TechNet Home > Desktop Deployment > Tasks & Tools

Imaging: Overview

To succeed in deploying an operating system, companies must use the best technology and business processes available as well as the best practices for optimizing those technologies. By developing baselines for the computing environment, companies have a known and fixed configuration for deployment, which lowers the cost of support, troubleshooting, and other operations. Through imaging, a standard build that includes core applications, the operating system, and any additional company requirements can be used for workstation deployment.

Selecting the Appropriate Microsoft Solution Accelerator for BDD Edition
Use the information in this table to determine which Solution Accelerator for BDD edition is right for you.

Select This Edition	When You Perform Software Inventory and Distribution by Using...
	Microsoft Windows System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) only The guidance that the Solution Accelerator for BDD Standard Edition provides assumes you are using software other than Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 to create the operating system images.
	SMS 2003 The Solution Accelerator for BDD Enterprise Edition provides guidance for creating operating system images for Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) and Lite Touch Installation (LTI). ZTI uses images created by SMS 2003 Operating System Deployment (OSD) Feature Pack. LTI uses images created by Sysprep or the SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack.

Key Steps

1.	Build a company-standard image for deployment.
2.	Test the image in a controlled pilot program.
3.	Use the right tools and utilities to deploy the desktop image.
4.	Manage the image lifecycle.

•

Live & Online Events

•	Webcasts
•	TechNet Events
•	Technical Chats

Tools and Technologies

The Solution Accelerator for BDD Standard and Enterprise Editions details best practices and guidance for the following tools. The Enterprise Edition includes the guidance and best practices found in the Standard Edition, plus additional information specific to the Enterprise Edition.

Standard Edition

Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)

Windows PE is a tool based on Windows XP Professional that allows information technology (IT) staff to build custom solutions to speed up desktop deployment. Windows PE can run Windows setup, scripts, and imaging applications.

Microsoft Windows System Preparation Tool (Sysprep)

Sysprep enables administrators to prepare Windows System Images as part of an automated deployment

Enterprise Edition

SMS 2003

SMS 2003 provides a comprehensive solution for change and configuration management for the Microsoft platform, enabling organizations to quickly and cost-effectively provide relevant software and updates to users. SMS 2003 provides for bandwidth-aware clients, checkpoint/restart, download and execute, and location awareness, allowing for maximized utilization of the infrastructure.

SMS 2003 OSD Feature Pack

The OSD Feature Pack allows you to create operating system images within SMS 2003. You can then deploy these images to clients by using ZTI or LTI.

Additional Resources

•	Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

•	Deploying Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005

•	Single-Image Deployment Guide for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 This document provides information about deploying the version of Windows XP SP2 that is integrated with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

•

Mitigate Risks and Save Money with Virtualized Testing

Need to test distributed apps, updates or configuration with minimal hardware and administrative investment? Get guidance on designing and building enterprise-scale development and test labs using virtual technologies with the Windows Server System Reference Architecture Virtual Environments for Development and Test.

Top of page