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Tamara Wijsman
Asked: 2009-09-14 11:48:41 +0800 CST

Faster Windows Install + Automatisation

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I'm looking for a way to install Windows Faster and let it run automaticly.

We do daily installations of Windows XP, Windows Vista and soon Windows 7.
We are currently using the following procedure:

  • Install from CD/DVD.
  • Install all the drivers.
  • Install the service pack if the CD/DVD doesn't provide it.
  • Install all the remaining windows updates.

Sometimes we get computers from brands where we use the following procedure:

  • Install from hard-drive image.
  • Install the service pack as the hard-drive image does not provide it.
  • Install all the remaining windows updates.

An USB stick is indeed part of the solution, but these tend to be too small to cover all possible combination's. So, you don't have to suggest this as we might continue using CD/DVD or an external USB drive as I already know. I want to point out here that we want to discuss speeding and automating the procedure regardless of the used media/hardware.

We know of the existence of the Windows AIK tools and nlite, although we stopped this technique as it takes too much time to slipstream the service pack, updates and drivers in each Windows version (For example in Vista: Home Premium, Ultimate, ...). It seems you can't do all versions at the same time... And doing them all apart is a bit wicked if you just want to integrate some new updates in an already slip-streamed installation ISO.

It currently takes around 1-2 hours to complete the installation procedure.

My questions:

  • Is there an easier way to slipstream drivers, packs and updates for all versions at the same time?
  • Is there a way to boost the brand computers in the same way without breaking the contract?
  • If not, would it be wise to develop an update tool that performs all these actions in a row?
  • ... (I thought I had more questions, but if I come up with one I'll update it right away)
windows

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    For Windows Vista/7, you really should have a look into the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. It can also help with Windows XP, although Vista/7 offer significant improvements in deployment.

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  2. Seems like you need nlite. http://www.nliteos.com/

    It will give you most of the functionality you want except boot from USB, AFAIK.

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  3. What exactly do you want to achieve from this? "Install Windows faster" is pretty general, and your description so far leads me to believe that what you're looking for is something that will give you a one-time-only procedure for all versions of Windows on all possible hardware.

    I'm sorry but that just doesn't exist. Service packs and updates are different for different versions of Windows (same as you can't install a Mac OS X update on Mac OS 9), so a procedure for Windows 7 will not be valid for Windows XP.

    You really need to backtrack to the Windows AIK and start looking at that again. Some other imaging software would also suffice. Take your baseline installation, patch it up fully, then create an image from it. Then bring the image back down onto your target machines. This will take some time and practice to get right, but you can get down to a 10 minute install time for most PCs using it.

    You would then look to implement a patch management solution like WSUS so that you don't actually need an image refresh every time a new set of patches come out. Look after things properly and you'll find that you only need an image refresh every time there is a major hardware and/or software change - once per 12 to 18 months would be roundabout right.

    You'll need a separate image for each version of Windows, and unfortunately I'm getting the impression that this is something you don't want. Again, something to handle all versions of Windows in one fell swoop just does not exist. I think you might be asking for too much.

    Use of an imaging toolkit may seem like "too much time" right now, but it's a tradeoff of time spent up-front vs time spent longer term, and in any non-trivial environment it should work out as substantially less time spent over the course of about a year.

    Speaking of environments, some better description of your's would really be helpful here. I'm finding it puzzling that you seem to be doing a lot of Windows installs, to the extent that it looks as though you have a fairly large network, but yet you don't seem to have standardised on an OS, hardware, or a vendor. If this is the case, I might suggest that you're going about things from the wrong direction, and you really need to get this standardisation in place before you consider OS deployment strategies.

    That's all I can say for now given the info we've got.

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  4. We have had great success with Unattended, which extends the MS unattended installation system with perl scripts for installing updates, additional software, etc. It's a little bit idiosyncratic, but once you have it set up, you can install a new machine just by having it boot from the network.

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