Installing Windows 7 Using Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) - Part 6

In this final installment of the series, I show how to install a new Windows 7 workstation using the tools and components we've put in place.  This final piece leverages our custom .wim file, which we install from the network share where it was placed in the previous video, to build a fully-functioning Windows 7 environment.

The tools we use in this video are:

1. BCDBOOT - Used to set up a system partition on a computer, or to repair the boot environment within the system partition of a computer.  BCDBoot can be run from Windows PE
2. DISKPART - A Command-line tool that enables disk configuration and management from within a Windows PE environment
3. IMAGEX - A command-line tool used to capture, modify, and rapidly deploy file-based disk images.

Reference Material Used in Creating this Blog:

• Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Deployment for IT Professionals
• BCDBoot Command-Line Options
• A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility
• What is ImageX?

Installing Windows 7 Using Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) - Part 5

In this post, I will show you how to use the .iso file created in Part 4 to:

1. Boot to the WinPE environment on our previously created reference computer
2. Use ImageX to create a custom .wim file incorporating the settings from our reference computer
3. Copy the custom .wim file to a network share where it can be used for automated installs of Windows 7

In Part 6, I'll show how we are now in a position to use the .wim file to automatically install a new Windows 7 workstation.

Reference Material Used in Creating this Blog:

• Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Deployment for IT Professionals

Installing Windows 7 Using Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) - Part 4

In Part 4 of this series, I will show you how to create a .iso image which will allow you to create bootable media for when you are doing your automated installs.

The specific terms and tools referenced in this video are:

1.  WINDOWS PE - "Windows Pre-Installation Environment".  This is a lightweight version of Windows 7 (and also other versions of Windows going back to XP) used to allow the deployment of workstations or servers.
2. WINPE.WIM - This is the base (non-modified) Windows PE image
3. BOOT.WIM - This contains a bootable version of Windows PE
4. IMAGEX.EXE - This is an imaging tool used to create, modify and deploy images to workstations and servers.  It support the Microsoft Windows Imaging (.wim) format
5. ETFSBOOT.COM - This is the El Torito Boot Sector File used to allow your .ISO image to boot the device where your image will be installed. (NOTE: The El Torito specification allows a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM to function as either a hard drive or a floppy drive from the perspective of the machine)
6. OSCDIMG - This is a command-line tool used to create an image file (.iso) of a customized version of Windows PE
7. COPYPE.CMD - This is a script used to create the WinPE directory structure and copies all of the necessary files for the architecture you've selected (x86, amd64, or ia64)

Reference Material Used in Creating this Blog:

• Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Deployment for IT Professionals
• How to Create an El Torito Bootable CD-ROM
• "El Torito" Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification

Installing Windows 7 Using Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) - Part 2

In the second part of this series, you'll see the pieces necessary to build an answer file that will be used to do an automated install of the Windows 7 Client.  The steps in this video include:

1. Install.wim overview
2. Windows System Image Manager overview
3. How to create a Catalog File for Windows 7 Enterprise
4. How to create, validate and save an Answer File
5. Understanding Configuration Passes

As a reference, the following information describes the Configuration Passes a system will go through during automated installation:

1. windowsPE (runs when booting the Windows setup media or when starting Windows Setup from a previous installation)
1. Windows image is copied to the destination computer
2. Adds any boot-critical drivers
2. offlineServicing (runs automatically after the windowsPE pass)
1. applies updates, drivers and language packs
2. the Windows image is applied to a hard drive and any settings in this section are also applied to the image
3. specialize (runs automatically when the Windows image boots for the 1st time, or after sysprep /generalize has been run)
1. configures information specific to the hardware of the destination machine
2. creates unique SIDs
3. optionally: network settings, domain information, etc. can be set on this pass
4. generalize (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Generalize is configured, or when sysprep /generalize has been run)
1. removes any specific configuration information from the current install
2. allows the installed image to be captured and reapplied to different computers
5. auditSystem (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Reseal|Mode=Audit is configured or if sysprep /audit has been run)
1. used for additional configurations, such as device drivers
6. auditUser (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Reseal|Mode=Audit is configured or if sysprep /audit has been run)
    - used to run custom commands or Windows Shell options
7. oobeSystem (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Reseal|Mode=OOBE is configured or if sysprep /OOBE has been run)
1. settings applied before the Welcome screen appears
2. used to configure Windows Shell options, create user accounts, and specify language/locale settings

In Part 3, we'll look at how the answer file we've just created can be used to automatically install Windows 7.

Reference Material Used in Creating this Blog:

• Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Deployment for IT Professionals