When specifying requirements for an application package, Configuration Manager doesn’t provide a way to differentiate between full installations and Server Core installations of Windows Server 2012 and higher, but we may sometimes need to know this in order to choose between deployment types or to prevent installation of an application altogether. This is a job for: a new Global Condition!
Microsoft was good enough to provide documentation: Determining Whether Server Core Is Running. We’ll use the registry option described on that page.
In Configuration Manager, in the Software Library workspace, navigate to Application Management>Global Conditions. I named my Global Condition “OS InstallationType”, and here are its properties:
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | OS InstallationType |
| Description | Returns the OS installation type from the registry. Possible values: Client, Server, Server Core. |
| Device type | Windows |
| Condition type | Setting |
| Setting type | Registry value |
| Data type | String |
| Hive name | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE |
| Key name | SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion |
| Value name | InstallationType |
| This registry value is associated with a 64-bit application | Unchecked |
Coming Up
Next time, we’ll use this new Global Condition to specify an installation requirement for a Configuration Manager Application deployment type.