620
  16. 16.
    Precision Tower 5810
  17. 17.
    Precision Tower 7810
  18. 18.
    Precision Tower 7910
  19. 19.
    Precision WorkStation 380
  20. 20.
    Precision WorkStation 390
  21. 21.
    Precision WorkStation 690
  22. 22.
    Precision WorkStation T3400
  23. 23.
    Precision WorkStation T3500
  24. 24.
    Precision WorkStation T5400
  25. 25.
    Precision WorkStation T5500
  26. 26.
    Precision WorkStation T7400
  27. 27.
    Precision WorkStation T7500
  1. 1.
    OptiPlex 3020
  2. 2.
    OptiPlex 3020M
  3. 3.
    OptiPlex 390
  4. 4.
    OptiPlex 5040
  5. 5.
    OptiPlex 5050
  6. 6.
    OptiPlex 5060
  7. 7.
    OptiPlex 7010
  8. 8.
    OptiPlex 7020
  9. 9.
    OptiPlex 7040
  10. 10.
    OptiPlex 7060
  11. 11.
    OptiPlex 7440 AIO
  12. 12.
    OptiPlex 745
  13. 13.
    OptiPlex 755
  14. 14.
    OptiPlex 760
  15. 15.
    OptiPlex 780
  16. 16.
    OptiPlex 790
  17. 17.
    OptiPlex 9010
  18. 18.
    OptiPlex 9020
  19. 19.
    OptiPlex 9020 AIO
  20. 20.
    OptiPlex 990
  21. 21.
    OptiPlex GX520
  1. 1.
    Dell Precision M3800
  2. 2.
    Precision 5510
  3. 3.
    Precision 5520
  4. 4.
    Precision 5530
  5. 5.
    Precision 7510
  6. 6.
    Precision 7520
  7. 7.
    Precision 7530
  8. 8.
    Precision 7710
  9. 9.
    Precision 7720
  10. 10.
    Precision 7730
  11. 11.
    Precision M4500
  12. 12.
    Precision M4600
  13. 13.
    Precision M4700
  14. 14.
    Precision M4800
  15. 15.
    Precision M6600
  16. 16.
    Precision M6700
  17. 17.
    Precision M6800
  1. 1.
    Venue 11 Pro 5130
  2. 2.
    Venue 11 Pro 7130 vPro
  1. 1.
    XPS L322X

Next Steps

The rest of OSDDrivers will detail how I try to manage my Drivers to overcome my challenges
Next
Release Notes
Last modified 3yr ago