Windows 8 Deployment Tools

Windows AIK contains several (mostly) command-line utilities such as Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), User State Migration Tool (USMT), Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT), Copype, Oscdimg, and ImageX.

ACT keeps track of applications that exist in your environment, allowing you to categorize, prioritize, and analyze application compatibility for Windows 7. Applications that don't run properly on Windows 7 can be mitigated to run as well as possible, by applying ACT shims. ACT requires agents to be installed on each client machine, to gather application information.

 MAP accesses hardware to ensure that minimum OS requirements are met. These minimum requirements can be defined to reflect your corporate standards. MAP provides information about which machines need to be upgraded or replaced prior to the deployment of Windows 7.

WDS provides Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) boot services, Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) to boot, deployment of OS images, and multicasting. WDS is commonly integrated with MDT and Configuration Manager for PXE boot and multicasting functionality.

MDT provides a unified, simplistic usage of the Windows AIK tools. Most of these tools are command-line only, and each has a unique syntax, which can make them time consuming to learn and difficult to use. MDT removes the complexity of the Windows AIK tools by providing friendly wizards that ask simple questions. Under the hood, MDT takes care of all the detailed and varied syntax of each tool.

Configuration Manager 2007 can perform Zero Touch Installations of OS deployments (OSDs), even on computers that don't have the Configuration Manager client agent running. Integrating MDT into Configuration Manager 2007 provides the most flexible and robust deployment solution available from Microsoft. One of the most powerful features of integration is the ability to completely design your deployment wizard by using the user-driven interface. This interface lets you design (beginning to end) how your deployment wizard appears and the order in which the pages are presented.

Get access to a great educational tool that explains GPO setting details, vulnerabilities, potential impact, and countermeasures.

Export GPO security settings from a domain-joined machine and document existing GPOs.

Create GPO Packs that can be deployed to all newly deployed machines, whether or not they join a domain.

Compare GPO settings from two machines to determine the differences.

Merge two GPO security settings, carefully selecting the desired setting to create a more solidified set of GPO settings.

Pre-staging computers makes them known to WDS, one of its strongest security features. My favorite security setting is to set the PXE response to Respond to all Known and Unknown Computers, but administrative approval must be given for unknown computers. The new Add Prestaged Device Wizard, which Figure 3 shows, lets you set from which server the PXE client will PXE boot and retrieve its PXE prompt policy. You might be wondering what a PXE prompt policy is and what it does; I certainly did. A PXE prompt policy defines what happens after a network boot is initiated -- settings such as whether someone needs to press F12 to continue the PXE boot process, whether client machines automatically PXE boot unless Esc is pressed, or whether to boot a custom PXE network boot program.

The Boot Image option lets you specify the default boot image (WinPE) to boot when PXE boot is completed. You can also set the unattend answer file to be used for this client when an installation is performed, as well as the settings for joining the newly deployed machine to a domain.

Capturing user state in-use files is no longer an issue. Files that are used by programs such as Outlook (e.g., address books) can be opened by the program upon boot to help ready it for use. These open files previously had locks that prevented them from being included when users' data and settings were captured, but this issue has been resolved.

Windows PowerShell 3.0 scripts are now supported.

The Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) 8 is supported, to provide remote control of target machines during deployment in the WinPE phase and additional tools to assist in troubleshooting failed deployments for Software Assurance (SA) clients.

 The Zero Touch Installation and user-driven interface task sequences have been combined.

Orchestrator runtime books are supported in task sequences. A couple features offered by Orchestrator are the ability to move a computer during deployment from one organizational unit (OU) to another and to create a service request in the event of a failed deployment.

The Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) now gathers more information about how MDT is being used than it did in the past.

 A user-driven interface has been added to MDT and lets you fully customize your deployment wizard to fit your environment's needs.

The new UI uses the System Center framework as the administrative console (Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.exe), instead of using the MMC interface that Configuration Manager 2007 and 2003 used. Embrace the Ribbon and Wunderbars, shown in Figure 4. The Wunderbars are at the bottom-left corner of the UI and control configuration of Asset and Compliance, Software Library, Monitoring, and Administrations. Selecting a Wunderbar determines the features that you can configure and monitor and the reports that you can create.

Applications can be deployed in a state-based manner. You can identify an application as always being installed. Then, based on scanning intervals that you define, Configuration Manager clients are scanned and any missing applications are installed. You can also specify that an application should never be installed; based on your scanning interval, any such applications that are detected will be removed.

There's a new type of site: central administration. Only large or geographically dispersed companies will need a central administration site; most companies will be able to create a standalone primary site. A central administration site by itself can't deploy applications or perform OSDs; in fact you can't even designate management or distribution points. Mainly, a central administration site is designed to link multiple primary sites. If you're in a small to midsized organization or setting up a lab environment, start with a standalone primary site.

There are two changes to terminology. Instead of advertising a task sequence to a collection, you now deploy the sequence. Also, mandatory OSDs are now referred to as required OSDs.

The configuration of client monitoring in a WinPE phase for Configuration Manager 2012 has been streamlined.

Distributing content for an entire task sequence is now much easier. Typically, an OSD task sequence has multiple packages that need to be distributed to distribution points. In Configuration Manager 2012, you can highlight the OSD task sequence and choose Distribute Content. All packages that are associated with that task sequence will be updated on your distribution points, as shown in Figure 5.