Project Overview
During the pandemic I was tasked with deploying laptops to all employees of a company. Usually, when laptops were deployed, I would be able to be hands-on with the laptops during setup as that is usually the easiest way to complete a deployment. In this case, I was unable to get physical access to them, so I deployed them remotely.
Approach & Plan
Current System
The current laptops were being phased out as one of the requirements I had was replacing the laptops every 5 years due to aging components and upgrades to speed and battery tech new systems had.
New System
The new systems were purchased as part of the upgrade plan I set. Because of the pandemic shortages, I decided to delay the purchase by a few months to make sure we got the newest CPUs since Intel was releasing new CPUs in a few months with their newest E core & P core architecture that was supposedly more power efficient.
I went with a modest system, i5, 16GB RAM 512GB storage, 14” 1080p displays (the higher DPI displays reduced battery life by too much).
Deployment
Once purchased, I had the vendor ship the laptops to each persons address so I could remote deploy them. Because it was a small business, it would have taken more time to set up the rather buggy OOB OS experience at the time, so opted for a manual deployment.
I began by running a test deployment on a local system I had, being able to confirm remote deployment, where the users interaction could be limited. I wrote instructions on exactly the buttons the user had to press with pictures, so they could follow Windows 11’s basic OOB experience without needing me to walk them through it. I had given them each a remote desktop app link that once clicked, I could gain unattended access to each system.
After, I scheduled time with each user, usually 45 minutes - 1 hour that they could be available, but not required to be sitting at the new laptop. I went through and ensured the laptop was added to Azure Entra & Mobile Device Management, and all devices had the apps deployed from MDM installed correctly. I then installed all manual software, some using a script so i didn’t have to install manually, while others I installed manually (they didn’t have an easy way to script).
Once completed, I ensured the user could access all their apps and services they use, including making sure their menu items, desktop, task bar, favorites and other things were in the right place. Since previous work on ensuring all items were saved to the cloud, it was relatively easy to get things signed in without much work.
Change Management
I made sure I checked in with each user after a few days and after a week to make sure everything was running smoothly. Anything I learned I posted to the company wiki in case anyone else had similar issues. This reduced the duplicate work I needed to do.
Test and Validation
For the deployment, I had run some personal tests on a machine I had to make sure I knew what to expect when walking the user through the onboarding steps. This made it simple to ensure I understood all parts of the onboarding before deployment.
There was only one case where we had a faulty laptop. I was able to determine the faulty hardware using the manufacturers tools to do hardware tests and find the faulty part. I was able to use the warranty purchased from the manufacturer to send a technician out to their location to replace the bad motherboard and reinstall the OS.
Collaboration & Continuous Changes
I had made some improvements to deployment and system management and was able to write these in the wiki for next deployment to make sure we had an even smoother deployment for future laptop deployment or new employees.
Final Results
The final result was that each user was able to get a new laptop deployed remotely. Since this was several years ago, this was an achievement because Azures OOB experience, and other tooling wasn’t quite as mature as it is today, making this a relatively productive and successful deployment. I was happy with the end result, and the manager was also impressed that we could remotely deploy, since previous deployments required a single touchpoint to get all software installed correctly. This saved money and time since the laptops didn’t have to be mailed to one location then re-mailed again. The methodology is still in use with other laptops that need remote deployment in the business.
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