Support Tip: Be careful when targeting the ‘All Systems’ collection in Configuration Manager

~ Larry Mosley

Every once in a while, we here in product support will get a call where someone has deployed a task sequence that formats and installs a new OS to the ‘All Systems’ collection, or to a collection that contains many computers. Please, always be vigilant and careful when targeting OSD task sequences (or any software, really) to the ‘All Systems’ collection, or any other collection with a large number of important computers in it. Configuration Manager doesn’t have an intention checker, and if you deploy a Task Sequence that does something like format the hard drive and apply an OS image, Configuration Manager will happily tell the clients to follow those instructions, wiping the disks and installing a new image to all the machines that receive the policy.

Needless to say, this can have serious consequences, and there is no ‘UNDO’ or ‘I didn’t meant to do that!’ button in Configuration Manager.

Larry Mosley| Senior Escalation Engineer | Microsoft GBS Management and Security Division

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