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Reimaging Dell Thin Clients with New ISO formatted image

Dell recently moved to the ISO format of their ThinOS firmware; this format will not work with their Dell Wyse USB Imaging Tool. You can now reimage Dell OptiPlex and Latitude Thin Clients using Rufus or the Dell OS Recovery Tool. Steps using the Dell OS Recovery Tool are listed below.

Steps

  1. Download Dell OS Recovery Tool at https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/osiso/recoverytool
  2. Run the .exe file on the system to create the USB drive. The Dell OS Recovery Tool Application installer opens. (DO NOT RUN ON THINCLIENT)
  3. Click INSTALL.
  4. After the installation is complete, open the Dell OS Recovery Tool.
  5. Locate and Select SWITCH TO ADVANCED RECOVERY displayed at the bottom of the tool.
  6. In Select an OS image, browse to the ISO file that you downloaded and extracted, and then click NEXT.
  7. Select the USB drive that you want to format from the USB drive dropdown.
  8. Check the “I understand that the selected drive will be reformatted and existing data will be deleted” box.
  9. Click BURN OS.
  10. Remove the USB drive and connect it to the OptiPlex or Latitude system you want to reimage, make sure that it is powered off, on which you plan to install ThinOS. After connecting the USB drive, turn on the system.
    NOTE: After the USB drive is removed, the Dell OS Recovery Tool returns to the screen displayed in Step 5.
  11. Press F12 at boot up until you see the Dell logo and Preparing one-time boot menu… displayed at the top right corner. The boot menu opens.
  12. Select the USB drive from the UEFI Boot Devices list in the boot menu.
    NOTE: If you cannot select the USB drive, ensure that the Enable USB Boot Support option is enabled in BIOS.
  13. Enter the BIOS password if prompted. The default password for most Dell thin clients is Fireport.
  14. The thin client boots with a warning message and a 60-second countdown window is displayed.
    Wait 60 seconds or click OK to install the ThinOS image and application packages. The thin client reboots automatically. Click Manually to display the ThinOS image and application packages list. Select the ThinOS image and the application packages that you want to install and click OK to install these files. The thin client reboots automatically.
  15. The system continues imaging and reboots automatically once complete.
    NOTE: If you see the error “Fatal Error: Please make sure TPM or PTT is set to ON in BIOS.”, please turn TPM or PTT on in BIOS to continue installation.

For more information about how to Install ThinOS from USB drive using Dell OS Recovery Tool, see the Dell ThinOS 2308, 2306 and 2303 Migration Guide at www.dell.com/support.