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Create Windows-To-Go drives in a simple Factory mode

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Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise that allows Windows 8 Enterprise to boot and run from mass storage devices such as USB flash drives and external hard disk drives. It is a fully manageable corporate Windows 8 environment.

During a recent project we faced the need to generate hundreds of WTG drives in a short time. We evaluated USB disk duplicators such as the ILY Spartan USB duplicator (https://ily.com/other_usbdupe.html or https://www.ily.com/super_usbdupe.html ). We successfully tested the 7 and 118 port versions but finally decided to just use PowerShell and a USB hub.

We used MDT 2012 Update1 for image engineering and Ben’s guidance for the Start Screen customization to generate our master image (WTGContoso.WIM). This image is customized for all WTG usage and therefore we injected all corporate supported drivers.

When the WTG image runs for the first time it will perform the same process as your normal image installation. If you provide the unattend.xml the configuration and domain join process is also automated.
There is also no need for special naming convention (lucky for us), so don’t have to mess around with naming script logic. We only ensured that Windows 8 started from a WTG stick is in a special OU that applies Group Policy with extra hardening settings.

Attached is the PowerShell script to generate multiple WTG sticks at the same time. The script will create the unattend.xml, format the WTG drive, enable BitLocker and deploy the image to the drive.

For mass production use a USB hub and add as many WTG sticks to the PC as you can. The script will build all of them in a single process. During the first boot of the WTG drive, all unattend.XML settings are applied, the host hardware is detected and all drivers are installed.

There are few script updates you need to perform for your environment:

  • Domain credentials
  • Domain join account
  • Join OU container
  • Organization and Owner
  • Timezone
  • If needed you can add a run once script.

This post was contributed by Lutz Seidemann , a Solution Architect with Microsoft Consulting Services.

The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.

WTGMultiProvision_Contoso.zip

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2013
    Has anyone tried this with a Win 8.1 enterprise version, mine works just fine but fails at adding users to the local administrators group. Any help will be much appreciated Thank you.

  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2014
    I'm having problem booting up to it.

  • Anonymous
    October 21, 2014
    hello, I want to use your script to make windows to go on an external drive, but the script crashes when get-disk, permission denied (access to a CIM resource was not available to the client)? (msft_disk : root / microsoft / windows / storage / msft_disks) [get-disk] cimexception

    Yet when I pass by the windows interface to realize the windowstogo, I have no problem to perform this operation
    thank you for your help in using this script

  • Anonymous
    November 11, 2014
    Try with elevated Powershell window and copy your script and other needed files to a location where administrator will have access. I had the same problem and doing the above worked. Cheers !!!