Windows 7 Enterprise Deployment Guide

This article demonstrates how to perform unattended installation of windows 7 and how to create an image. It explains everything you need deploy Windows 7 in enterprise environment.

Tools for successful Windows 7 deployment

– Windows AIK DVD (can be downloaded from Microsoft)
– Windows 7 DVD
– A computer to install Windows AIK
– USB flash drive
– bank CD
Start by installing Windows AIK on your computer. Windows AIK can be installed on Server 2003 or Windows Vista.

Windows 7 unattended installation

I. Create a Reference Answer file for unattended installation
Windows 7 installation answer file allows installation to be automatic while using custom settings.
1. Install Microsoft Windows AIK if you haven’t done so.
2. Copy Install.wim from Sources folder in Windows 7 DVD to local drive
3. Launch Windows System Image Manager, Start > All programs > Microsoft Windows AIK >Windows System Image Manager
4. In Windows SIM, click File and choose Select Windows Image
5. Select the wim image copied in step 2, choose YES to generate a catalog file
6. Click File, choose New Answer File.

Customize Windows 7 Image Settings

You can define custom configuration through Components menu in Windows SIM
1. On Windows SIM, click Components to expend the menu. Configure settings as needed.
2. Once settings are configured, click Tools > Validate Answer File.
3. Click File > Save Answer File. save it as autounattend.xml
4. Copy autounattend.xml to the root of the USB flash drive.
III. Create Reference Windows 7 image
1. Insert Windows 7 DVD in DVD drive and plug in the USB flash drive that contains autounattend.xml.
2. Once the PC boots from Windows 7 DVD, it will use the autounattend.xml to install Windows 7.

Create Windows 7 image

1. Configure Windows 7 OS with desired configuration
2. run sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown command from command line
/generalize – resets SID
/oobe – allows you to reseal windows and give you out of the box experience.
3. Now, use imaging software to take a snapshot of this image. For free solution, You can use ImageX to take

Create Bootable ImageX CD

This CD will allow you to boot from the CD to capture the Windows 7 image.
1. On computer where Windows AIK is installed, go to Start > All Programs > Windows AIK > Deployment tools Command Prompt
2. type “copype.cmd amdx86 c:winpe”
3. type “copy “c:program filesWindows AIKToolsx86imagex.exe” c:winpeiso”, press enter
4. type “oscdimg -n -bc:winpe_x86etfsboot.com c:winpe_x86ISO c:winpewinpe.iso”, press enter
5. Burn the winpe.iso onto the CD. Now we can use this CD boot and capture Windows 7 image.

Capture Windows 7 image

1. Boot the reference computer where you ran sysprep.exe
2. Boot into Windows PE with the CD created earlier.
3. In WinPE, open Command Prompt
4. Type “e:imagex.exe /capture d: d:Win7image.wim “Win7 Image” /compress fast /verify “, press enter
5. This will capture the image

Deploy Windows 7 image

1. Boot the reference computer where you ran sysprep.exe
2. Boot into Windows PE with the CD created earlier.
3. In WinPE, open Command Prompt
4. e:imagex.exe /apply d:myimage.wim 1 d:

Sysprep in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

I thought I’d document how to setup the new Sysprep process equivalent on Windows 2008 since the old setupmgr tool for making sysprep.inf’s doesn’t exist anymore (and neither does the sysprep.inf file itself).

The first step is acquiring the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) from somewhere. You can get this package in ISO file format from Microsoft’s website at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en. The download is about an 800MB install on a Windows Server 2003 SP2 x86 machine.

The tool of choice for building your Sysprep configuration is the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM). When you start it you’ll get a blank screen like this:

The first step is to catalog the image file. You can do this from Tools>Create Catalog, selecting your install.wim and then what image(s) to catalog. I’m setting up Windows Server 2008 Enterprise so I selected the appropriate option. The final three choices are the server core variants:

Note: You’ll also need to copy the install.wim from your installation media DVD sources folder to the hard drive as the tool won’t work with it if it doesn’t have write access to the WIM file.

All of the settings you will want to setup in your unattend.xml file are in the tree under Windows Image. The documentation for all the settings can be found at http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/69eee519-55a6-440d-ab94-56330ef57e291033.mspx. This link shows a mapping table between the sysprep.inf file and the new unattend.xml format.

All of the various settings can be applied during different passes of the setup process which sysprep will trigger. You can read about these passes here. I built a simple unattend file just for sysprep’ing my base image which includes settings in the generalize, specialize, and oobeSystem passes. All of the settings I chose are outlined below.

My answer file tree:

Disabling the initial configuration dialog:

Disabling auto-starting the server manager application:

Setting my product key, timezone settings, and my name:

Configuring the screen resolution and color depth – 1280×960 is what works in VMWare full screen mode with the tabs across the top:

Configuring setup not to show me the EULA again:

Configuring setup to install a default local administrator account password:

One of the things I discovered doing this is that unlike Sysprep from Windows 2000 – 2003, the unattend.xml file isn’t deleted at the conclusion of the Sysprep process. When down-level Sysprep completes, it deletes the c:sysprep folder. In order to replicate this functionality, you can put a command in to delete the unattend.xml file in the SetupComplete.cmd batch file (which must be located in c:windowssetupscripts) which gets called at the end of Sysprep. Reference this link for more info.

I put a simple one line command in my SetupComplete.cmd file:

del /Q /F c:windowssystem32sysprepunattend.xml

In order to run Sysprep you’ll need to use a new command. The old Sysprep user interface that was there in Windows 2000 – Windows Server 2003 doesn’t really exist anymore. All of the Sysprep command line switches are documented at http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/72cc64e2-a0f3-4516-84fc-097577127fc91033.mspx.

sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:sysprep.xml

So far this process is working fine for me with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 full installs. I haven’t tried it with server core yet, but if it’s different I’ll post something about that.

Sysprep in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

Note: This post discusses Sysprep as it pertains to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. If you’re working with a different version of Windows, check out these posts:

• Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

The first step is acquiring the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and installing it on a machine. It will run fine on a Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 machine. You can get it from Microsoft’s website at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=696dd665-9f76-4177-a811-39c26d3b3b34.

The tool of choice is the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM). When you start it you’ll get a blank screen like this:

The first step is to open the image file for the Windows SKU you want to build a sysprep file for by going to File>Select Windows Image:

Note: You may need to first create a catalog file before completing the preceding step. In order to do this, you’ll first need to copy the install.wim from your installation media DVD sources folder to the hard drive as the tool won’t work with it if it doesn’t have write access to the WIM file. You can then go to Tools>Create Catalog and create the catalog file.

All of the settings you will want to setup in your unattend.xml file are in the tree under Windows Image. The documentation for all the settings can be found in the Unattended Windows Setup Reference CHM file which ships with the WAIK. This link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749272(WS.10).aspx shows a mapping table between the sysprep.inf file and the new unattend.xml format. This link is for Windows Vista but it still applies.

All of the various settings can be applied during different passes of the setup process which sysprep will trigger. You can read about these passes here. I built a simple unattend file just for sysprep’ing my base image which includes settings in the generalize, specialize, and oobeSystem passes. All of the settings I chose are outlined below.

My answer file tree:

Disabling the initial configuration dialog:

Disabling Server Manager from loading at first run:

Setting the Internet Explorer homepage to “about:blank”, turning off the IE8 Accelerators, and disabling the first run wizard:

Setting Google as my default Search Provider in Internet Explorer:

Note: To do this, you should right click on SearchScopes and Insert New Scope.

There are two versions of Internet Explorer on a 64-bit machine – the 64-bit IE and the 32-bit one. You’ll need to set the settings for them independently. Duplicate the above IE configuration in the wow64_Microsoft-Windows-IE-InternetExplorer_neutral component:

Setting my product key, timezone settings, and my name:

Configuring localization settings – if you want something other than US English, look under Input Locales in the index of the Unattended Windows Setup Reference CHM file referenced earlier:

Configuring the screen resolution and color depth – 1280×960 is what works for me in VMWare full screen mode with the tabs across the top:

Configuring setup not to show me the EULA again:

Configuring setup to install a default local administrator account password:

One of the things that’s unlike Sysprep from Windows 2000 – Windows Server 2003 is that the unattend.xml file isn’t deleted at the conclusion of the Sysprep process. The down level Sysprep deletes the c:sysprep folder when it finishes. In order to replicate this functionality, you can put a command in to delete the unattend.xml file in the SetupComplete.cmd batch file (which must be located in c:windowssetupscripts) which gets called at the end of Sysprep.

I put a simple one line command in my SetupComplete.cmd file:

del /Q /F c:windowssystem32sysprepunattend.xml

In order to run Sysprep you’ll need a new command. The old Sysprep UI that was there in Windows 2000 – 2003 doesn’t really exist anymore. All of the Sysprep command line switches are documented at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744330(WS.10).aspx.

sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml