I have seen many tutorials showing how to use WAIK to create a Windows 7 inane for deploying to many machines. I have also seen tutorials about using MDT 2010. Which is a better way to use and why?
I will be looking to deploy applications as well. Also I want most, if not all of the deploys, to use the windows.old folder to store the old windows in. Is there a way I can deploy XP using these tools as well?
I am running Server 2008 R2 and WDS at the moment to boot and install the images over the network.
MDT 2010 requires and use WAIK for deploying Operating systems. MDT is a Toolkit/Workbench that brings together the Microsoft tools for image deployment into a neat intuitive package. If you plan on doing muliple, possibly repetitive deployments it is definetly the way to go. Pair MDT with WDS (Windows Deployment Services) and you can multicast/unicast images, and maintain them with the latest Applications/Drivers/Software Updates. XP can be deployed via MDT, although at times it is not quite as seamless as Vista/Win7. I honestly havent looked into using windows.old, but the utilies are highly scriptable/customizable if you don't mind getting code-dirty