Driver Automation Tool – Version 6.3.0 Released

In this latest build of the Driver Automation Tool, the focus has been on extending Microsoft Surface support. There has been high demand for improved Surface management from us, so in this update we are extending our Modern BIOS Management solution to work with the Surface models.

Dynamic Surface Downloads

The XML feed from SCConfigMgr for Surface downloads has been replaced, with the tool now supporting all Surface models across all builds of Windows 10.

Driver & BIOS Packages

In the latest version of the tool, you now have the option to package Surface downloads into drivers or BIOS packages. The term BIOS is used here, but we are really talking about the firmware updates that Microsoft includes in the driver package. Previously running the driver update switch when pushing out updated drivers would have updated the firmware using PNPUtil, however in the new release we are now catering for the “Modern BIOS Management” approach, allowing you to push out firmware updates separately.

By packaging the drivers and firmware updates separately, you now have more granular control over what you push to the machine, both at OS deployment and maintenance time.

Surface Firmware Updates – Modern BIOS Management

Due to the way in which the firmware is applied for Surface models, the SCConfigMgr Modern BIOS Management solution will need to be run in the full OS stage for these models. To facilitate the update process, updates to the Invoke-CMDownloadBIOSPackage script, along with a new Invoke-MicrosoftBIOSUpdate script are now available on the SCConfigMgr GitHub repo.

For those of you in a multi vendor environment, I would recommend putting a WMI Query filters on the steps / groups as per the below;

WinPE
SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE NOT Manufacturer LIKE “%Microsoft%”

FullOS
SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem WHERE Manufacturer LIKE “%Microsoft%”

Download

The updated version of the Driver Automation Tool is available on Technet here – https://aka.ms/drivermanagementtool

Feedback

Please provide feedback on the updates, report any bugs in the deployment scripts and we will continue to maintain our solutions for everyone in the community.

Special Thanks

Carl Luberti in Microsoft deserves a special mention here, he has been a source for all things Surface for me over the past number of years and has provided the latest mechanisms to obtain the Surface downloads.