In this blog post, I will be going through the process of deploying Windows 10 version 20H2 task sequence using SCCM.  20H2 version also known as OS Build version 10.0.19042 requires minimum SCCM 2006 version installed. You need to also have Windows 10 ADK version 2004 (10.1.19041) installed. Follow support for windows 10 to get more details on support.

Latest version of Windows 10 20H2 also known as Windows 10 October 2020 release, which is a second release of the year 2020. The previous version is named as Windows 10 version 2004 (1st release of year). Life cycle of the version of 20H2 is 30 months while 2004 has 18 months.

Hence, Microsoft has decided to go with 18 months of lifecycle for first release of the year, while 30 months for 2nd release of the year, this has started happening ever since Windows 10 version 1903 onwards.

Import Operating System Image

The first step required is to have operating system image imported into SCCM / Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.

Download latest Windows 10, version 20H2 ISO either from VLSC or Visual Studio Subscriptions (Formerly known as MSDN Subscription). As this is a Multiple edition wim file, you might need to extract the particular wim file from ISO. Though it is perfectly normal to use multiple edition wim file which consists of various indexes for all windows 10 versions, however using extracted version creates simplicity, reduces the size of wim file. Copy 20H2 wim file to one of your source location.

Login to SCCM server, launch SCCM console, navigate to  Software Library > Overview > Operating Systems >Operating System Images. Right-click Operating System Images and select Add Operating System Image.

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Under Data Source page, specify the path of 20H2 wim file which we copied previously into the source location. Select architecture as x64 and Language as English (United States), click Next.

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Under General page, specify the name of the wim file, click Next.

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Under Summary page, verify the info and click Next.

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We can see the image has been imported, we just need to distribute it to the Distribution Point.

Verify Boot Image

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Navigate to Software Library > Overview > Operating Systems > Boot Images. Verify the appropriate supporting boot image is there, in my case I can see the boot image with version 10.0.19041.1 is there which is part of Windows 10 ADK 2004 version.

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Create Task Sequence

Navigate to Software Library > Overview > Operating Systems > Task Sequences. Right click and select Create Task Sequence.

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From Create Task Sequence page, you will see multiple options for creating task sequence such as:

  • Install an existing image package
  • Build and capture a reference operating system image
  • Upgrade an operating system from an upgrade package
  • Deploy Windows Autopilot for existing devices
  • Create a new custom task sequence
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To deploy OS image using wim flie, we need to select first option ie. Install an existing image package, click Next.

Under Task Sequence Information page, provide the task sequence name and select the latest Boot image, also select Run as high performance power plan which is a good option for deploying the operating system with high performance with lesser time to deploy, click Next.

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Under Install the Windows operating system page, select Image Package we previously imported, it will automatically show Image Index as Windows 10 Enterprise, as we have only 1 index extracted from multiple version Windows 10 wim file.

Select Partition and format the target computer before installing OS, and uncheck Configure task sequence for use with BitLocker as we are not going to encrypt the drive for this TS.

Select Enable the account and specify the local administrator password, as it allows you to login with the password provided during this phase in case you want local user account to be used to login and for troubleshooting purpose in case task sequence fails, click Next.

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Under Configure the network page, select Join a domain and specify Domain and Domain OU, also specify the account that has permission to join the domain, click Next.

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Under Install the Configuration Manager client page, it will automatically pick the configuration manager client package which is set as the default package, you can change it to any other client package if you want, click Next.

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Under Configure state migration page, uncheck all the options such as Capture user settings and files, Capture network settings, Capture Microsoft Windows settings as we are not going to use state migration option, click Next.

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Under Include software updates page, select Do not install any software updates, as we don’t want to get it installed during installation phase, click Next.

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Under Install Applications page, you may add applications you want to get installed during OS deployment which is optional, click on burst icon to add it, I have added 7-zip and Office 365 proPlus, click Next.

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Verify the summary and under next page:

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Deploy Task Sequence

We can see task sequence is created with the name Windows 10 20H2, select it and right click Deploy.

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Under General page, select the Collection as All Unknown Computers, click Next.

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Under Deployment Settings page, make Task sequence available to Configuration manager clients, media and PXE, click Next.

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Under Scheduling page, select the option Schedule when this deployment will become available and specify date / time when you want the TS to be made available, click Next.

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Under User Experience, we will be going with default option, we can see Show Task Sequence progress is selected, click Next.

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Under Alerts page, click Next.

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Under Distribution Points page, click Next.

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Under Summary page, verify and the info and click Next.

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Run the task sequence

Boot the Bare metal system using pxe boot or boot media, once the boot image is loaded, select Task Sequence Windows 10 20H2.

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Allow some time to complete the task sequence.

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Once the build is completed, login to the system and verify the OS Build version installed. The Version is 20H2 and OS Build is 19042.508.

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