My mother f*cker boss asked me today to prepare a Windows 7 image, but I'm leaving tomorrow on vacations and I have not been able to! I used clonning + sysprep in the past with Windows XP, but Windows 7 is much more difficult! I have 100 Lenovo computers. All exactly the same. I need to create a basic Windows 7 Pro image with all the drivers, Firefox and Chrome with a defualt home page, and specific DNS settings (the IP is automatic). That would have been very simple in Windows XP, but in Windows 7 it seems to be impossible! It doesn't helps that if do some googling, I get about 100 tutorials, each with its own variation. So, what would be the EASIEST way to acomplish this? And for that case, any REALLY GOOD tutorials? By the way, I consider myself an expert user, is just that I don't have the time to read 100 tutorials till I get the right one because I leave for vacations. So, please, HELP!
There are many ways to do this "relatively" easily since your systems are all the same but how do you normally deploy the images? I wish I knew the WDS methods as I am dying to learn it but can't advice on that. Have you captured the drivers from one of the working systems? Can't you do this with GP in your office? That would be much easier for that specific aspect.
WDS is easy and great method - no need to capture the drivers, WDS will capture the complete system with drives available if they match the new hardware. If you do multiple OS installs or frequent then WDS is the way to go. I use WDS even at home. You should look at boot -> capture image (see my link)
No need in this case. WDS capture image would include the apps and settings without the OS hardware specific stuff.
Don't want to derail the OP's thread this in any way but I will be tracking you down with questions on this ... really want to learn this method... thanks for the link and info.
I don't want you to think "what a noob", but, since time is of the esence, I can not find how to install WDS on a Windows 7 machine. Is it even possible? It asks about installing it from the AIK, but I don't see it (there is a "Microsoft Deployment Toolkit" to download), and it says it is part of some versions of windows, but not 7. Any tip? Thanks!
OK, so either I'm missing something, or this is a "server only" tool? Is that so? I don't have a server to install it to. I want to run it locally. Is it possible? Thanks.
The way it's done with sysprep means the you only need to enter the username/computer name. That's all I have to enter when I deploy my Win7 image with Office, Visual Studio etc. It's not a complete oobe where you have enter product key, blah .... I can deploy it in minutes. The other nice part of WDS for deploying is you can use UDP mode to deploy the same image to all 100 pc's using a UDP broadcast, cutting down on your LAN traffic - and it can be configured to wait until a set number of clients so if you chose 20, it would boot the Pre Installation environment via WDS, you select the image and it would wait. Once the set number has been reached it will start broadcasting the WIM to file to the group. That way you don't hammer your LAN with 20 separate streams.
The current method I use which installs from a USB installs a fully configured and updated image to our new dell laptops in about 20 minutes. Currently I setup the laptops on a Bench with a bunch of USB's and install about 8 or more at a time... very quick. When I imaged systems I was not getting a much better install time so I abandoned imaging. GP is Group Policy from your domain server.. I use a combo of both in my networks. Just to be clear I know my methods are reliable and fast and I have done literally a few thousand systems this way BUT I am planning to convert to WDS just haven't done it yet. Based on your last post I see you have no server so I take it all these laptops are standalone or in a workgroup? I was about to tell you that the SID item is a non issue in the domain environment but you don;t seem to have a domain.
That is great and I'm eager to try it, but I can not seem to find where to download it or how to install it on my Windows 7 machine! ((((( Any idea?
JUST TO ADD A FUNNY COMMENT: you know what makes my work much more difficult? We do not have internet access! I have to do all on my 3G connection! (so i rather go prepared from hom).
Are you saying that it takes "minutes" to deploy to a new system? The other aspects you mentioned have me really wanting to get to testing this
Not good in this case - he needs to do it 100 times. He can do all 100 at the same time using WDS with UDP transmission of generalised image with applications installed which is what he needs rather than an OS with an answer file on bootable usb stick