Windows 7 Deployment

MivkM · 9 Dec 2010 at 22:47

Hiya,

Got 10 PC's to Deploy with Windows 7 64Bit - Sadly they were shipped with 32Bit so they all need a OS Reinstall.

Don't particularly fancy building each machine - Anyone had any luck with the Windows 7 Sysprep or perhaps prefer building and creating a Image?

Any pointers would be appreciated!

Cheers.

SiriusB · 10 Dec 2010 at 00:12

Lots of articles on the web for Windows 7 deployment using the MS tools. Just have to do some reading.

I was given a great guide for doing this, I can't for the life of me find it though.

Burnsy2023 · 10 Dec 2010 at 08:42

If you can be bothered and have a windows server free, WDS is a dream with 7.

J.B · 10 Dec 2010 at 08:46

WDS does work well if you have a Windows 08 server.

If you dont have a Windows Server you could virtualise a Ubuntu server and use FOG to deploy a sysprep image.

Dont do what I did and image 6 laptops and then realise I hadnt put the VPN software on the image!

paradigm · 10 Dec 2010 at 08:48

Burnsy2023 said:
If you can be bothered and have a windows server free, WDS is a dream with 7.

Agreed. Certainly the way I'd go if the OP has a spare server available.

MivkM · 10 Dec 2010 at 09:17

Great, Got a server i can use running 08 so will give WDS a go - Thanks!

edscdk · 10 Dec 2010 at 09:22

for 10 PC's if they are the same jsut install everything onto 1 then image it to the others and change the serial?

it will take about 20mins per machine + 2 hours to get the 1st machine right.... you will spend days working out the MS deployment tools (which is not worth the investment in time if you only have 9 machines to image)

d_brennen · 10 Dec 2010 at 09:29

For such a small number I'd just use Clonezilla tbh.

Just prep one machine as you want it and clone away. Make sure you update the keys one each machine unless you own a volume licence

Mr-White · 10 Dec 2010 at 11:00

J.B said:
Dont do what I did and image 6 laptops and then realise I hadnt put the VPN software on the image!

I once accidentally sysprep'd a Win7 install with the winXP .exe. Needless to say Win7 really didn't like that and wouldn't even let me login once it rebooted

You could create and install images through WinPE if you like command lines

MW

theheyes · 10 Dec 2010 at 16:59

edscdk said:
for 10 PC's if they are the same jsut install everything onto 1 then image it to the others and change the serial?

it will take about 20mins per machine + 2 hours to get the 1st machine right.... you will spend days working out the MS deployment tools (which is not worth the investment in time if you only have 9 machines to image)

Pretty much this, unless you will find the learning experience of using WDS or whatever useful.

Are all the PCs the same? Just build one, run a Windows image backup and restore that backup to the other 9 and sysprep 'em. You don't even need any third party software.

I don't recommend installing antivirus on the master image though, do that afterwards. I've had bad experiences.