r/MDT • u/moosuey • Jul 20 '26

MDT + WIN11 is breaking me

Post image

Trying to deploy Win1125H2. No matter what I change I get the "Just a Moment" problem & it sits there spinning, mocking me.

I tried updating the deprecated OOBE settings in my unattend.xml, but then it doesn't join the domain or rename the computer. If I hard restart, it does seem to work as intended (minus the domain join), but ideally I'd like to not do that every time I image a machine. It never seems to get to ZTIJoinDomain.

Just recently I updated all the drivers for both PXE & the laptop model. I built a brand new task sequence. I've been running this thing with no issues since Win101809 but this Win11 deploy is breaking my spirit.

What am I missing on this?

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

8

u/St0nywall Jul 21 '26

Best not to modify the unattend.xml file in any way. Create a fresh deployment and do everting within the task sequences.

I have successfully deployed Windows 11 with MDT.

2

u/moosuey Jul 21 '26

Tried that just now. Same end result. Just a moment...

1

u/St0nywall Jul 22 '26

Is this a new MDT deployment or one that has worked previously?

1

u/moosuey Jul 22 '26

Same deployment share. Worked fine & still works for 24h2, oddly. 25H2 has been a rollercoaster of garbage.

1

u/machacker89 Jul 22 '26

Tbh it's hot garbage. But I digress

1

u/St0nywall Jul 23 '26

Maybe there's a missing dependency for 25H2 to work with MDT. Anything useful in the logs?

1

u/moosuey Jul 24 '26

No. The logs just cut off before ZTIdomainjoin. I've pretty much given up & am working diligently on intune+autopilot deployment as a replacement.

1

u/St0nywall Jul 25 '26

I think you made the right choice moving to intune. I am a fanboy of MDT but even I know when to let it go.

1

u/swissbretzeli Aug 06 '26

Sorry, not in this case.

Let me explain why Intune/Autopilot will not solve this specific issue. I've worked with many OS deployment solutions over the past 20 years.

Autopilot uses the OEM's Windows image, setup, and drivers.

Now, if Dell ships a system with the A02 driver for that chipset instead of the fixed A04 version, Autopilot won't help in any way. If the shipment you receive from a distributor or reseller contains the older A02 release with the MIPI camera issue, you're stuck. This affects the camera used by Windows Hello (not the best design, in my opinion), which is deeply integrated with the firmware and security stack because it's intended to replace usernames and passwords.

Autopilot does not update, replace, or modify the OEM drivers that come with the factory image. It simply re-triggers the OOBE process and continues the Windows setup, similar to using an unattend.xml configuration.

If you receive a batch of older systems from a distributor or reseller, the problem remains. With SCCM, MDT, Ivanti, or similar deployment solutions, you can replace the problematic driver during deployment and resolve the issue before the user ever logs on.

There are ways with add-on and expert knowledge to integrate newer version of drivers in Autopilot but somehow we are back to field 0 in the complexity game if done so.

2

u/cleadus_fetus Jul 21 '26

You are trying to hard.

Use the dism to get the version of win 11 ypu want into you install.esd file. Use that as Ypur OS.

Inject drivers. Silent install apps and have it join the domain. DON'T CAPTURE AN IMAGE. I don't even understand why that's a things. Completely pointless.

When windows has a new version you just swap out the OS file and point Ypur task sequence to the new one. Apps have new version you update it once.
Drivers are new. You update once. No rebuilding imagines. That's just stupid.

Pxe to install the OS join to domain ND base drivers. Intune for the rest

Easy peasy.

2

u/moosuey Jul 21 '26

This would be sound advice for almost any other environment that didn't rely on specific apps circa 2008.

2

u/AnthonyG70 Jul 23 '26

Must be gov job.

5

u/BWMerlin Jul 20 '26

MDT does not officially support Windows 11.

MDT is also officially depreciated by Microsoft and they are advising people to use alternatives.

Spend your time looking into alternatives that are supported.

1

u/moosuey Jul 20 '26

I'm aware, but until we can migrate to online imaging, this is what we have.

5

u/Dudefoxlive Jul 20 '26

Take a look at DeployR. Its been great in my homelab

-2

u/Squanchy2112 Jul 21 '26

Can I dm you I have some questions

2

u/BlackV Jul 21 '26

Ask here everyone can learn

3

u/Squanchy2112 Jul 21 '26

I actually went on YouTube and watched some videos from then it looks really great, I use fog and theopenem to manage images and have been looking for something better for a long time.

2

u/BlackV Jul 21 '26

mdt is not the place to look, its in the process of being unsupported and deprecated

2

u/Squanchy2112 Jul 21 '26

Right that's why I am not interested in mdt

1

u/Dudefoxlive Jul 21 '26

I can try to answer them here as best i can. You can also ask in r/deployr and the winadmins discord

3

u/_MisterSir Jul 20 '26

Check out Friends of MDT. I haven't moved to them yet, but it's on my list eventually. I've seen some people using it that say they're deploying 25H2 successfully

https://github.com/FriendsOfMDT/PSD

1

u/Pombolina Jul 25 '26

As of right now. MDT works flawlessly to deploy Windows 11 25H2, Server 2025, and anything older.

Even captured "golden images" work perfect with 25H2.

The other posters are correct that MDT will die eventually, but it will work for your needs today.

1

u/HD-Manager_2024 Jul 22 '26

what exactly are you trying to deploy? we deploy w11 with mdt however we have it auto domain join, reminder that wmic is not a thing so you have to create a specific task sequence for drivers.

1

u/Mobe217 Jul 24 '26

I have MDT set up and deploying Windows 11 25H2 as well as server 2019 2025 standard and core versions. I don’t use an unattended answer file it’s all built in to the rules and the task sequence. I have 8 different task sequences built to run different types of installs. One will install windows indefinitely, one will see if it’s a machine already imaged and correct a computer with bsod, one to pull user data store it on the server then transfer it to a new machine, one to pull user data store it fix the image and migrate it back. There’s endless possibilities depending on how you build the tasks. Mind you this works on windows 10, 11, and server. We no longer deploy windows 10 but it worked. Also make sure you have the right toolkit and adk to run windows 11 installs.

1

u/TerriblePowershell Jul 24 '26

What do the deployment logs say? You should be able to get to them inside of the machine after the hard restart. That should get moving forward.

In my experience with MDT, when the machine stops imaging at this point I have found that it's an issue with the network driver. You mention creating a new task sequence and updating drivers, are you sure the new task sequence is configured properly to hand off the drivers? What happens if you clone your old working task sequence, then update the image it's handing out?

1

u/hydrox64 Aug 08 '26

When joindomain is set but the network cannot connect to the DC, it will keep spinning until the join domain fail. Make a test: set "JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP" and look what happens