Running Power. Shell scripts as part of a task sequence Michael Niehaus Windows and Office deployment ramblings. Both MDT 2. 01. 0 Lite Touch and Config. Mgr 2. 00. 7 run the same task sequencer. This task sequencer can run any command that you want, just specify the command line to use. Thats the simple part the harder part is figuring out what this command line should do. Often the command, a VBScript or Power. Shell script, needs to get information from the task sequence itself, accessing variables in the task sequence environment. Remember, these task sequence variables arent environment variables they are distinctly separate, so you cant use the Power. Shell Env drive. If you are using MDT, building a VBScript that includes the ZTIUtility. Value o. Environment. ItemMYVARBut Power. Shell is now the rage what if you wanted to do the same thing using Power. Shell  Fortunately thats not too difficult either. Heres a simple example that gets the value of a particular variable tsenv New Object COMObject Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment Write Host tsenv. ValueSMSTSLog. PathYou would then need to set up a task sequence step that ran that Power. Shell script.   In the Lite Touch case, I would suggest saving the file in the Scripts directory on the deployment share, for example as Test. You could then create a Run command line step in the task sequence that executes this command Power. Shell. exe File SCRIPTROOTTest. If you were using MDT 2. Config. Mgr, the same thing would work, but you would need to add the file to the Scripts directory of the MDT toolkit package. Alternatively, you could create a new software distribution package containing the Power. Shell script, specify to use that package on the Run command line step of the Config. Mgr task sequence, and then specify a command line that assumes the script is in the working directory Power. Shell. exe File SCRIPTROOTTest. If you want to change a task sequence variable or set a new one, you use the same Value method tsenv New Object COMObject Microsoft. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Lite Touch 2000Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Lite Touch InstallationHow to Install ADK and MDT on Windows Server 2016 External links. How to Deploy Windows 10 Using MDT Official website Microsoft deployment resources. Last week I gave a presentation at the local Citrix Users Group in Santa Clara on Microsoft Deployment Toolkit MDT 2013 and Windows Server 2012 R2. During the. Fullfeatured Windows 10 Deployment and Management Lab Kit product evaluation available for download. Free Download Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 6. Aims to simplify the process of deploying the Windows operating system and Office appli. IC820044.png' alt='Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Lite Touch Lancets' title='Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Lite Touch Lancets' />I am trying to get MDT up and running, it is kinda getting there but I am having some issues with getting it to join the domain. I get an error along the. Software updates, drivers, downloads and hardware from Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment tsenv. ValueMy. Var My ValueMaybe you want to do something a little more involved, like create an transcript log of the execution of your script. You can use the SMSTSLog. Path variable to determine where to place the file Determine where to do the logging tsenv New Object COMObject Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment log. Path tsenv. ValueSMSTSLog. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Lite Touch Power' title='Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Lite Touch Power' />Path log. File log. Pathmy. Invocation. My. Command. Start the logging Start Transcript log. File Insert your real logic here Write Host We are logging to log. File Stop logging Stop Transcript. Another useful example is a script that logs the values of all task sequence variables Determine where to do the logging tsenv New Object COMObject Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment log. Path tsenv. ValueSMSTSLog. Path log. File log. Pathmy. Invocation. My. Command. log Start the logging Start Transcript log. File Write all the variables and their values tsenv. Get. Variables Write Host tsenv. Value Stop logging Stop Transcript. Or you could use the same technique to turn all the task sequence variables into Power. Shell variables Determine where to do the logging tsenv New Object COMObject Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment log. Path tsenv. ValueSMSTSLog. Path log. File log. Pathmy. Invocation. My. Command. log Start the logging Start Transcript log. Windows Loader V2 1 Zip System more. File Convert the task sequence variables into Power. Shell variables tsenv. Get. Variables Set Variable Name Value tsenv. Value Write out a specific variable value Write Host SMSTSMData. Path Get all the variables Dir Variable Stop logging Stop TranscriptTake out all the extra stuff and this could be reduced to two lines, the one that creates the COM object and the one that calls Get. Variables. A few other notes worth mentioning You need to make sure scripts are enabled before trying to run these via a task sequence. In the case of MDT Lite Touch, the scripts will typically be run from a network UNC path. For Config. Mgr, a local path for download on demand or download and execute or a network path for run from DP will be used. You can include a step in the task sequence to set the needed execution policy, e. Command Set Execution. Policy Unrestricted, or configure the same via Group Policy. You may want to add the noprofile parameter to the Power. Shell. exe command line as the profile commands may cause issues with your script. The Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment COM object is only available while the task sequence is running, so you need to test your script inside of a task sequence. This can be a case where the convert task sequence environment to Power. Shell variables could come in handy do you testing with hard coded variables, remove the values before deploying the script. The task sequencer only registers the matching platform of Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment. For example, when the x. Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment will be available but the x. For an x. 64 task sequence, only the x. Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment will be available. Config. Mgr will run the x. Power. Shell will normally be run in this case. For MDT Lite Touch, the x. OSes and the x. 64 version is used on x. OSes.   Make sure you are aware of which platform is running, as that might affect your Power. Shell script execution. Note that x. Config. Mgr task sequence, done by disabling file system redirection for the task sequence step or by specifying sysnative in the path, wont be able to create the Microsoft. SMS. TSEnvironment object because of the previous note. If you want to return an error, you should insert an exit statement in your Power. Shell script, e. g. This will cause Power. Shell. exe to return that return code to the task sequencer.