TL;DR:
MDT is dead and starting to fail on new hardware. We need a repeatable, mostly zero-touch way to fully reimage laptops (Win11 Enterprise, no OEM bloat, NIST 800-171 compliant) in a mostly cloud-only, GCC-High environment — sometimes at scale (30+ devices). OSDCloud looks promising, but I’m concerned about long-term viability (OSDCloud v2, driver handling, licensing questions). Looking for confirmation I’m on the right path or recommendations for better alternatives.

Hey everyone — I’ve been doing a lot of independent research and testing looking for a path forward on OS deployment. I think I may be close, but I wanted to get the community’s take in case I’m overlooking something.

With MDT now officially unsupported (and me starting to hit real issues deploying to newer hardware), I’m evaluating modern alternatives for OSD. First, some context on our environment.

Current environment

• Pure GCC-High M365 tenant (Entra ID + Intune)
• NIST 800-171 / CMMC requirements → strict, repeatable baseline required
• Laptop volume fluctuates:
• Sometimes reimaging batches of \~30 new devices
• Other times quickly reimaging a returned laptop for reassignment
• Heavily cloud-based, almost no on-prem systems aside from a deployment server
• Users are geographically distributed, many fully remote

Hard requirements

• Full laptop reimage every time to guarantee a known-good baseline
• Vanilla Windows 11 (no OEM bloatware)
• Windows 11 Enterprise, not Pro
• Consistent across HP, Dell, and Surface devices
• PPKGs or pure Autopilot don’t appear to guarantee a 100% consistent baseline, even with debloat scripts
• We currently PXE boot using MDT + WDS with a laptop cart and can reimage \~30 devices at once
• Zero-touch as much as possible (aside from selecting PXE or USB boot)

Why I’m moving away from MDT

• It’s clearly showing its age
• It’s officially unsupported
• Most recently failed entirely on a new hardware model (boot loop after first restart; task sequence never completes)

OSDCloud thoughts / concerns

I’ve been investing a lot of time into OSDCloud, and conceptually it checks many of our boxes:

• Automatically installs the latest Windows 11 version
• Detects the device model and downloads the appropriate driver pack
• Works via PXE or USB
• Aligns well with a cloud-first mindset

That said, the documentation is difficult to follow, and there’s a lot of discussion around OSDCloud v2 that makes the future feel a bit uncertain.

In particular, this video discussing OSD.Workspace raised some concerns for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx2Tl6_pQZg (around the 26:40 mark)

When asked about cloud drivers for WinPE, the response referenced licensing concerns and sounded hesitant. That left me wondering:

• Does this mean automatic driver downloads may go away?
• Will manual driver maintenance become required again?
• Is OSDCloud v2 going to materially change the workflow being built today?

I don’t mind investing effort, but I’m trying to avoid landing on another solution that works now only to shift significantly later.

Other options

I’m also briefly evaluating DeployR. The cost makes it less immediately attractive, but if it truly solves these problems cleanly and reliably, it’s still worth considering.

What I’ve already tested / ruled out

• Pure Autopilot / ESP Useful for provisioning, but doesn’t guarantee a truly clean baseline or removal of OEM bloatware. Also doesn’t fully solve Win11 Pro → Enterprise consistency.
• PPKGs Helpful for configuration, but insufficient for enforcing a known-good baseline image across vendors and models.
• Debloat scripts layered on Autopilot Too brittle and reactive. I need the baseline itself to be clean, not cleaned after the fact.
• Continuing with MDT “as-is” No longer viable. It’s unsupported and already failing on newer hardware.
• Custom OEM images / ordering vanilla builds Increases cost and lead time and doesn’t scale well with fluctuating demand.