Deploy Vista: Learn about Windows AIK

The IT cycle for a typical enterprise usually includes stages such as planning, testing, deployment, configuration, maintenance and troubleshooting. These phases all have the same point of not being concerned about whether you are executing applications, application suites, operating systems or all solutions. But in that important part of this cycle is the deployment phase, which is the stage involved in anything from taking out a DVD in the box to installing other things or automatically deploying one. Application or operating system for thousands of desktops in many different locations.

Previously, deploying Microsoft Windows to a large number of computers was often one of three things: preparing the same automated deployment solution using MS-DOS network boot software, unattend files. .txt, cmdlines.txt, .ini and .inf files; Using Remote Installation Services (RIS), a server-based deployment solution was first introduced in Windows 2000 Server; or buy a third-party disk image. Obviously, if you are a customer with Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) or OEM license, starting with Windows XP you can also use another tool, Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE), tool Allows you to dispose of MS-DOS boot disks. In any case, with most of the time and budget, administrators often choose the third method, especially if they have to install multiple computers, and some large businesses often deploy RIS, Most small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) prefer third-party disk image solutions like Ghost. In fact, the word ghosting means 'deploying' - deployed to many Windows administrators.

With Windows Vista, though, things have been changed since Vista has some tools for preparing, capturing and preserving disk images and then deploying them in an unintended way for Basic equipment system. Some deployment tools (such as Sysprep.exe) are included in this operating system itself; Some other tools are provided from Microsoft Download Center as a free download; In addition, other tools such as Windows Deployment Services (Windows DS), the tool has many advantages over RIS provided as a role that you can add to Windows Server 2008. This tool, Microsoft has also developed a set of tools, scripts, and Document Accelerator (SA) documents - for a number of complex issues outside of Windows deployment issues. The first version of this toolkit is called Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment 2007, or BDD 2007 for short.

A new version of BDD 2007 called Microsoft Deployment has also been released, a wise way to first become friendly with the Windows AIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) and Windows DS. The reason for this is simple - Microsoft Deployment is built on the basis of the Windows AIK and other important tools such as User State Migration Tool and Application Compatibility Toolkit. Knowing how these basic tools work in detail will make it easier for you to use Microsoft Deployment - especially when you have to troubleshoot some deployment issues. For that reason, in this series, I will show you some details about using the Windows AIK tools and also introduce various ways of implementing Windows deployment. according to the image. Then when we have a good knowledge base on the above, we will move on and look at how Microsoft Deployment can simplify your deployment tasks.

Note :
This article focuses on deploying Vista, but some content will be very useful for deploying Windows Server 2008, and for this convenience, the articles will focus on version 1.1 of Windows AIK, because This is the version that will be released with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008. It should be noted that the deployment of previous versions of Windows Vista will not be introduced in these articles.

What is the Windows AIK?

The Windows AIK includes tools, documents, and templates that allow administrators to automatically deploy Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 product lines of operating system platforms. Windows AIK 1.1 can be used to deploy Windows Vista RTM, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows Server 2008. To use the Windows AIK, you must first have it. Version 1.0 is available through Microsoft Download Center; Also at this time, version 1.1 is still in development and can be provided on Microsoft Connect if you have a Windows Server 2008 testing program.

To use the Windows AIK, you first need to install it on a technician computer, which is the computer that will be used to create answer files, build configuration files, and customize the Windows image. PE, . Your technician computer doesn't need to be running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 - you can use Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 if you want. However, this computer needs to have .NET Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0 installed, but you can install them directly from the Windows AIK screen before installing the Windows AIK itself (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Screen allows installation of Windows AIK

Tips :
If you plan to build custom Windows PE images, your computer should have a DVD burner and a third-party burning software.

After installing the Windows AIK on your computer, you will be able to use the following tools:

1. Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM), this is the tool used to create XML answer files and provide sharing.
2. ImageX, a command line tool for capturing, preserving and applying Windows Imaging Format (WIM) files, which are Windows disk images used by Windows Vista.
3. PEimg.exe, a command line tool for creating and modifying Windows PE 2.1 images offline.
4. Package Manager (Pkgmgr.exe), a command line tool for offline preservation of Windows images.
5. Other command line tools such as BCDEdit, Bootsect, DiskPart, Drvload, . can be used to automate various aspects of deployment.

In addition, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 also have Sysprep.exe, the System Preparation Tool, these tools are used to prepare a disk image by removing specific information such as SIDs and also for many Another purpose is to add device drivers for existing Windows installations using Audit mode.

When the Windows AIK is installed on the technician computer, it will create a directory structure like in Figure 2 below. After installing the Windows AIK, you should explore the contents of this directory tree because there are many useful documents as well as sample files to demonstrate how this tool can be used for purposes. How to deploy Windows.

Figure 2: Directory structure in% PROGRAMFILES% Windows AIK

Quick guide to changes in Vista deployment tools and techniques

In the later articles of this series, we will dive into how to use each of these tools, but before we begin, we will introduce some things related to how the deployment tools and How the technology has changed in Vista. Here is acknowledging that you are completely familiar with Microsoft standard tools and its techniques have been used to deploy Windows. And below is a brief guide on how things have been changed in Windows Vista and later versions:

Tools and techniques Before Vista Vista and later version Sysprep.exe Found in Deploy.cab on Core Duo products Found in% WINDIR% System32Syspr folder No disk image tool available (Ghost or some products) third group) ImageX (included in Windows AIK) Tool to create Setup Manager answer files (in Deploy.cab) Windows SIM (included in Windows AIK) File format answers text files with key parts and parameters = value XML file Number of answer files

Countless, meaning unattend.txt, winnt.sif, sysprep.inf, winborn.ini, oobeinfo.ini, .

Only two: unattend.xml and (optional) oobe.xmlHow to run additional commands during the installationHold them in cmdlines.txt and use the $ OEM $ directory to provide sharing issuesUse RunAsynchronous or RunSynchronous in unattend.xml How to run additional commands after the first logo Use the [GuiRunOnce] section of unattend.txtUse FirstLogonCommands in unattend.xmlHow to provide additional files for installation Use $ OEM $ directories and directories Other children below Use ImageX to create data images

Table 1

We will continue this issue in the next article. Please watch it!