Automating Deployment of Windows XP with the WAIKThe Desktop Files. Deploying Windows XP with the WAIKWes Miller. It's amazing (and daunting) just how different customers can be. In an ideal world, all customers would be in the same phase of deploying the same version of Windows all the time. It sure would make testing easier. But, of course, that isn't the case. While some of you are already in the throes of—or perhaps even done with—. Published: October 22, 2009. Updated: October 22, 2009. Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2. Windows AIK is short for Windows Automated Installation Kit. As its name displayed, it is a set of tools that could help you (mostly is OEM and IT professionals) to. Windows Vista IT Pro >. Because of the changes in the servicing stack in Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.Windows Vista? How do I use the WAIK when deploying Windows XP? The WAIK will now address Windows Server 2. WAIK are largely meant to take advantage of them. And, for better or worse, versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista that use either unattended setup or Sysprep require you to use tools designed specifically for them. But I want to take another look at the WAIK to highlight the tools that you can use to help deploy Windows XP. Windows PE 2. 0 For some common ground, let's start by looking at my February 2. Desktop. Files) on dual booting with Windows PE 2. Windows XP. Essentially, if Windows PE 2. The question to ask yourself is, . Only Windows PE 2. Software Assurance membership. Image. X/WIM Image. X and the Windows Imaging Format (WIM) were both designed from the ground up to work with any and all versions of Windows beginning with Windows 2. NTFS or FAT volumes—so yes, absolutely you can use them in order to deploy Windows XP (or Windows Server 2. Windows Deployment Services Windows Deployment Services (WDS), which replaces Remote Installation Services (RIS), was originally shipped as an out- of- band (OOB) release in the WAIK 1. Windows Server 2. SP2. Now it's shipping with increased functionality in Windows Server 2. Windows XP deployment. If you have a RIS server, or a WDS server running in legacy mode, this will not apply much to you. But if you've begun the transition to WDS running in mixed or native mode, then yes—you should look at WDS as potentially being a part of your Windows XP deployment scenario. Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK or WAIK) is a collection of tools and technologies produced by Microsoft designed to help deploy Microsoft Windows. Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) WSIM is really only applicable to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2. If you're deploying Windows Server 2. WSIM isn't going to be much help. Windows XP Deployment Tools. Windows XP (like all versions of Windows from Windows NT. If you want to take advantage of the WAIK, specifically Image. X, you'll be doing image- based deployment. So instead of an unattend. Sysprep. inf—the answer file format for Sysprep. When I use the term image here, I'm talking loosely about how to pick up the OS image. Historically, you'd most likely have used Ghost, PQDI, or other imaging tools. Before Image. X, Microsoft didn't provide any way to pick up the OS and applications you had Sysprep'd and copy them to one or more destination computers. There are two important points to remember when you are building an image of Windows: You can't change the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) except when moving between uniprocessor and multiprocessor systems. As I've mentioned in previously published columns, you can't safely change an image when going between ACPI and non- ACPI architectures. You can change mass- storage controllers. The idea that you can't is a common misconception. But in order to do this, you must use Sysprep to install any potential mass- storage controllers that target computers may need; after deployment, you use Sysprep to remove all but the driver that .
I'll get to that momentarily. With these two issues in mind, you should be able to prep an image on one system and have it work on any target system that utilizes the same or a compatible HAL. Tools of the Trade. Whenever you're working with Windows XP in an image- based deployment scenario, you will want to keep three items close at hand: Ref. The unattended setup text file reference. Remember that the time to optimally configure optional components in any version of Windows prior to Windows Vista is before imaging. However, if you do need to install optional components after setup, you can do so by running sysocmgr. If you're deploying Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, follow the steps at go. Link. Id=1. 08. 58. Tablet PC components on applicable systems. Sysprep The Microsoft- supported way to make disk- duplicated systems. I still occasionally see some recommendations for third- party security identifier (SID) changers; as always, I recommend only using Sysprep, as the other tools tend to miss critical Windows SID locations (especially the ones that aren't out in the open). Setup Manager The quickest and easiest way to create a sysprep. As always, make sure that you have the correct version handy—it should generally be the same as the version of Windows you are deploying (Windows XP SP2 with Windows XP SP2 deployment tools, for example). You'll find all three of those items on the Windows XP CD. Updated versions are available at go. Link. Id=1. 07. 54. You'll also want to keep tap. This utility is included with the Windows XP Embedded tools (go. Link. Id=1. 08. 59. Under Windows PE, tap. Plug and Play (Pn. P) devices Windows PE found; most interesting, it will tell you the HAL Windows PE chose for the device (see Figure 1). This is significant primarily because the logic Windows PE uses to select the HAL is the same logic a full Windows setup would use to determine which HAL to place—so tap. The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK or WAIK) is a tool designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Windows Vista and Windows. Windows PE is a handy way to see what HAL Windows would recommend for a specific system. Figure 1 Tap. exe utility can tell you which HAL Windows PE chose for a specific system (Click the image for a larger view)Creating the Image. You can work through the following steps to get started with your own Windows XP image to be deployed using Image. X (yes, you could use another imaging tool—but you'll soon see why Image. X is the ideal tool for this particular workflow). The first step is to gather all the necessary tools and components, including Sysprep, Setup Manager, Image. X, and Windows PE (version 2. Remember that if you are using version 2. Image. X, you will need to use bootsect. Windows XP.)Of course, you'll also need a PC with Windows XP (any SKU) installed on it, as well as the latest updates for Windows and any other installed software. Ideally, this system should never have been joined to the domain before—this reduces the likelihood of domain/network problems later. The system should have only imaging- safe applications installed, nothing that privately stores the machine name, SID, domain, or user- specific information that Sysprep will miss or be unable to replace at SID- changing time. In addition, it should use the HAL you expect to deploy most frequently. On newer hardware, this will generally be the ACPI multiprocessor (MP) HAL, due to the prevalence of both ACPI and multicore (and previously hyperthreading, which also used an MP HAL). Now configure your Windows XP system as you want it to appear to your end users. Install all the applications you want the majority of users to have (and any that can't be installed unattended). Install or remove any Windows- optional components so the system will be set up as you want for your end users. Then configure the desktop. Log in as the Administrator and make any modifications you want to the profile, including the desktop background, screensaver, Start Menu, and so forth. By default (starting with Windows XP SP2), Sysprep will copy the settings from the Administrator account over to the Default User account for you. Next, run Setup Manager (see Figure 2), specifying that you want to create a new Sysprep unattend file and completely automate the setup. Note that as you're going through Setup Manager, you will need to enter a product key. If you don't have one handy or you want to script it later (and you don't have a Volume License key), you can specify the key provided in the default unattend. Windows XP or Windows Server 2. CD (which will allow setup to complete but will not allow activation). Figure 2 Using Setup Manager to create a Sysprep answer file (Click the image for a larger view)You'll also need to provide a machine name. You may want to automate this later using SQL or some other mechanism, but for now just enter some value and then use scripting to replace the machine name before you run Sysprep, after the machine has had a WIM deployed to it. Remember that if you provide a password for the Administrator account, it will only be applied if the existing Administrator account in the image does not have one. And note that the domain join section does not allow you to encrypt the domain join credentials. You should use the least privileged account possible to set up the machine account. Finally, I suggest using the Version String option in Setup Manager to track the . This will modify your sysprep. IDs your installation of Windows is aware of, as shown in Figure 3. If you want to add in other devices, you can, or you can add them to your Windows installation and rerun sysprep –bmsd. Figure 3 Adding mass storage IDs to sysprep. Click the image for a larger view)Next, copy your sysprep. Reboot to Windows PE and connect to a UNC share (recommended) using this. NET USE Y: \\myserver\myshare. USER: DOMAIN\USER password. Now capture the image by using the following. Image. X /capture C: Y: \New. Image. wim. . I'm not going to drill into the specifics of that here, but, in a nutshell, factory mode is the safest mode to keep your images in until they are ready to be imaged for deployment. For more information, consult the Windows XP deploy. When you are ready to prep the images for deployment—that is, once you're ready for a rollout—boot to Windows PE and use Diskpart to create the desired partition(s). Format the partitions using the format command, and use bootsect. Windows Vista boot code (/nt. Now connect to a UNC share (or cd to wherever your image(s) are) using this. NET USE Y: \\myserver\myshare. USER: DOMAIN\USER password. Then apply the image as follows. Image. X /apply Y: \New. Image. wim C: 1. Finally, reboot to Windows Factory Mode and make any necessary updates to your image (you will need to use a winbom. Download Windows AIK and How to Mount It? Download Windows AIK and How to Install It? Before you do. If you are using Windows 7, Windows 8/8. Windows 2. 01. 2 R2, there may be no need to download Windows AIK. You can directly make a Windows PE bootable CD with AOMEI Partition Assistant. You must download Windows AIK if AOMEI Partition Assistant pops up a prompt window, you are required. To create a Win. PE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) bootable CD with AOMEI Partition Assistant on Windows XP/2. Vista/2. 00. 8, you need to download Windows AIK. The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK)Version. Platform. Size. Link. KB3. AIK. As its name displayed, it is a set of tools that could help you (mostly is OEM and IT professionals) to configure and deploy operating system to new hardware. In brief, that meant you could customize your own OS, as well as to create a Win. PE bootable CD. How to Install the Windows AIK ISO file? After you downloaded Windows AIK ISO file, first you need virtual CD- ROM software and then you can install it on your computer. The following are concrete steps: step. And then follow the setup wizard to install Windows AIK on your computer.
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