Intro
I really love building solutions that contain a vast variety of the tools you could ever want or need to do your job. This may be a bit excessive and you might end up with tools you only click once in a blue moon. Never-the-less if you are a Configuration Manager Admin and also a tools hoarder, this post is for you. So please find below the tools and apps that make up my “Ultimate ConfigMgr Environment”
Tools and Apps
- Operational Collections Script [https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Set-of-Operational-SCCM-19fa8178] – These Operational Collections are great for brand new environments or even existing environments and it creates logical collections that you didn’t even know you needed!
2. Sysinternals [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/] – but specifically ProcMon. Have you ever wondered what is happening when you click an exe? or which applications are accessing a folder. Using ProcMon you never have to wonder again…
3. PSAppDeployToolkit [https://psappdeploytoolkit.com/] – giving you more options when deploying applications to warn your users that you are installing an app. Check out my previous blog on how to deploy an app [https://azurecloudai.blog/2019/10/30/infrastructure-system-center-configuration-manager-deploying-applications-with-the-powershell-application-deployment-toolkit/]
4. WMI Explorer [https://github.com/vinaypamnani/wmie2/releases] – Struggling to understand where to go when you need to look into WMI Classes? WMI Explorer makes your life a little easier.
5. SQL Optimization Whitepaper [https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/SQL-recommendations-for-ead4747f] – Not so much a tool, but a set of guidelines which will optimize your Configuration Manager Environment so it is running fast, smooth and reliably
6. Right Click Tools [https://docs.recastsoftware.com/features/Installation/community/index.html] – Giving you so much more control on your endpoints. Bare in mind that after adding more functionality to the console during the life of Current Branch, some of the RCT Tools are a duplicate of tools you already have out-of-box.
7. ConfigMgr Task Sequence Monitor [https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ConfigMgr-Task-Sequence-fefdc532] – helping you see what is happening in the mystery behind task sequencing
8. Error Lookup [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/debug/system-error-code-lookup-tool] – Reading any error code from any Microsoft technology when CMTrace cannot find an error
9. PowerBI Desktop [https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop/] – Reading data from almost any source, you can pull in SCCM Data and design reports much easier than with SQL Report Builder
10. SetupDiag.exe [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/upgrade/setupdiag] – Not really a ConfigMgr tool but a Windows Upgrade troubleshooting tool. If you have ever had to read through the Panther logs, or you don’t know what they are, use this to troubleshoot upgrades.
11. Not so much a tool as 30 days of Tips, but definitely some interesting reading from a bunch of ConfigMgr Experts https://msendpointmgr.com/2019/03/01/30-days-of-configmgr-tips/
Takeaways
None of these tools are required. They are simply there to make your life a little easier. You also get many out-of-the-box alternatives to the tools mentioned here, already built in to Microsoft Endpoint Manager.
Feel free to reach out to me or drop me a message with some of the cool tools you like to use in your Endpoint Manager Environment.
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