Surface device - driver and firmware support lifecycle

Recently a friend ask me for an updated driver for an issue with an older device in the surface family. So I thougth it would be a good idea first to check if the device is still supported. As we have the row of devices now for a couple years.

The good news were the devices up to Surface 3 are still under "firmware and driver" support. So in this case I could open a case for this driver issue and still believe it may be served. Actually its not a guarantee that PG agrees with my issue and will fix it. But there is some how a legal basis for it according to their own support policies.

Checkout here the list!

Device	Release Date	End of Servicing Date
Surface RT1	October 26, 2012	April 11, 2017
Surface Pro1	February 9, 2013	April 11, 2017
Surface 21	October 22, 2013	April 10, 2018
Surface Pro 21	October 22, 2013	April 10, 2018
Surface Pro 3	June 20, 2014	November 13, 2021
Surface 3	May 5, 2015	November 13, 2021
Surface Book	October 26, 2015	November 13, 2021
Surface Pro 4	October 26, 2015	November 13, 2021
Surface Book with Performance Base	November 10, 2016	November 13, 2021
Surface Studio (1st gen)	December 15, 2016	November 13, 2021
Surface Laptop (1st gen)	June 14, 2017	November 13, 2021
Surface Pro (5th gen)	June 15, 2017	November 13, 2021
Surface Book 2	November 17, 2017	November 17, 2021
Surface Pro LTE (Model 1807)	December 1, 2017	December 1, 2021
Surface Go	August 2, 2018	August 2, 2022
Surface Studio 2	October 2, 2018	October 2, 2022
Surface Laptop 2	October 16, 2018	October 16, 2022
Surface Pro 6	October 16, 2018	October 16, 2022
Surface Go with LTE Advanced	November 20, 2018	November 20, 2022
Surface Laptop 3	October 22, 2019	October 22, 2023
Surface Pro 7	October 22, 2019	October 22, 2023
Surface Pro X	November 5, 2019	November 5, 2023
Surface Go 2	May 6, 2020	May 6, 2024
Surface Book 3	May 26, 2020	May 26, 2024
Surface Pro X SQ2	October 13, 2020	October 13, 2024
Surface Laptop Go	October 13, 2020	October 13, 2024

1. Indicates devices with a previously declared end of firmware/driver servicing support date.

More details especially also the differentiation on device support and OS version support you will find here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/surface-driver-firmware-lifecycle-support

To dig deeper its also very helpful to checkout the surface update history which is found here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4036283

Tune up your old SurfacePro4

I have a Surface Pro4 for a while. And it got every half year its nice fine upgrade. 

Since beginning the Surface Pro4 supported 2 external full HD monitors via the dock but then the internal screen was blacking out. Checked the specs and it was as it was by design. The gaphic adapter did not support 3 monitors (while external are full HD 1080 and the internal was in native 2k mode)

In October I realized that after a certain update (could not found which one) the WLAN becomes also very clunky (bad WLAN performance). Sometimes packet loss or ping roundtrip times in the 900ms or more milliseconds. Did here also some research and all hints just improved from time to time so no real solution.

So what is the best advice when in trouble?

1. Reboot
2. Reinstall
3. Rebuy newer hardware

Then I thought ok its now worth to reinstall my machine completely fresh from ground. (2. Reinstall option). Due to Onedrive not really a big data loss. Just the hazzle of reinstalling latest version of my software suites.

And it turned out it was a refreshing living cell injection for my PC!

After processing all the updates the machine is supporting things out of the box I had never before automatically.

1. It now supports 2 external screens while still having native resolution shown on the internal screen (= 1 screen more!)
2. The bad WLAN performance was gone
3. It supports now out of the box space reservation for upgrades (fresh installed systems since 1903 (afaik) will create a extra free space reserved for future upgrades. So no showblocker for upgrades anymore with HDDs full of data. This only works with fresh installed machines beginning with 1903. So migrations from 1507 over and over again do not support this)
4. My important user profile documents are automatically migrated to Onedrive out of the box! So everything you store them will integrate automatically to Onedrive. Just be aware of your picture archive. It automatically syncs down and blows your HDD. So you should keep it "cloud only" with the Files On Demand feature!!!)

All over my advice is from time to time it is still worth to take a fresh restart! (Ensuring that all your precious data is stored in OneDrive)

Windows enterprise ready deployment on SURFACE Pro4

The great Surface Pro4 device is out and due to its outstanding capabilities many companies consider to use it as a enterprise device. But therefore you want to deploy it also in an enterprise manner.

Lets see how this works.

Rule 1 for Surface is as with any other device.
USE THE LATEST FIRMWARE AND DRIVERS!  You get them here.
Checkout recent history of firmware and drivers here.

Rule 2 you need something that allows you to boot from PXE over network

Option A: Use the Surface Pro3 dockingstation or Surface Dock. That allows you to boot via network cable from PXE with Gbit speed. Benefit of the Surface Dock is: You can update the firmware on the dock itself. Also it allows the user to choose their own viewangle (regarding the kickstand) on the Surface Pro 3/4 device.

Option B: Use the Surface Ethernet Adapter. This here supports PXE. This here is my favour. As in reality sometimes a user want to user a wired connection as well. So the user has at least one option to use the dock or the USB adapter to get a wired connection.

The Ethernet adapters in both solutions use the same chipset and provide identical functionality. Both adapters support gigabit connectivity for optimal performance during deployment, and both support the ability to boot from the network (PXE boot) without additional hardware.

Option C: You may use a 3rd party USB ethernet adapter. I dont recommend this as you have to add the adapter specific drivers first to an USB stick with an PE image you boot from stick. Then the PE integrated setup (e.g. MDT) can access the network. I would avoid this. 

Then there is another pitfall you have to keep in mind.
But this is not related to Surface in general. It is more related to the fact that slim tablets do not have wired PXE builtin.



Most PXE related deployment solutions check the MAC address to identify a machine. Then you have two options.

Option 1. Simply disable identification and allow deployment to all machines (known and unknown. Therefore I would protect your deployment e.g. through MDT with a password. Also make sure that the naming convention does not use MAC).

Option 2. Make use of MDT in general as MDT doet not use the MAC address to identify an individual computer. But you have to make sure that WDS where MDT is relying on allows unknown and known devices as well (Option in WDS server properties).

When you plan to use SCCM instead then there is even a higher dependency on this.
Please check out this BLOG.

The last question is how to tell the Surface to boot into the PXE boot.

To boot a Surface device from an alternative boot device, follow these steps:

1. Ensure the Surface device is powered off.
2. Press and hold the Volume Down button.
3. Press and release the Power button.
4. After the system begins to boot from the USB stick or Ethernet adapter, release the Volume Down button.

Note:  In addition to an Ethernet adapter, a keyboard must also be connected to the Surface device to enter the pre-installation environment and navigate the deployment wizard.

 

There would could be even more to share.

To get the full MS story you can also checkout this BLOG here.