Systems Deployment

There is a best practice KB but I dont have a link.  Essentially what I do is as follows:

I created a label like PL | Dell | Detect

I configured a smart label to search for all drivers less than 1 yr old and active only for Windows 10 only. 

I run a daily detect only using that label and configure it to run if the machine was offline 20 min after it starts.

Then another label called PL | Dell | Deply

I configure a smart label similar to detect but for only missing updates.

Configure the catalog to update early in the morning each day.

Problem is this: You have to be very careful if you are using bitlocker. SOME dell bios updates require bitlocker key.  Dell isnt very forthcoming on which ones due. In theory there is a way to pause bitlocker with a script but we havent gotten that far (we are just doing dell drivers from kace and bios from Workspace One).  

On deploy suggest you are careful about configuring your messaging so end users are further confused.  I do one for install and let them know in the message that their pc may act funky during the install. I give them 4 snoozes 1 hr apart to ensure it gets done that day.. Keep in mind that they can choose up to a 2 hr snooze and there is no way to control that.. kace has no options for snooze duration on reboot. Damn shame.

Really wish Quest would put kace on an agile development cycle like the rest of the world. Seems they are happy with it the way it is.

You asked : "automate bios updates to the latest version when deploying a laptop".

We use the K2000 to do that. We use Scripted Installations to set up new computers, and have 2 Post-Installation tasks : 

1. Install Dell Command Update :
Dell-Command-Update-Application_W4HP2_WIN_4.5.0_A00_02.EXE /s /f /l=C:\Programdata\Dell\install-dell-command-update-32bit.log

2. Run Dell Command Update : 
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\CommandUpdate\dcu-cli.exe" /applyUpdates