Creating images of Windows 7 for mass deployment
Hi. I want to create an image of Windows 7 that can later be pushed to other desktops using something like Ghost.
With Windows XP, it seemed simpler. Install Windows XP and all applications and patches on a desktop. Then run the wizard to create a sysprep.inf file with the product key and other settings. Then run sysprep. Clone image.
I know Windows 7 has sysprep, and I know how to run that. But how do you create an answer file to automatically configure certain settings, like the product key and joining the domain, like you were able to do with the sysprep.inf file?
Thanks.
With Windows XP, it seemed simpler. Install Windows XP and all applications and patches on a desktop. Then run the wizard to create a sysprep.inf file with the product key and other settings. Then run sysprep. Clone image.
I know Windows 7 has sysprep, and I know how to run that. But how do you create an answer file to automatically configure certain settings, like the product key and joining the domain, like you were able to do with the sysprep.inf file?
Thanks.
You need to look at the MS Deployment Toolkit and WinAIK.
It really is a horrible set of stuff to learn!
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Vista-Understanding-Windows-AIK.html
Have a look at Mitch Tulloch's set of articles about deploying Vista and then the subsequent series about Windows 7.
You can ignore the Deployment Toolkit method and do the following:
- make a base image by hand
- use System Image Manager from the WAIK to make an answer file - the WAIK help files will tell you which settings you need
- sysprep the image
- create a WIM file of it using imagex or dism from WinPE
- deploy that by various methods - eg WDS (ie the new RIS)
It really is a horrible set of stuff to learn!
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Deploying-Vista-Understanding-Windows-AIK.html
Have a look at Mitch Tulloch's set of articles about deploying Vista and then the subsequent series about Windows 7.
You can ignore the Deployment Toolkit method and do the following:
- make a base image by hand
- use System Image Manager from the WAIK to make an answer file - the WAIK help files will tell you which settings you need
- sysprep the image
- create a WIM file of it using imagex or dism from WinPE
- deploy that by various methods - eg WDS (ie the new RIS)
This is not cheap, but may save you a lot of time: http://www.smartdeploy.com
ASKER
Cantoris, I will take a look at those articles, thanks. I get the part about making the base image and creating an answer file and then running sysprep, but do I have to create a WIM file? I saw how to do that too, but that can be done with Ghost. I guess what I really need to know is how do I get the unattend file to run after running sysprep? With Windows XP, you just put the file in the same folder as sysprep and when it rebooted it took the configurations from that file.
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ASKER
This is good stuff, but I think I would like to know more about which components to add to the unattend.xml I am creating in WAIK. I know someone pointed me to a sample and another has a website for configuration, but I would like to be able to create this from scratch and just do not have a definition of each component or know what order to add it to the xml file.
I usually just try to make sure that the base image has VL's or OEM licenses to make things easy.