Windows Setup

OSDDrivers can be used with Windows Setup, and is a good fit due to the small size. You will need to do some customization when it comes to AutoUnattend.xml, but the purpose of this is to show that it is possible to deploy OSDDrivers using this method, completely offline

Requirements

  • PowerShell must be integrated with Windows Setup Environment (WinSE)

  • Drive must be Partitioned before Windows Setup begins using an AutoUnattend.xml

  • Drivers need to be staged to C:\Drivers (or path specified in AutoUnattend.xml)

Hyper-V Example

In this case I have created an ISO for use in Hyper-V. I'm prompted to Partition the Drive first (to prevent accidents)

Once OSDDrivers begins, it imports the Deploy-OSDDrivers Script Module. The system is validated and all HardwareID's are gathered

Apparently no drivers matched, so no Drivers were staged, so this isn't a good example to use except to show a quick overview

Dell Latitude 5400

Time to move onto testing a real computer, the Dell Latitude 5400. This is a rather new model, and I made sure to have MS DaRT added to WinSE so I can take screenshots while connected using Remote Recovery

This is a basic PowerShell script that I use on a USB with AutoUnattend.xml to get things moving. In the image below I am prompted to press Enter before my Drive is partitioned

My Drive Partition script includes a 984MB Recovery Partition

One the Drive has been Partitioned and Formatted, OSDDrivers kicks off gathering some information about the computer before starting to process the DellFamily Driver Packs. You can see the first few Packs didn't meet the criteria

Of all the DellFamily Driver Packs, it found a ModelMatch

Once the DellFamily Driver Packs are processed, its on to some individual Drivers which are evaluated to HardwareID Compatibility

All the Drivers that meet the criteria are then expanded to %SystemDrive%:\Drivers where my AutoUnattend.xml will be looking during Windows Setup

Windows Setup

Windows Setup will then kick off

Holding down Shift + F10 for a few seconds brings up a Command Prompt that I can use to launch Explorer (MS DaRT) to see my Drivers directory

Now off to the races

Windows

Once Windows Setup is complete, I can check the results in Device Manager where everything looks perfect

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