Managing Windows 10 Deployments with ConfigMgr 2012 R2. Windows 10 ADK and MDT 2013 Update 2

In a previous post, I lamented the many frustrations that the Windows 10 ADK was causing me and many others, but also promised to post some updates if and when I got it to work for my specific use cases. I actually got this working some time ago, but I’m only now able to blog about this. So without further fuss, in this series of articles, I’ll review the steps I’ve taken to successfully manage Windows 10 in ConfigMgr 2012 R2. These steps also apply to later ConfigMgr releases. This series will cover steps for:

Switching to Windows 10 ADK (1511 version). Download here.
Updating Boot Images to Win PE version 10
Upgrading MDT 2013 Zero Touch to MDT 2013 Update 2 (Note that MDT 2013 Update 1, and not Update 2 is required)
Adding DaRT 10 from MDOP 2015 to ConfigMgr 2012 R2

Note that I made use of both the 1511 versions of Windows 10 ADK (version 10.1.10586.0), and Windows 10_1511 ISO.

This article will cover steps for installing Windows 10 ADK and creating new boot images in ConfigMgr. This article assumes the following:

Your site servers have been updated to ConfigMgr 2012 R2 SP1 or ConfigMgr 2012 SP2
You’ve applied at least the ConfigMgr R2 SP1 Cumulative Update 1

Switch to Windows 10 ADK

This assumes that you have Windows 8.1 ADK already installed (If not, skip this step and move on to Installing the Windows 10 ADK)

You will need to uninstall Windows 8.1 ADK. Navigate to Control Panel | Programs and Features and uninstall Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows 8.1

A restart isn’t required at this point.

Install Windows 10 ADK

1. Run the adksetup.exe you downloaded from the link above.

2. Install the features highlighted below:

After the installer runs and completes, confirm that the the installed ADK will be visible in Programs and Features.

3. You will now need to Restart the site server.

Create the New boot images in ConfigMgr

After the restart, you will now need to copy the architecture-specific WIM files from the install directory to a shared source folder for use in ConfigMgr. Copy both x86 and x64 files. The files can be found in the following default directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment\amd64\en-us\winpe.wim

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment\x86\en-us\winpe.wim

Copy both files to your shared source folder. For instance, in my case, this is:

\\<sharerootname>\SCCM\BootImages\W10x64

\\<sharerootname>\SCCM\BootImages\W10x86

We will now need to add the boot images to ConfigMgr. From the ConfigMgr console, navigate to Software Library | Overview | Operating Systems | Boot Images . Click on the Add Boot Image button.

In the resulting wizard, specify the source UNC Path of the x64 WIM file referenced above, and click Next.