Driver Packages

Drivers imported into ConfigMgr must be stored in a driver package to be available during an OS deployment; driver packages, like all other package types in ConfigMgr, store the files associated with the drivers. You can create driver packages and add drivers to them during driver import as described in the "Importing Drivers" section, or you can use the Driver Packages node to create and manage the various driver packages for your deployments.

To create a new driver package, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Software Library > Operating Systems > Driver Packages. Choose Create Driver package from the ribbon bar or the right-click context menu.
2. Fill in the following information on the Create Driver Package dialog:
   • Name: The name for the driver package.
   • Comment: Descriptive comments adding detail to the package's contents.
   • Path: An accessible UNC path that stores the driver files for this package. As with other content types, each package should have its own distinct location. ConfigMgr creates the folders in the path entered if they do not exist.

This is not the path you imported the drivers from or will import them from, as described in the "Importing Drivers" section. This path is the source location used to populate the DP. This process: Drivers are first copied from the driver import location to the driver package source specified by this path and then copied to the DP when the package is assigned to a DP, resulting in all drivers being located in three distinct locations. There is no shortcut to this process and deleting or manipulating the driver import location can create issues. Using the same path for both locations will bloat your driver packages and increase your download times, and may cause some confusion if you directly view the contents of the location.

To add drivers to a package after they are imported, select or multiselect the drivers in the console, and choose Driver Packages from the Edit fly-out menu on the ribbon bar or right-click context menu. This displays the Add or Remove Drivers to Packages dialog where you can select existing packages to add the selected drivers to use the New Package button to create a new package, which displays the Create Driver Package dialog.

Operating System Images

This node lists all the OS images you have imported into ConfigMgr. OS images are those captured images in the form of a WIM file, used to mass-deploy Windows. The node also lists data images. Data images are also WIM files but do not contain an installed OS. They are simply a collection of files stored in the WIM that you would like to deploy to a system.

To import a new OS image, perform these steps:

1. Copy the WIM file to its permanent home in your source repository. Each WIM file does not need to be in a unique folder; ConfigMgr directly references the actual WIM file itself, making distinct folders for each WIM unnecessary.
2. In the console, navigate to Software Library > Operating Systems > Operating Systems , and choose Add Operating System Image from the ribbon bar, or rightclick context menu to launch the Add Operating System Image Wizard.
3. The Add Operating System Image Wizard has two significant pages:
   • Data Source: The exact UNC path to your WIM file containing the image you want to import
   • General: Descriptive metadata for you to add a Name, Version, and Comment

Do not use a WIM file directly from a Windows DVD without first deploying and capturing it as a new image. If used directly, the default image.wim is installed to the D: drive instead of the typical C: drive. (This hopefully will be corrected in a future release of ConfigMgr.) To create a new OS image you can later import, see the "Image Creation" section.