Clone windows to multiple pc's

[LordVader]

Got 6 old pc's at work which decided to wipe and start fresh.

Setup 1 of them with all the software we use and done the 100's Windows 10/Office updates required.

What's the best/easiest way to clone/ghost the pc and use on the others? They are all the same hardware.

 

[bremen1874]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...for-disk-duplication-of-windows-installations

 

[Django x2]

For small numbers of, or personal, PCs, I've started using chocolatey. Windows fires up, I let WU get update and drivers and then run one PS script which toasts the user and installs whatever packages I ask it to in the chocolatey script.

 

[LordVader]

Looked into sysprep, just couldn't get my head around how to do it so gave up in the end.

Got a couple old monitors and USB sticks just kept swapping them around to install updates and software

 

[bremen1874]

It doesn’t take much longer to fully configure 10 PCs than it does one (as long as you can have them all plugged in and running at the same time).

You get a nice bit of exercise walking between them, and there’s less dead time while you’re waiting for each step to complete.

 

[darael]

Which version of Windows are you installing that requires so many updates? Currently the Media Creation Tool downloads and copies Windows 10 2004 installation files to your USB stick. 2004 shouldn't need many updates, probably Flash player, Defender definitions, etc. But it shouldn't take a few minutes to install even if the machine has a slow hard drive.

 

[lurkio]

assuming they all need same stuff , on one machine install windows + updates , install any software needed
take an acronis image of that one machine clone onto all others, then set the windows key on each PC and activate it

 

[bremen1874]

assuming they all need same stuff , on one machine install windows + updates , install any software needed
take an acronis image of that one machine clone onto all others, then set the windows key on each PC and activate it

Which would give you machines with duplicate SIDs. You need to do something (e.g. use Sysprep) to avoid this.

 

[lurkio]

I usually just rename the PC before sticking the windows key in and then activating, then add to the domain

 

[nam]

acronis should help