Ever since we’ve been capturing our images with ConfigMgr 2012 SP1 we’ve noticed that 8dot3name creation is disabled on all volumes on the hard drive on the volume level when installing a machine with the same installation source as before (Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 x64). In our environment, we need this to be enabled for certain applications to work properly. ( Almost all Legacy XP Apps that work on Win7) . Nowhere is this change documented .
This wasn’t the case with ConfigMgr 2012 RTM , the difference there was that we where using WAIK instead of ADK.
I’ve been in discussions with the System Center Configuration Manager product team and received a response from them late yesterday. They did, in fact, change the default behavior of the formatting tools in Windows 8. (ADK)
They are working with them (ADK Team) to figure out where/how this change was communicated, and to see how they can best communicate it more broadly. In the meantime, They’ll continue working with them to figure out what our options are for resolving/working around this issue in Configmgr 2012 SP1.
Workarounds :
One option would be to create your own partitioning and formatting script and use that as a Run Command Line action instead of using there built-in Format and Partition Disk action. I know that’s not elegant, but may be your best bet for now.
Here’s what the Windows imaging team had to say (with some additions/clarifications from me)…
Windows 8 does have 8.3 disabled on non-OS drives by default. ImageX (and other Windows imaging tools) does preserve the same when capturing the image, and will apply as how the image was captured. In the case where files with short file names are in a captured image, but the volume where the image will be applied has 8.3 disabled, WIMGAPI will enable 8.3 on the volume and set the short file names accordingly when the image is applied.
If they formatted a data volume using a Windows 8 format utility, short names would be disabled by default on the volume. This is the default way format behaves.
How short names get enabled on the system volume is that setup explicitly turns them back on after formatting the system volume. (i.e. if you’re applying an image and not running Setup, they won’t be turned back on automatically)
They can override this on the format command line with the following switch: format x: /s:enable (where x: is the drive letter to format) Unfortunately, you can’t add your own command line switches when using our built-in Format and Partition Disk action.
To manually enable 8.3 naming after formatting, you can use fsutil.exe from the command line:
fsutil 8dot3name set x: 0 (where x: is the drive letter to enable 8.3 naming on)
This will enable short names on the given volume and it takes effect immediately. (and yes, 0 does enable short names). Unfortunately, fsutil.exe is not included in Windows PE, so you would have to copy it over to your boot media and run it with a Run Command Line action.
Hope it Helps,
Kenny Buntinx
MVP System Center Configuration Manager