ConfigMgr vNext Feature: Download Package Content

One new feature in Configuration Manager vNext is a new Task Sequence step called: “Download Package Content”. It does what the name implies and could be one of my new small favorite features in Configuration Manager vNext. It will be useful to download content in a controlled way that later on can be used by scripts, applications installations.

There are a few options for the step on where you want the content located, the following are the options:

• Task Sequence Working Directory
• Configuration Manager Client Cache
• Custom Path

To be able to choose the location is a really cool feature as we don’t want to fill up the Client Cache for instance.

It is also possible to set a task sequence variable containing the location of the downloaded package as show below.

So where does the files end up on the client in the example above? In the C:\Windows\temp directory?
Yes, in the C:\Windows\Temp folder and a folder with the PackageID as shown below.

The variable we created is available in the Task Sequence just as expected as shown in the variable dump below.

This will be a very useful new Task Sequence step in the upcoming version of Configuration Manager which will at least get rid of some of the Xcopy and Robocopy steps out there. It would have been even better if it was possible to tick a box that it should copy the package content to in this case C:\Windows\temp and not a sub-folder with the packageID as name.