How do you deploy Win XP?

[heffer86]

I am in an organization that has five different models of Dell pc and laptops. What do you use to deploy up to date images to all these different machine?

[notuptome2004]

well since Windows XP is kinda out the door now i would not recommend deploying XP as it is Windows 7 will be out soon with in months or less who knows so i would Deploy it over XP if the machines are new enough for the job . now as for deploying multiple images well if each model is differant specs that wont work they need to be exactly the same for it to work proper but as for a program to do it you can download http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

[spy beef]

WRONG SECTION!

[jokeripa]

Are they on a domain?

[hadouken]

We use many different deployment methods at work:

Altiris Deployment Solution (now owned by Symantec) - This is a full blown enterprise deployment system, you can create and deploy disk images for similar hardware configs, it will rename and config the machine after the image is deployed, it can deploy to as many machines at once as you like without ever visiting the physical machine. It can also deploy software installs (either RIPs that are custom captures of installs or MSI installers etc), remote control user desktops, execute commands remotely, power off/on machines etc. Very powerful but also very expensive.

USB pen containing the XP installer - I use this when formatting individual machines, simply boot into WinPE (a minimal Windows environment with command line) on the USB pen, and run the Windows setup command (winnt32.exe) from the command line. This is great because we have a lot of machines without CD drives, its also faster and allows you to format/partition/backup/prep the machine if you know the DOS commands. The machines need to support USB boot though.

Custom nLite CD - Fast, automated and has a great deal of customisation. You can create one nLite CD/USB pen and never have to config Windows post-install again. You can also integrate drivers, hotfixes, apps etc. Very good.

RIS (remote installation services) - Microsofts built in solution. Never used it so can't comment. :) But I think you need to be on a domain to use it.

[rajputwarrior]

  notuptome2004 said:

well since Windows XP is kinda out the door now i would not recommend deploying XP as it is Windows 7 will be out soon with in months or less who knows so i would Deploy it over XP if the machines are new enough for the job . now as for deploying multiple images well if each model is differant specs that wont work they need to be exactly the same for it to work proper but as for a program to do it you can download http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

sorry to burst your bubble, but deploying a BRAND NEW OS in a corporate environment would be incredibly irresponsible. I am sure most IT experts would agree to go with Windows XP.

[capr]

  rajputwarrior said:

sorry to burst your bubble, but deploying a BRAND NEW OS in a corporate environment would be incredibly irresponsible. I am sure most IT experts would agree to go with Windows XP.

we are starting to move over to vista as of next fall (3 years after vista launch?)... windows 7 will have to take it's time too... it's not a matter of being cheap... it's just a matter of teaching all the IT guys all teh fancy things about the new OS. and all the different problems and bugs that can pop out with a new OS. if your home computer crashes cause of a bad windows update (just an example I have no idea what problems windows 7 WILL have.) it's one thing, but you odn't want the whole company to go down cause of some small little thing.

we use nlite at work. if there is a new lab we use the image created with nlite over the network that way I don't have to go to 10 different computers and have 10 copies of the disk available.