Modern management along the new Windows 10 deployment model is bringing about advancements in all areas of device management. Some good examples of this would be with OS device drivers and image management. Changes in this area are not only facilitated by modern management but by enhancements with Windows 10. Device management tasks are moving from a traditional central management to a more open and user-driven approach. Clients are now requiring greater flexibility with a greater number of hardware device OEM manufacturers, devices types and models than what would have been required traditionally. Some clients are looking to a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) or at least to a CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) model. New Windows 10 builds are released every 6 months as opposed to the old model where we would have a new OS every three years. All these factors combined means greater flexibility with devices and device driver management is required.
Traditional Workplace Device Driver Models
In a traditional managed enterprise environment there is strict control on the installation and management of device drivers. Device drivers are created by both the chipset/hardware manufacturer or the device OEMs themselves. OEMs may make modifications to the device chipset, adding additional features or tweaks, necessitating OEM specific drivers to support any changes or features they have enabled. A client device hardware catalogue with all device hardware models and SKUs needs to be defined and maintained. Device driver packs are created for each client device model. Traditionally these drivers would be added to the image itself, a process that evolved to dynamically deploying driver packs during the deployment process. The driver packs provided by the OEMs can be large and it can be a slow process to streamline the driver packs requiring all the physical device models to facilitate this. The clear advantage to this process is around the control and stability it provides. The device drivers for each hardware model are tested and managed, ensuring that only approved device drivers are used in the environment. The disadvantages to this approach are the restrictions this process places around the addition of new devices, the time needed to add a new model to the client device catalogue and all the tasks that are required to support the change.
Windows Update
Microsoft has made great strides with Windows Update and the Windows Update Catalog, especially around Windows 10 device drivers. The Microsoft Update Catalogue is an archive of all the software updates from Microsoft including OS updates, security updates, software updates and drivers. Drivers are provided by the Chipset/hardware manufacturer or the device OEMs and certified for inclusion in the catalogue. The use of Windows Update for device driver management means that, unlike a traditional image management process, all hardware models are not required for the creation of driver packs, which are used during the image creation process. The Windows 10 OOBE (Out-of-the-box experience) integrates the integration of windows updates including device drivers into the device build process. During the image integration testing stage, if a problem driver is identified (i.e. which is not managed sufficiently by Windows Update), the device driver will be identified and pushed to the device via the management tooling be that ConfigMgr or Intune. This will be on an exception basis only. As a rule, Windows update will properly manage most device drivers. This generates significant savings on effort and time needed to create an updated image and in turn, the client transformation ready times can be reduced.
Lightweight Image Build
A lightweight image build is an alternative to using a traditional client custom image or a vendor OEM image. This build contains no client specific customizations or applications. As such it can be utilized on multiple clients. Neither does the build have any OEM bloatware, applications or customizations. A key feature of a lightweight build is around the management of device drivers. Microsoft release a standard set of device drivers with each new Windows 10 build. The lightweight build includes only this standard set of build device drivers released from Microsoft only. From an OS build perspective, all that is needed is to facilitate the deployment of an image the device network, storage and graphics devices to be enabled. It is not necessary to enable the remaining devices to facilitate the image deployment process. The primary method of Device Driver management with a lightweight image will be Windows Update, whereby required device driver updates for Windows 10 are automatically downloaded and installed through Windows Update. Windows updates are applied during the Windows 10 OOBE process and after the user has logged into their device. A lightweight build can support OEM factory preload (factory installation) for new devices and standalone or network deployment for existing client device refresh and break-fix scenarios.
Conclusion
These evolutionary changes in device driver and image management permit clients greater flexibility with regards user device OEMs and models. Devices can be added to the client catalogue simply by certifying the device against the Window Update Catalogue to ensure that the required compatible device drivers are available along with a physical test to certify the process. This is a change that fits in very well with modern device management. In addition to new device builds we also need to consider ongoing driver updates and Windows 10 build updates. In this method, device drivers are not static entities applied to client devices with the initial OS image build but are updated and managed on the device. Microsoft has been very quick to identify driver and Windows 10 build issues and pull driver updates in the catalogue until a fix was made available. That being said there are definitely some improvements to be made in this area with greater control needed with the staging and testing of driver updates and greater granularity with the release of windows updates in general with modern management.