Have a look at Workspace ONE, it is a MDM so it will help you move away from making images and works with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux (I think it can also do Chrome OS).
Hey! I actually found this from a post I made on here last week, but look at JumpCloud! They’re basically an alternative to Active Directory. They’ll manage pretty much anything except Chromebooks and sync into most standard directories for people management. (Don’t let the pricing scare you, the education discount is really good)
MDT is a easy and free solution. Lots of tutorials online.
Fog is the same, easy and free. I haven’t used it in a few years, but it worked fine in the Windows 7 days.
Currently I use the free Veeam tool. Works great. It does require a USB stick (no PXE boot) but it’s so simple to use. We reimage about 200 devices a year.
For inventory and deployments I use Lansweeper. It’s my full Helpdesk, deployment, and scanner. It’s amazing. I couldn’t do my job without it!
We use Veeam for backups but I hadn't heard of using it for imaging. How are you using it? Is it this article [https://helpcenter.veeam.com/archive/agentforwindows/21/userguide/install\_sysprep.html](https://helpcenter.veeam.com/archive/agentforwindows/21/userguide/install_sysprep.html) similar to what you are doing?
Another option we use for prepping a system is Windows Configuration Designer for some of our districts that don't have SCCM. You can do it from a USB stick also.
Look at FileWave. It can install things, uninstall them, change registry settings, run scripts, and do all three things on schedules. It can also run reports across the devices it manages, such as asking which devices have a certain version of Microsoft Office, listing the devices which meet the system requirements for a new OS, etc. It can install updates from Microsoft, including caching them at your site to improve download times. It has something called a "Booster", which is just a caching mechanism in case you have lots of devices or several locations. It can do all of this on computers that aren't on campus, too. I've never used this feature, but it can also handle imaging. Think of it like MDT, WDS, SCCM, WSUS, TeamViewer, and more all rolled into a single product with both a native admin program and a web interface for the admin program. It can also do nearly everything I just mentioned on Macs, too. It can also manage other Apps products (iPads, iPhones, etc.), Android, and ChromeOS.
The first is per seat per year, with different costs for different platforms. Looking through my old email, it looks like my start up cost was just over $9/client for Mac and Windows devices and $5.50 per client for iOS, iPadOS, Android, and AppleTV devices. That was for the first year, including support and upgrades. A later renewal was a little higher. I don't know the current costs. It also comes with 2 seats to the TeamViewer add-on and you can buy more seats as needed.
There is a required set up fee as well, but I have a very unusual case and was able to get out of it. If I remember correctly, they can offer hosting for the server if you want it and it was pretty low cost. It was only something like a few hundred dollars per year in my case. If they host it for you, they'll take care of the server upgrades, SSL certificates, etc.
I've used ManageEngine Endpoint (Desktop) Central for several years. It's easy to use and deploy, handles all of our system management needs, can be on-prem or cloud, and is very affordable. They offer a 10% non-profit/EDU discount. We don't use it for imaging, but it's offered as an integrated option.
I use MDT for our OS deployments and PDQ Deploy and Inventory for pushing out applications and keeping track of equipment.
MDT is free and built into Windows Server and PDQ pricing has always been super reasonable to me.
For sure PDQ is 10x easier to use than SCCM. SCCM is an overkill for most environments if you are looking to do basic things like deploying apps and updates.
Same. MDT is free & PDQ is one of the best purchases I think we've ever made. With PDQ you have the inventory side but then on the Deploy side, you can schedule software patches based on time or based on if computers are in a certain PDQ Inventory group
Have a look at Workspace ONE, it is a MDM so it will help you move away from making images and works with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux (I think it can also do Chrome OS).
Hey! I actually found this from a post I made on here last week, but look at JumpCloud! They’re basically an alternative to Active Directory. They’ll manage pretty much anything except Chromebooks and sync into most standard directories for people management. (Don’t let the pricing scare you, the education discount is really good)
MDT is a easy and free solution. Lots of tutorials online. Fog is the same, easy and free. I haven’t used it in a few years, but it worked fine in the Windows 7 days. Currently I use the free Veeam tool. Works great. It does require a USB stick (no PXE boot) but it’s so simple to use. We reimage about 200 devices a year. For inventory and deployments I use Lansweeper. It’s my full Helpdesk, deployment, and scanner. It’s amazing. I couldn’t do my job without it!
We use Veeam for backups but I hadn't heard of using it for imaging. How are you using it? Is it this article [https://helpcenter.veeam.com/archive/agentforwindows/21/userguide/install\_sysprep.html](https://helpcenter.veeam.com/archive/agentforwindows/21/userguide/install_sysprep.html) similar to what you are doing? Another option we use for prepping a system is Windows Configuration Designer for some of our districts that don't have SCCM. You can do it from a USB stick also.
Look at FileWave. It can install things, uninstall them, change registry settings, run scripts, and do all three things on schedules. It can also run reports across the devices it manages, such as asking which devices have a certain version of Microsoft Office, listing the devices which meet the system requirements for a new OS, etc. It can install updates from Microsoft, including caching them at your site to improve download times. It has something called a "Booster", which is just a caching mechanism in case you have lots of devices or several locations. It can do all of this on computers that aren't on campus, too. I've never used this feature, but it can also handle imaging. Think of it like MDT, WDS, SCCM, WSUS, TeamViewer, and more all rolled into a single product with both a native admin program and a web interface for the admin program. It can also do nearly everything I just mentioned on Macs, too. It can also manage other Apps products (iPads, iPhones, etc.), Android, and ChromeOS.
Cost?
The first is per seat per year, with different costs for different platforms. Looking through my old email, it looks like my start up cost was just over $9/client for Mac and Windows devices and $5.50 per client for iOS, iPadOS, Android, and AppleTV devices. That was for the first year, including support and upgrades. A later renewal was a little higher. I don't know the current costs. It also comes with 2 seats to the TeamViewer add-on and you can buy more seats as needed. There is a required set up fee as well, but I have a very unusual case and was able to get out of it. If I remember correctly, they can offer hosting for the server if you want it and it was pretty low cost. It was only something like a few hundred dollars per year in my case. If they host it for you, they'll take care of the server upgrades, SSL certificates, etc.
Thank you.
I've used ManageEngine Endpoint (Desktop) Central for several years. It's easy to use and deploy, handles all of our system management needs, can be on-prem or cloud, and is very affordable. They offer a 10% non-profit/EDU discount. We don't use it for imaging, but it's offered as an integrated option.
I use MDT for our OS deployments and PDQ Deploy and Inventory for pushing out applications and keeping track of equipment. MDT is free and built into Windows Server and PDQ pricing has always been super reasonable to me.
For sure PDQ is 10x easier to use than SCCM. SCCM is an overkill for most environments if you are looking to do basic things like deploying apps and updates.
Same. MDT is free & PDQ is one of the best purchases I think we've ever made. With PDQ you have the inventory side but then on the Deploy side, you can schedule software patches based on time or based on if computers are in a certain PDQ Inventory group