ConfigMgr Console

A Week of Task Sequence Tips – Day 01 – Tag Version in Description

This is the first of a mini-series of small (but important) tips to help you when troubleshooting your Task Sequences. Each day we’ll post something simple and easy to start using right now. These aren’t life-changing per se or even completely original, but they can make the difference between going crazy and being mildly sane at the end of your work day.

So, without further delay, Tip 1: Use the Description field as a way to version your Task Sequence.

When testing a Task Sequence, I’ll often make several changes in a day. The worst thing is to make a change in the TS in the console, then run another test, just to find out you ran the test with the old policy and now you need to start over. To overcome this, I’ve started to time stamp my description, I use Month, Date, and Edit Number.  So in the image below, it’s Dec 5th, and it’s the 6th edit I’ve made today.

Go into Properties, and edit the Description with a "Time Stamp"
After I make a change to the TS, I go into Properties, and edit the Description with a “Time Stamp”,
The PC still has the old Policy
You can see, the PC still has the old Policy, so none of my new changes
Sync policy and try to speed up this process
Let’s sync policy and try to speed up this process
The description has updated
Hey Great, the description has been updated, so I know my changes are now going to be applied when I trigger the Task Sequence.

Right now you’re thinking one of two things… “YAWN… where are the good tips” or “Wow, so simple but so helpful, thanks so much”. Check out other tips from this series:

Task Sequence Pause

Variables Gather and Capture

SMSTS Log Stamping

Run Task Sequence Step

Static IP Addresses and OSD

Run PowerShell Step

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