Windows 7 Tools for Image-Based Installation
Microsoft offers several tools that can be useful in deploying Windows 7 images to your workstations. Here are a few of them in alphabetical order.
Answer File:
The answer file for Windows Setup is the unattend.xml file. You can create (or modify an existing file) by using Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM). There is another answer file called oobe.xml that is used to customize Windows Welcome, which starts after Windows Setup and during the first system startup.
Catalog:
This is a binary file that contains the state of the settings and packages in a Windows image.
Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM):
Use this tool to servicing and managing Windows images.
Diskpart:
This is a command-line tool for configuring the hard disk partitions.
SysPrep:
This tool removes the computer-specific information from a Windows image (i.e. makes it more generic) before you capture the image and deploy it to all the computers on your network.
Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK):
WAIK includes several tools and documents to assist you in the deployment of operating systems. Here are some of the tools.
ImageX: A command-line tool to capture, modify, and apply installation image for deployment.
User State Migration Tool (USMT): You can use this tool to migrate a user’s system settings from an older version of Windows to Windows 7.
Windows Pre-installation Environment (Windows PE): This too is useful for installing and deploying Windows operating systems. It’s a minimal operating system with limited services that is based on Windows 7 kernel.
Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM): Allows you to create unattended installation answer files and distribution shares. You can also modify existing configurations.
Windows Deployment Images (WDS):
This is a server-based deployment solution that allows administrators to add new workstations to the domain without physically visiting the client workstations.
Virtual Hard Disk:
This is a virtualization solution that uses a Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file format. A .vhd is a single file that contains the entire disk image of a computer.
