Windows 10 1903 / 1909 – SCCM Language Pack Integration

As I’ve already described in one of my previous post, language pack integration could be a hell of a ride. Since Windows 10 Version 1809 Microsoft changed the way how language packs are installed. Microsoft now provides “LanguageExperiencePacks” that contain partially-localized language packs. These “LanguageExperiencePacks” that are provided as appx-packages still require base language packs.

Requirements

VLSC W10 1909 Image: Download the Windows 10 installation media from the “Volume Licensing Service Center“. Do not download the sources from other official Microsoft sites like https://my.visualstudio.com/ . The language pack integration with dism will fail if not using a VLSC image! Example Image: SW_DVD9_Win_Pro_10_1909.3_64BIT_English_Pro_Ent_EDU_N_MLF_X22-27457.ISO
VLSC W10 1903 Multi Language Pack: Even when installing W10 1909 the language pack for 1903 is required! Example: SW_DVD9_NTRL_Win_10_1903_32_64_ARM64_MultiLang_LangPackAll_LIP_X22-01656.ISO
VLSC W10 1903 Features on Demand: Even when installing W10 1909 the features on demand pack for 1903 is required! Example: SW_DVD9_NTRL_Win_10_1903_64Bit_MultiLang_FOD_1_X22-01658.ISO

Installation Order

Install language packs (e.g Microsoft-Windows-Client-Language-Pack_x64_de-de.cab)
Restart
Install “LanguageExperiencePack” (e.g. LanguageExperiencePack.de-DE.Neutral.appx)
Activate language pack for all users (e.g. C:\Windows\System32\control.exe intl.cpl /f:”configuartion.xml”)
Restart

Create SCCM Package

Start creating an individual SCCM package “MS_W10 1909 LanguagePack de-DE_x64_MU_01” containing all necessary content for language activation:

Windows PE – SCCM/MDT Boot Image Modification (Double Commander Installation)

As we all know Windows PE is a very lightweight operating system containing only the neccesarry components for operating system installation. Operating Systems are usually installed by 1st Level Support that is not familar with the SCCM environment and sometimes they are really restricted in their administrative rights. Therefore it can be usefull to extend the Windows Boot Image.

In this example I’ll show you how to integrate Double Commander, a File Explorer alternative, in your Boot Image. Feel free to add other software products or custom scripts to your environment.

Preparation

Windows 10 – SCCM Language Pack Integration

I’ve tried so many different ways to deploy Windows 10 clients in different languages and there was only one way working for me, I like to share with you. Our aim was to deploy Windows 10 clients in 28 different languages, so our itention was to deploy these clients in English and to deploy the language packs afterwards. We didn’t want a client with 27 language packs installed that must be maintained with every Windows 10 Feature Update. But we got a lot of Problems with the Windows 10 UI that sometimes didn’t changed the language as exspected or the time and date formats were set comletelly wrong. The only way I figured out was to deploy language packs by the following order.

Install the language pack during the OS installation using the dism command dism.exe /norestart /online /add-package /packagepath:.\lp.cab
Restart the computer
Run a script executing the following command C:\Windows\System32\control.exe intl.cpl /f:”configuartion.xml”
Restart the computer

Step 3 is neccessary to set the installed language pack as activated and to install the corresponding “Input Preferences”.

Create Package – “MS W10 1703 LanguagePack de-DE”

Lets start with building a deployment package including the german languagepack *.cab file, a PowerShell script for setup and *.xml file that is needed for configuration.

Quick Tip – SCCM 1706 – “Machine does not meet OSD capture requirements. Capture cannot continue.”

Problem

During a Build and Capture Task Sequence I ran into the following error “Machine does not meet OSD capture requirements. Capture cannot continue.”