If you're running MECM (Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager) in your organisation, you may be intrigued by the article title. After all, doesn't Microsoft go to great pains to have us believe that MECM can do everything out-of-the-box to deploy and manage your Windows machines?

We have been involved in 1000's of Windows deployment projects and spoken with many administrators and partners. Depending on who you speak to you're likely to get a different answer.

Most service orientated Microsoft partners will say MECM and OSD (Operating System Deployment) need to be carefully planned and implemented to get the most from the solution and to meet your requirements. Sound advice indeed. However, when pushed on how simple a Windows deployment process can be made they are likely to offer OSD as a solution with weeks of on-site consultancy to ensure Windows 10 and required drivers are available to support your hardware estate.


Ultimately, organisations just want something to work, but life is rarely that simple. Once you have MECM installed and an OSD process in place with task sequence steps calling beautifully crafted script, what happens when....

 

Ahhh.... a department purchases new hardware from a different manufacturer!

In MECM terms, you could be lucky and find a collection of drivers in a CAB from the machine manufacturer. However, each manufacturer has a different method of supplying drivers and (based on our experience) it's likely that the drivers may be out of date, or worse don't install due to a badly written INF file. Stunned? Don't be, at ENGL we've seen lots of poorly conceived INF files that fail to install on specific OS versions or platforms. If this is the case, you'll need to hack around with the driver files or script a solution around it.

Sound painful? You're right to think so. During a recent survey, we found MECM administrators on average spend a few days to a week finding a working set of drivers for a machine model, including the main manufacturers like Lenovo, HP and Dell.


ENGL to the rescue

If you have a working OSD process, ENGL Driver Manager is designed to integrate natively into MECM, and with just one task sequence step you can deploy drivers to any machine type in your organisation.

The driver management capability in ENGL Driver Manager includes:

  • Hardware inventory scanner (can be run unattended from the command line)
  • MECM inventory import
  • Driver search for a Windows OS / platform
  • Latest driver downloads direct from machine and OEM site (without being modified)
  • Driver analysis will determine the best way to install the driver
  • Install drivers as part of an OSD task sequence or use a standalone task sequence for updating drivers
  • Driver issue report (allows you to report an issue with a download driver and opens an ENGL support ticket)

 

It can be easy...

Windows deployment with MECM can be hugely simplified by investing in an ENGL solution. You'll be fully supported and we guarantee to invest our own time and effort to support as many Windows and MECM versions as possible.


For more further information, free trial download and pricing visit the ENGL Driver Manager product page.