USMT 21H2 issues

[Thomas Ehler]

In the event you're using USMT as a standalone tool or through MDT or SCCM,
please do not currently update to the 21H2 Toolkit package as it has bugs and will leave out some user settings.

See more here

https://www.reddit.com/r/SCCM/comments/qc8qbq

In USMTGUI 10.23.21H2 and User Profile Central 2.3.21H2, this has been solved for now.

 

[HCHTech]

Ok, raise your hand if you just did a web search to find out what USMT was. Never knew this existed - probably because I never did "large scale deployments". I'd wager Fabs does this better & faster anyway. I'll have to take a run a using USMT on a slow day, just for fun. If it's like other little-known MS tools I've come across over the years, the first four steps of setting it up will turn into a field of study with a week's effort required for each. Then, when you're finally ready, you'll find a deal-breaker limitation that scraps the whole effort. What, I'm not bitter or anything!

 

[Thomas Ehler]

Haha. USMT has been around for 20 years and is in fact the only MS supported way to migrate user profiles.
MS has indeed completely abandoned updating the accompanying .xml files since around Windows 8.
But when configured correctly USMT does a much more complete migration than both Fabs, Forenzit etc.

Especially regarding not bringing over junk, USMT is really good. I have for many years maintained a bunch of free reference XML files that takes care of many things like current browsers favorites, cached passwords etc.

I have appr 100 downloads of those a month so there are "a few" using USMT through SCCM and St.Alone

But I agree. It is a niche tool. Both Fabs, Forensit, Lablink and USMTGUI are niche tools these days..
- and used by us who care about our users.

And in my opinion they should not be necessary to begin with.
It's crazy there aren't a built-in MS way to move over user profiles to Azure for instance.
- Users waste half a day tweaking their quick-links, setting up themes and whatnot and are really annoyed at the slightest change.

 

[phaZed]

@HCHTech, "Ok, raise your hand if you just did a web search to find out what USMT was".

Me raises hand. Lol.. I'd heard of it before after realizing what the acronym was - but like you, I never used it - never was in large scale deployments past 10-15. And I use fabs, too. lol.

 

[britechguy]

MS has indeed completely abandoned updating the accompanying .xml files since around Windows 8.

And if that's not a honkin' big red flag that "the end is nigh" I don't know what is.

Microsoft (and not only Microsoft) has been known to drop support for things, and particular niche things, many times in the past. When they stop maintenance on something entirely, backward compatibility is instantly no longer guaranteed, and the break will eventually come.

 

[HCHTech]

Microsoft (and not only Microsoft) has been known to drop support for things,

Oh, the howls of disbelief I got from my residential base when Picasa went away. I'm sure there are folks that still use it - somehow. It was interesting, to be sure, but I think overall, it caused more issues (mostly with user ignorance) than it solved. Neat interface, though.

 

[sapphirescales]

Neat interface, though.

Yeah...if we were living in 2004. Google never did improve that ancient interface from the original 2002 version. It looked dated by 2006 and ancient by 2009.