It really is simple - it's your lack of knowledge. Your thinking about it the wrong way. The main point you are missing is WIM files are images of files instead of images of blocks(sectors) - to make it possible to store other files, applications, settings and be able to deploy it to different hardware bases. The Windows 7 DVD contains such a WIM file and all the setup really does is deploy this to your local hard drive. WDS does the same thing but boots the setup (Pre Installation Environment) over the LAN and sources the WIM file over LAN. It's really all about making one reference images, generalising it and capturing it back to a new WIM file. Regarding sysprep issues, comments like you tried it and it didn't work don't really help - given you've not told us why it failed or what it did wrong.
I am back to being speechless... I suggest you put the time in to learn what is already very old technology... these methods are truly old already so take the leap and start learning... heck I'm a network engineer and very good at what I do and I am still learning and still see things like WDS that I haven't tackled yet... Sincerely Good Luck Kwanbis
So what you are saying that you never been asked to do something on a shorter time than what was needed to do it? Come on! This happens all the time. Sales people oversell a product. And development is who pais. Management oversalls a solution and networking pays, et, etc, etc. The technologies might be old, but I was not using them, so I didn't need to learn them. Or, do you know ALLLLLLL technologies? I'm mostly used to Linux, AIX, and this was a bad management desition, and I'm just trying to save the day. I don't understand what adds to the solution all the comments like that. I know it is a short time. I know I don't know the technology. But I'm still trying to do the best I can.
Kwanbis... YES the process is complicated that's why we do what we do and get paid for it... we supposed to KNOW what were doing and when we don't we supposed to know that as well.. If you learned XP deployments in 15 minutes then your a genius!!!! If you can learn WIN7 deployment in 15 days then I should be working for you You have been on this forum since 2009 and no one on here simply follows the MS method of deployments and this forum is loaded with info and tools... heck I have spent years learning this stuff. I really don't know how to respond to your last post... honestly everything you stated is completely incongruous with the fact that you work or have a client that is a BANK, you have no IT resources, you are inexperienced (which is NOT the main issue here), you have no planning and your mental is to save the day instead of telling the truth and informing the bank/client that is not realistic even if they don't want to hear that. This simply a recipe for disaster and not one I would want to have on my shoulders.
Thanks guys really for all your help. Really. But it seems to me you are trying to find a culprid while I'm trying to solve a problem. Thanks anyway. Bye.
kwanbis, We gave you solutions but you don't want to hear them. You stated you were trying to 'save the day' but all your doing is digging a bigger whole for yourself. Do you even know what SID's are for? and you plan is to deploy 100's of PC's and fix the SID's later? Really???? Windows deployment is very flexible but with that comes a degree of understanding that is expected. You can't say you didn't need to learn it so you didn't bother ... and they complain that it's too complex to implement a project before 9am next morning. I've worked in IT many years, I am MCSE in 2003, MICTP in 2008, and MCSE in 2012 ... so I think I am qualified enough to state your looking at the situation completely wrong. For this task you are clearly unqualified, in experienced and way out of your depth. The best advice I can give you now is to go in and tell your manager you cannot do it in the time available. Go on holiday and enjoy it. On your return you need to consider if you are in the right job and if you think you are, you need to do some serious updating of your knowledge for future projects instead of trying to 'wing' it. Especially working for a corporate customer like a bank. With regard to your settings issue, some settings are per user profile and stored in the appropriate user profile folders. When you boot the new installation you will be creating a new profile. So you need to consider how default settings can be made for user profiles, combinations of answer files (WDS, Setup from USB/DVD/LAN share all support these). For some settings, post-installation registry settings can be executed to apply configurations, and some corporate settings should be applied (and enforced) by group policy settings in a GPO so you don't need to manually set them of change them hundreds of times. Technology has moved on with time - you clearly have not.
I think you have more of a business problem and less of a computer problem. Your boss has given you and assignment for which you appear to lack the qualifications to complete. My suggestion is you approach your boss and tell him this request is outside your experience level; that certainly seems to be true. Now, if you're supposed to have expertise in this area and you in fact don't, that brings on all new problems.
Reminds me of the "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." retort. Yeah, it's old. And yeah, it's still in style.
kwanbis Last Activity 22 Oct 2014 22:26 Since he was going on vacation Oct 23 2014 (the next day), I think he has either cured his problem or told his boss to pound salt.
Regarding this whole mess, there are numerous methods/tools one can use to create a standard image for deployment. The issue is you need to understand why you pick a particular method and what the pro's and con's of each are. Unfortunately kwanbis didn't have the slightest idea about anything regarding deployments of Win7 or anything newer than XP... and from the sounds of it all he new about XP deployment was cloning an image. Frankly the whole scenario was a joke and was a little "fishy"
It's for him/her who wants sysprep easily. I made it for a new user and now shared here. I just added sysprep command in my tool that will integrate unattended.xml file.