Once again, at 33000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean on my way back from TechEd NA in Atlanta I started to think about all the different properties in MDT 2010 Update 1 that I use which are not really documented, trust me there are “some”. Some of them is, well, not really so useful, but some of them I really use and so should you. So this post is solely made for the purpose of giving you the same “relaxed” life that I have. Hmm, that did not really came out right I think, anyway, You know what I mean, right…
Now, since I not work on that team, I just happen to know them a bit. This is NOT any kind of official description and/or documentation, hopefully someone@microsoft.com will update he documentation sometime around this, especially when virtualization is getting to be more of the standard.
Virtualization Information:
We are deploying more and more virtualization stuff and in MDT 2010 Update 1 we have a bunch of them that you can use:
| Property | Can be | Read Only | Description |
| IsHypervisorRunning | True/False | Yes | Detects if the Microsoft Hypervisor is running on the OS
Can be used when you need to detect if the Hyper-V role is installed and running. In that vase you know that this really is a Hyper-V server and then scripts to enable core parking should run |
| SupportsVT | True/False | Yes | Returns True if the hardware supports Intel-VT or AMD-V and it is enabled in BIOS
If true you know that this machine should be able to run Virtual PC (and MED-V) otherwise not) |
| SupportsNX | True/False | Yes | Returns True if the hardware supports No Execute BIT and it is enabled in BIOS
There could be applications that require this to be disabled or the opposite around, anyway, here is a way of detecting this |
| Supports64Bit | True/False | Yes | Returns True if the hardware supports 64 Bit OS
Pretty easy, you could use this to pick the correct Task Sequence for the OS install |
| SupportsHyperVRole | True/False | Yes | Returns True if the hardware supports Microsoft Hyper-V
Also easy, if True, well then you can enable the Hyper-V role, otherwise, you cannot. You could use this flip OS install switch to NO and that will prohibit the install of the OS you Hyper-V is something you really need. |
| IsVM | True/False | Yes | Returns True if we are running in a VM.
This one is really great, if set to True, well the you are running a VM and most common setting I use for this is DoNotCreateExtraPartition=YES, since there are NO reason to create the extra bit locker partition in a VM; It is the opposite around, it is a pain in the neck to have the 300 mb partition in the end since that will prohibit the possibilities to extend the virtual hard drive if needed without spending some manual labor of rearrange the BCD |
Some others
There are some others that I use from time to time and here you have them
| Property | Can be | Read Only | Description |
| Debug | True/False | No | Returns True if you are running in debug mode, You can also run all scripts with the switch /Debug:True to increase the logging
If you just read the value, you can create a separate section in the customsettings,ini file that will set other parameters differently if you run in debug mode, as one example you could specify SLShareDynamicLogging if this is set to True |
| OSCurrentVersion | 6.1.7601 | Yes | Will return the version number of the Operating System that we currently run on. |
| OSCurrentBuild | 7601 | Yes | Will return the Build number which is a subset of the operating system version |
| IsUEFI | True/False | Yes | Returns True if the boot using UEFI instead of BIOS |
| OSSKU | ENTERPRISE | Yes | Returns the SKU name from the OS, it is the same name you can see in the WIM file |
| TaskSequenceVersion | 1.0 | Yes | Returns the value for the Task Sequence version number that you set in the Workbench
Could be used to detect what version you run of the Sequence, if it is running a certain number then certain settings should be made, otherwise not |
| TaskSequenceName | Windows 7 x86 Image | Yes | Returns the value of the name of the Task Sequence
Most common use I have for this is to set _SMSTSOrgName=Deploying %TaskSequenceName% on %OSDComputer% |
/mike
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Categories: Deployment
The Deployment Bunny 
OSCurrentBuild is actually documented as a property :)
/ Johan