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Windows 7 to Windows 10: In Need of a Remote Deployment Solution

Hello, PDQ community!

I am currently trying to research the easiest and best way for me to upgrade around 100 users from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Most of them are here at our HQ building, however many are scattered in various remote locations, meaning a remote solution is required. We recently aquired a license of PDQDeploy/Inventory and from what I have seen, it looks like PDQ does have the capability to do this, however I am running into some issues and am now unsure of how this should be approached...

What is needed is something that can run in the background overnight and at the very minimum will keep the applications already installed on the machine. I have an 1803 ISO created from the general Microsoft Media Creation Tool, which I have currently stored on a network location. From this I researched and found what I believe to be the command line I need to get it going:

start /wait \\nighthawk\misdept\Installs\Win10Dep\win10\Files\setup.exe /auto upgrade /migratedrivers all /dynamicupdate enable /telemetry disable /compat IgnoreWarning /showoobe none /quiet

I initially tried to run this deployment with the command only, which did bring up an installation process in the task manager, however it went away after a few moments and did not progress further. I then created a batch with the above command line and tried to import the batch file itself, however this showed no signs of life once deployed... When I simply double-click the batch file I get a User Account Control message requesting permission, but once Yes is clicked the upgrade begins. I am not sure if this required Yes input is messing the deployment up. The goal is for this to require no input from the user during the deployment.

Am I doing something wrong with this? Are there any other suggestions you as a community have for a novice trying to learn the seemingly never-ending complexity of deployments in general? Any and all help is appreciated!

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Comments

7 comments
Date Votes
  • Try this in a cmd windows or batch file with Admin rights:

    \\nighthawk\misdept\Installs\Win10Dep\win10\Files\setup.exe /auto upgrade /migratedrivers all /ShowOOBE none /Compat IgnoreWarning /Telemetry Disable

    start /wait ist not necessary and without /quiet you can see/track what happens during the upgrade process (or not).

    If this works for you, roll it out and be sure you use a account with admin rights in PDQ for deployments

    I upgraded over 350 Win 7 devices 2,5 years ago this way without greater problems. As long there is no incompatible hard- or software everthing should be fine.

    ~ Chris

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  • Chris,

    Thanks for the response! I have made the changes recommended (Admin rights to the batch included), but still not successful. When I try to push the deployment, nothing happens on the target computer... I am not sure what I may be doing wrong. Here is the package setup; maybe this will shed some light:

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    EDIT After running the command itself in cmd, I get a "An unknown command line [/auto] was specified" error... This could have something to do with it, then again I still do not see this on the target machine's screen when running the deployment.

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  • Don't call the batch via cmd, use the line \\nighthawk\misdept\Installs\Win10Dep\win10\Files\setup.exe /auto upgrade /migratedrivers all /ShowOOBE none /Compat IgnoreWarning /Telemetry Disable directly inside the step.

    enter image description here

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  • Chris,

    When I run the deployment with just the command line without pulling it from the batch, nothing happens on the target machine's end. The deployment eventually fails after an hour of nothing happening... Is there something simple I am missing?

    Also even when trying to run the command on the target PC itself in CMD I am getting an error of "An unknown command line [/auto] was specified." Maybe I am completely missing something here; I feel like I haven't set something else up right maybe.

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  • Ok i think i know whats causing your problem, you are using a autounattend.xml. Thats ok for "new" installations via PXE or USB stick, but not for "upgrades".

    Remove (or rename) the autounattend.xml from the directory, then the "An unknown command line [/auto] was specified" error is gone and the setup works.

    ~Chris

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  • Thanks for all your help! You'll have to excuse my ignorance on this topic; I am figuring all this deployment stuff out on the fly.

    Unfortunately I seem to be having troubles finding this autounattend.xml in the 1803 ISO folder I have on one of our network shares. I tried diving into some of the folders in here, but did not find anything.

    enter image description here

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  • Ok, it's unlikely that you have a autounattend.xml if you just start with this kind of setup. The autounattend.xml should be right in the root of the setupfolder, but there is no autounattend.xml.

    I faced the same error in the past and it was the solution for me and it was not easy because google doesn't help here.

    You should download the setup files again.

    Use the "Media Creation Tool" from Microsoft and be sure you are downloading the right edition (x64/x86)

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