Creating a windows image for replication

[OP game_over 687]

The time has come for me to re-image a group of machines and i'll looking for the most efficient way of doing it... a few year a go i tried making a 'master image' from one computer that in theory should have been able to use on all other machines... unfortunately i could never get it working, install always failed or i ran into various other issues and i realised it would be much quicker to work on each machine manually.

 

I would like to have another go creating an image but before i spend days running in circles i'm looking for any advice, helps or tips anyone can give me.

 

I am wanting to install Windows 7 x64, silent install, slipstreamed with all updates, have various registry settings in place, preferably have it join a domain without much interaction, install some printers/drivers etc.. basically i want a base machine that will just work that can be distributed with little human interaction.. once it's on the domain i can push out other apps through the group policy.

[+i11usive 6,085]

Have a run through the following:

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee523217(v=ws.10).aspx

[GrayW 80]

A good tutorial that got me started was http://www.danscourses.com/Windows-7-and-8/how-to-create-a-wim-system-image-file-with-windowsaik-and-windowspe.html

There is also: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-7/Deploying-Windows-7-Part1.html

[TPreston 4,354]

  once it's on the domain i can push out other apps through the group policy.

While that's a lot easier to update it does use a lot more resources and time for larger programs like Office and Adobe.

 

The basic process for creating an image is

 

1. Install windows in a vm
2. install all your programs and updates
3. Make sure you are using local group policy instead of regedit as any changes to HKEY_CURRENT_USER will be ignored (as the current user is deleted)
4. sysprep and shutdown
5. boot from the windows cd and press shift+f10
6. Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:c:\goldimage.wim /CaptureDir:C:\ /Name:"goldimage" where c:\ is wherever your os drive is mounted
7. add the .wim to WDS or replace the install.wim on a bootable usb key

WDS gives you a GUi to do all this with a capture image but you can do it without a domain or wds

[Gotenks98 390]

MDT 2013 can do all of this for you. You might have to check out a few youtube videos to see how it works but it does well.