Calling PDQ package with a PowerShell script during deployment

[Tim Butterworth]

Hi All,

I'm currently looking at SmartDeploy as an alternative to our aging WDS server. However, I've hit a bit of a sticking point. The final step of our WDS task sequence is to run a PowerShell script that calls a PDQ deployment package. This package performs a variety of tasks (copies shortcuts, installs software, deprovisions apps, activates Windows etc). However, this script currently needs to be run as a network account, and, as far as I can see, there is no option in the SmartDeploy answer file to run a step with a specified network user account.

Does anyone do something similar? I could change the way most of these steps are run so that PDQ is not required, but it would save a lot of work if I can get PDQ and SmartDeploy working together.

Thanks,

Tim

[SmartDeploySupport]

Hi Tim,

If you're running an answer file Task during the "First Boot as System" (FIRSTBOOT) phase, or sending it as an application pack, the result is the same permission level: It is executed by a Windows service running under the authority of the LOCALSYSTEM account.

However, if you run an answer file task during the "First Logon as User" phase, then log in with the desired user, it will run under that specific user account's permissions. And finally, if you enable autologon, that set of login credentials will be stored in the answer file, and you won't have to put hands on each endpoint to complete the operation. So that is probably your best bet.

You'll just want to be sure to test the command line you plan to use - open an administrative command prompt (not a PowerShell command prompt, but cmd.exe), and try running the command. If it's a PowerShell (.ps1) file, then you'll need to run it using powershell.exe (see this KB article for an example).

If you have any questions or issues, feel free to reach out to support@smartdeploy.com.

Glenn
SmartDeploy Support