I have the license for Windows 7 Pro (MAK) and Office 2010 Pro for 1000 machines. I'm trying to find the best solution to make my work easier. I have to install this Windows and Office to whole machines of my organization and of course the model and type of machines are different, some of theme are Desktop and some are Laptop. I want to install some other software beside office. Should I customize an Image of windows 7 or make a Clone of an installed windows and restore it each time? What do you recommend to me ? Thanks in advanced
Find it hard to believe 1000 machines and none are networked anyway, you could install on virtual machine add required software and take image but obviously you need to add image manually to every machine and activate. You do it with an Install.wim image or use 3rd party software like acronis if available.
1000 Licenses, which seems to be licensed to the same company/organisation/person and no network? Much more than hard to believe, except: the OP didn't know what a network is! Isn't it?
No, not really. Posts #2 and #6 have your alternative to one-by-one. But I tell you, if you are having to image 1,000 computers manually one-by-one, and provide support for your efforts, you'll never finish. By the time you get about 1/2 done you'll have a new version of Windows to contend with and may have to start over ... and over, and over, and over ...
What I do is create a basic image of the best machine possible and then sysprep it. I do many each week at a non profit. Once sysprep, make an image with ghost, imagex, whatever your choosing. If the sysprep image done right u will only have to do drivers which can be avoided with sysprep. theitbros site sysprep-a-windows-7-machine-start-to-finish-v2 search the site then all u have to do is apply image, activate software, update drivers. A Dell 960 or GX755 is a good standard for capturing when you want a generic image for use with multiple systems. Might require injecting additional drivers for 3rd party brands, HP, etc. Most should work though right out of the box. Hope that helps.
Right, and then moving physically from machine to machine 1,000 times, install the OS 1,000 times and each time be responsible and provide 1,000 instances of installation support. This thread probably could be closed.
You should consider getting a network (even if it is a local network and get a server (Windows Server 2003 or later) and use KMS activation for if you have no internet, activate the KMS host by phone.) I use Symantec Ghost to image the computers in my house. Install all the drivers for all the computers in your organization into that image, then deploy the image. If you don't want to use Symantec Ghost, there are plenty of Imaging/Disk Cloning Utilities. You do have Mak Keys. So request a KMS Host Key from Microsoft and they should give it to you. KMS is mainly used for Desktop Computers (They require Activation every 180 days). MAK is used mainly on portable devices (Laptops, etc.) because they are activated Permanently because of the MAK Key (Activate Laptops with these because they are more common to lose connection with the server (Traveling, etc.) Hope this Helps.
No, you cannot install Windows 7 system on 1000 machines, as I know, it seems that one windows 7 only can install three computer.
Wrong. Amount of installations is subject to negotiation with a Volume License. You can get MAKs with thousands of installations, and the number of machines a KMS can activate is not technically limited at all. For non-Volume, there is only one seat per license. The 'Family Pack' that's sold for three PCs is actually a special type of Volume license.
The three computers applies for: Office Home Mobile (Laptop) And it's NOT the installation, it's the activation using the exact same Product Key and applies for Retail Editions. On how many computers you use the same Media (DVD/ISO/Flash) doesn't matter at all! What matters is the Product Key! In case of Retail, are 3 different computers allowed to get activated with the same key. A MAK Key could be used as often as allowed by the bought amount of Activation. VL Key's used for KMS Activation having no activation limit but, they're limited to the 180 day cycle. That's just short about how many installation could be done using the same Media: UNLIMITED! Activations are limited as explained above.
Tbh, It shouldn't take too long to install to 1k computers. I'm going to make a couple of assumptions here... No network = no internet. This is important, because no internet = no viruses. No viruses means no need for security software, very little need for windows updates. It also means that windows will probably need to be activated over the phone, unless you have some kind of MAK. If the hardware is the same on all machines, great. Make a generic image, update it if you want, install everything you'll ever need, deploy image. 15mins per machine tops, and you only need 4 memory sticks to really get it going at a good speed. If the hardware is different on all machines, great. Make a generic image, update it if you want, Install everything you'll ever need, add in driver packs from driverpacks.net, deploy image. The drivers will add up to 4gb to the image, and easily double to deployment time. Still only need 5 or 6 usb sticks to install at a very good pace. All in all, you could probably get round all machines in 2 weeks working 8 hour shifts, 5 days a week. If you need it done pronto, you could do it in a 7 day week working 7am - 9pm with a weekend's worth of preparation time.
One approach that I've taken in the past when deploying to PCs in the 1000s where networking wasn't present - is to gather all the hard drives and use a few opened PCs in one room and clone a pre-prepared image as others have suggested. This is especially easy if your PCs have a hard drive 'caddy' that can easily be removed. This considerably cuts down time. Cloning hard drive to drive is super-fast and any non-technical staff can easily be trained to remove the hard-drives and replace them when done.