I must have miss understood what you said but this is how I tested it. Collection Maitenance Window - Effective Date : 8/17/2011 Start : 10:00:00 PM End : 3:00:00 AM Recurrence Pattern : Daily reoccuring every 1 day Advertisement Properties - Advertisement start Time : 8/4/2011 2:15PM Interaction : Allow Users to run the program independently of assignments This allowed me to run the install whenever i wanted, also in the logs for the automatic install it was waiting for a Window to open. It worked for me.

Could he create the collection with the Maintenance Window and advertise to the collection and allow the users to run the advertisement, or will it not allow it because of the maintenance window?

I just tested it. You can create a Collection with the Maintenance Window and check the "Allow users to run the program independently of assignments" and set your schedule in the advertisement. Now its up to you the times you set but if you make it 7am-5pm and choose "As soon as possible" it will install when it becomes available to the computer. If you want it this way maybe set your Windows from 7am-5pm and set the schedule from 7am-5pm with the option of "Allow users to run the program independently"? The way I do it, since maintenance windows are usually down time, is set my window from 10pm-3am, create the schedule in the advertisements, and select the box to allow users to run it. This way it will either install between 10pm-3am or users can install it when they want.

I just tested it. You can create a Collection with the Maintenance Window and check the "Allow users to run the program independently of assignments" and set your schedule in the advertisement. Now its up to you the times you set but if you make it 7am-5pm and choose "As soon as possible" it will install when it becomes available to the computer. If you want it this way maybe set your Windows from 7am-5pm and set the schedule from 7am-5pm with the option of "Allow users to run the program independently"? The way I do it, since maintenance windows are usually down time, is set my window from 10pm-3am, create the schedule in the advertisements, and select the box to allow users to run it. This way it will either install between 10pm-3am or users can install it when they want. No I don't think you are right.. the method you are suggesting would result in the advert running mandatory at the first maintenance window which I don't want for one for Group A of my users. Collection 1 (Group A) Triggered only by the user Collection 2 (Group B - Maintenance window of 7pm-4am) Can be triggered by the user independently of assignments Runs mandatory within maintenance windows I think Peter Van Der Woude is right... it's not possible with just the one advert. I tried setting a maintance window of 5 mins in the year 2999 in Collection 1 but that didn't even work for bare metal builds. Thanks for your help anyway.. I think i'm ready to throw in the towel and go for a dual advert setup unfortunately.

I want to advertise a Task Sequence via a single advertisement so that I can verify successes via a single web report. The catch is, I want it to run as a mandatory assignment only within maintenance windows but also to allow users to run on demand "Independently of assignments" anytime they like. In other words, I want two collections. One to have a mandatory assignment to run outside of business hours and the other to only be triggered by the user via Run Advertised Programs. All that with the one advertisement. Can I do such a thing with one advertisement? I had in mind to have two collections - one collection with no maintenance windows, then the second as a subcollection with the maintenance windows (7pm-5am). Then advertise a single advert with a "As soon as possible" assignment to the parent collection with the option to "Allow users to run independently of assignments." In theory, the machines in the parent collection should never run unless the user triggers it because it has no maintenance windows right? Wrong... for some reason the advertised TS in the parent collection (without the maintenance windows) runs as a mandatory assignment and also outside of maintenance windows. Is this right? Is it because I have no maintenance windows specified that config mgr ignores maintenance windows altogether and allows it to run outside of maintenance windows?

In theory, the machines in the parent collection should never run unless the user triggers it because it has no maintenance windows right? Wrong... for some reason the advertised TS in the parent collection (without the maintenance windows) runs as a mandatory assignment and also outside of maintenance windows. Is this right? Is it because I have no maintenance windows specified that config mgr ignores maintenance windows altogether and allows it to run outside of maintenance windows? The machines without a Maintenance Window will run it directly because you've created a schedule of As Soon As Possible. What you want is not possible with one Adveritisement... You can create a Mandatory Advertisement with a possibility for the user to start it to, but this also means it has a schedule and will start also without user intervention. Also you can create an Advertisement with a Mandatory schedule with a possibility for the user to start it, but this also means that is will not start during the Maintenance Window... So you will need two Advertisements.My Blog: http://www.petervanderwoude.nl/ Follow me on twitter: pvanderwoude