Futurecat - Michael Karek

Welcome to blog number two in the series where we’ll look at file-based images versus sector-based images. We’ve already done the tools primer and defined the terms again in the last blog post. Now we actually get some real work done by comparing the “tried-and-true approach” of sector-based images that most of us (including me) have grown up with and the relatively newer approach of composing installations with “builds” at deploy time using file-based “core images” (I defined the terms in quotes in the first blog of the series in case you are wondering why I used quotes). Beware, this blog doesn’t have any pictures or pretty screenshots.

I want to be true to real feedback and experiences here and the definition for ImageX in the TechNet Library kind of does that, but it also doesn’t really highlight the benefits of sector-based images. This is a pros and cons article and I’ll start with the Microsoft-defined benefits (or “pros”) of the file-based imaging tool, ImageX then move to sector-based images. The “cons” are really described in the paragraphs as I explain the “pros” – I’ll save a nice table comparing everything for the next and last post in the series.

Benefits of ImageX

The limitations of sector-based imaging led Microsoft® to develop the ImageX tool and the accompanying Windows image (.wim) file format. You can use ImageX to create an image, to modify the image without extracting and recreating the image, and to deploy the image to your environment. Because ImageX works at the file level, it provides the following capabilities:

• More flexibility and control over the deployed media.
• Rapid extraction of images to decrease setup time.
• Reduced image size due to “single instancing”, which means that the file data is stored separately from the path information. This enables files that exist in multiple paths or in multiple images to be stored once and shared across the images.
• Non-destructive image application. The ImageX tool does not perform an all-inclusive overwrite of the contents of your drive. You can selectively add and remove information.
• The ability to work across any platform supported by Windows.
• Two different compression algorithms, Fast and Maximum, to reduce your image size further.
• The ability to treat an image file like a directory. For example, you can add, copy, paste, and delete files from a file management tool, such as Windows Explorer.

Many OEMs and corporations need to deploy and install Windows as rapidly as possible, including all relevant updates, applications, and settings. Reduced deployment and installation time lower manufacturing costs for OEMs, and can decrease cost and scheduling risks for corporate deployments.

Is all of this really so one-sided though? Let’s look at each of the bullets individually and see what a typical naysayer would respond with.

• More flexibility and control over the deployed media. 
  • I actually agree with this one, but… you do need some expertise in creating the deployed media and figuring out stuff like how to inject drivers real-time to make sure the hardware you’re targeting installs as desired. Truth is if you haven’t been sysprepping and are creating an image per hardware class or HAL, then ImageX will build an image that will install on like hardware or HAL as with the sector-based tools you might be using. Problem with that is that you can’t guarantee those images will move from device-to-device. The file outputted by ImageX is also serviceable offline, so you can mount it like an ISO file and start adding or removing stuff from it. The Windows 7 image files even have providers to enumerate drivers, packages (updates, hot fixes and language packs) and features – so you don’t need to do things like mount registry hives and add files then change registry values – offline servicing does that work as part of the process.
• Rapid extraction of images to decrease setup time.
  • This isn’t really a fair comparison with the sector-based tools. I’ve seen sector-based images come down and apply quite quickly. Where the time savings are really visible here are when you compare a WIM-based setup or apply versus an unattended setup with the good ‘ol “I386” folder in Windows XP source media. Even though Windows XP Pro x86 source media is a paltry 600MB or so compared to Windows 7 Enterprise media of 2.25GB, Windows 7 will usually install faster – you wouldn’t think that was possible with almost three times the file size, but try it. So if a retail image from the Windows 7 DVD takes about 20 minutes to install, Windows XP might take 25 minutes on the same hardware, but I’ve seen sector-based images lay down in 15 minutes or less with a sysprep specialization pass included. Speed is actually the key advantage of the sector-based image, so I’ll actually give this bullet to the sector-based imaging side.
• Reduced image size due to “single instancing”, which means that the file data is stored separately from the path information. This enables files that exist in multiple paths or in multiple images to be stored once and shared across the images. 
  • That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? I don’t see this as a real advantage unless you are appending image WIM files to a master WIM file. Windows 7 Ultimate media has up to five images in the same WIM file and we can select the SKU we install based on the image index number we apply with ImageX. That helps in cases where you may be using multiple image and appending them together (might make sense in multi-language environments or when you have a mix of Professional and Enterprise), but if you have a standard set of apps for every user, they all get an X86 image and they all have drivers we manage, then there really isn’t a huge need to append image files. We’ll call this benefit then a wash for most customers.
• Non-destructive image application. The ImageX tool does not perform an all-inclusive overwrite of the contents of your drive. You can selectively add and remove information. 
  • Now we’re talking! If I apply a sector-based image to a drive with data, that data is gone. “Yeah, but I like to format my drive anyway to ensure a ‘clean install’.” That’s fine, but if you need user data from the drive you’re applying the sector-based image to, be prepared to deal with the laws of physics and bus and network speeds to pull that data off the drive and then eventually put it back on. That means refresh and break/fix rebuild scenarios just got several hours longer in many cases. Now if I use a WIM file, I can apply it to a drive with data on it – yes, it’s true. That means I keep the user data on the same volume I am applying the WIM image to – or in other words save those hours of time it took to move the data off. “But won’t the drive be fragmented when we’re done?” Maybe, it will defrag itself once a week and we can force one if we really want to when we’re done. 

    If it helps, think of the outcome you might get if you used Robocopy to apply the entire set of operating system image files with their attributes to a hard drive with files and folders already present. Then why doesn’t Robocopy by itself work? What if I was willing to give up the compression and single-instancing that ImageX and WIMs give me? I was on this great email thread a few months ago with two personal heroes of mine, Michael Niehaus and Mark Russinovich. We were trying to figure out the best way to move files from a larger VHD container to a smaller VHD container. Robocopy will keep file attributes and almost do this but it doesn’t handle short filenames (aka 8.3 filenames) in all cases. So let’s say I have a “jeremy~1.xml” and a “jeremy~2.xml” file, it’s possible that Robocopy will reverse those and turn “jeremy~1.xml” to “jeremy~2.xml” and vice-versa during the file copy. NTFS file systems have had native support for long file names for many years, but there are still many applications that will rely on short filenames and we don’t want to break any applications.

• The ability to work across any platform supported by Windows. 
  • A sector-based image isn’t really limited here either, sure the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) may need to be rebuilt and hooks into the Windows Recovery Environment re-established, but this can generally be done with either WIM file-based image installs or sector-based image installs. I’ll call this benefit slightly favorable to a file-based image though just because we can mount images across Windows client and server platforms and versions and peruse them using Windows Explorer or CMD.
• Two different compression algorithms, Fast and Maximum, to reduce your image size further. 
  • I’ve never put much thought to this feature and tend to select “Fast” – in somewhat thin image environments, I don’t see a huge difference in size. The compression in general is a great thing and helps keep the size of images and image repositories in check. Advantage goes to file-based images based on compression alone (and single-instancing if used), but I’m not seeing a lot of people overly excited about two different levels of compression.
• The ability to treat an image file like a directory. For example, you can add, copy, paste, and delete files from a file management tool, such as Windows Explorer. 
  • This is pretty cool. The image itself isn’t a black box file, so you can mount it and add or remove things in it. I’ve already written about this at length. To be fair, there are explorer tools for the common sector-based images to view image contents and sometimes extract individual folders or directories. These tend to work with the FAT and FAT32 file systems for editing – which is fine until you need to add something to an NTFS image. Most images from Windows XP forward are going to be NTFS, so the limitation to not add things to an NTFS offline image is a major limitation. It basically means you need to build the machine again, configure it and recapture. Not necessarily a fun or fast operation.

What about benefits of a sector-based image? 

I’m not writing this blog to say that sector-based imaging is always bad. Like I always say, a good IT pro will answer just about every question with “It depends…” and this is no different. The thing I have been thinking about lately is how closely the advantages of sector-based images mirror those of thick images. Let’s explore the advantages of sector-based images.

• Sector-based images apply faster. 
  • I won’t disagree here, but many of the same factors apply to the sector-based image as the file-based image. How good is the network connection to the imaging server and NIC? How big is the image? Is there data to migrate and restore before and after the machine is (re)imaged? On bare metal installs, a sector-based image (or even a thick file-based image) is often going to be faster than a file-based image or a build that adds applications and other configurations outside of core image. This makes a lot of sense in manufacturing, bare metal installs where every machine needs the identical image and cases in companies where few languages are spoken and applications requirements are extremely static and consistent across all users in the company. The biggest problem is you can’t really service it offline, so builds and recaptures may be much more common than with thin or thick file-based images. That said, I’ll give the sector/thick file-based image the advantage in build speed.
• Sector-based images are guaranteed to work when moving from like machine to like machine. 
  • The sector copying process doesn’t really care about things like files, their attributes or whether they are corrupted. ImageX and copying mechanisms tend to be affected by irregularities with files in the image. That is good and bad. It ensures that captured and applied images have files in good states, but it won’t clone a system where you might be willing to live with files in a bad state. Backup and restore mechanisms need this quality and things like the Volume Shadow Copy service in Windows relies on this as well to capture a sector view of the machine, regardless of the state of the files. This does provide a sort of “guarantee” that it will work if it was captured on the same hardware.
• Sector-based images are good for cloning hard drives when replacing or moving to larger/faster hard drives.
  • I won’t argue that. ImageX was designed and scoped for imaging and not as a complete PC backup and restore mechanism. It assumes things like the PC to be captured is in a good state, isn’t domain-joined and has been prepared for cloning by sysprep. On the other hand, a sector-based tool doesn’t really care if the preparation steps have been taken, so you basically capture the image of any hard drive and apply that to another, resize partitions accordingly and you can replace or upgrade your hard drive (or keep it backed up). “Backup and Restore” in Windows 7 does a really good job of system and directory level backups on a machine-by-machine basis. This is actually a sector-based (and extremely thick) VHD image created using the Volume Shadow Copy service.
• Sector-based imaging tools have multicast and file-based tools do not. 
  • Wrong. I threw that in there because it is a perception like image application speed that people often wrongly assume. File-based images can be multicast, but your deployment server needs to be running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Multicast capability was a huge differentiator for third party tools for a long time and I still hear people say it can’t be done with WIM files. Not true, it can and the Windows Servers that can do it often already exist in your environment, you’ve already paid for them and can use them, or they tend to be cheaper than third party image deployment servers with multicast capabilities (if you haven’t already acquired them).

Closing thoughts for Part 2 of ‘Improving Your Image…’ 

I’ve written a bit more than I had planned in part 2 of the series, but I think it is valuable and hopefully you find it unbiased. You should start to see cases where file and sector-based images will make the most sense. Part 3 will be about build automation and I’ll build a table with recommendations for scenarios when sector-based, file-based thin and file-based thick images make the most sense. You can start to extract that from above and draw your own conclusions, but we haven’t really hit on the fun part yet of automation and task sequences. That stuff really changes the game and even if you are a good scripter and insist on using sector-based images for everything, there is a ton of value you can get from a task sequencer even when used for post-OS-install per-user customization. Stay tuned, I promise it will all be clear after part 3.

Goodbye for now,
Jeremy Chapman
Windows Deployment

Jeremy Chapman who has contributed many pieces to this blog starts a multipart series on the benefits of using package based imaging tools.

Welcome to blog number one in the series of imaging and image composition. Last week, Stephen kicked off the series in the Springboard Series Insider Newsletter and I’ll try to get through this in three or four blog posts, but the nature of this discussion can almost be constituted as a religion. In that sense, there is never a perfectly correct answer. Like any good IT pro, when someone asks a question like what is the best way to do imaging, manage drivers, etc. – you’ll typically want to respond with “it depends.”

Before we get started, we need to define a few terms again around imaging before we go too far:

• Core image – This is the core of what you are building, sysprepping and capturing to clone onto other computers. In Windows and ImageX terms, this is only the WIM file and doesn’t include the unattend file or related commands, scripted installs outside of the WIM, etc.
• Build – This is a somewhat new idea and it consumes the core image. A build includes all automation before, during and after image creation or image application. The build includes components external to the WIM file (drivers, applications, and packages), scripts, task sequence logic and anything else it takes to automate an end-to-end scenario. 

• Thick Image – a core image capture of a fully-configured reference computer with lots of applications, packages, updates and other customizations
• Thin Image – a core image with very few customizations and additional applications. Sometimes this is exactly the image file as Microsoft ships it in-box or the image with only approved Windows updates applied. Customizations will be layered on at install-time for applications, packages and drivers.
• Hybrid Image – a core image with a balance of core applications (typically things needed by 80% or more users) + updates and small size. Many custom configurations are still layered on at install time.
• Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) – these are the files in between the hardware and Windows kernel that determine how Windows interacts with the hardware. This is important because Windows XP and earlier operating system images were HAL-dependent and HALs could not be switched in a supported way.
• File-based Image – this image type copies the reference computer’s file system at the file-level and is therefore non-destructive when applying to image to a volume with files present. That means, you can apply a file-based image to a volume that has files on it and expect those files to still be there after the image is applied.
• Sector-based Image – this image type copies the reference computer’s file system at the disk sector level and is destructive to existing files on the volume it is applied to. In this case, once you begin to apply the image to a volume with files, those pre-existing files will be lost.
• Windows Image Format (WIM) file – this is the file-based image format from Microsoft, which incorporates compression, appending of multiple images to a single WIM file, and single-instancing of files when multiple WIM files are appended.
• System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) – this tool is used in imaging to generalize an installed computer and prepare the volume for cloning. This tool is run from a non-domain joined PC and deletes user profiles, resets the activation state and the hardware profile for reinstallation on other systems.

If you’ve been using sector-based images for a while, the first and sometimes most difficult concept to get used to is that you can apply an image to a volume with files already present without harming or deleting those files. This really comes into play when you want to migrate user files from an old operating system version or corrupted copy of Windows to the new image. We can leave the files in place on the volume and apply the operating system image around them. For a computer refresh (where we rebuild a machine and keep user data local on the drive), we can save a ton of time by not having to transfer user data off the machine or volume before the image application and avoid spending even more time bringing user data back afterwards.

The other thing to get used to is that the WIM file is basically a compressed file container. Imagex is a free utility included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit and allows you to create, append, mount and unmount WIM files. When Imagex is used to capture an image, think of it being similar to using Robocopy to copy files from the drive you are capturing into a container – like a cabinet (CAB), VHD or ZIP file. WIM then goes further by letting you merge multiple containers into one and a database then maps the files across multiple merged containers to ensure that each file within is single-instanced whenever possible. If you ever wondered why a Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD can install up to eight different operating system types, it is because seven of them have been appended to the original image capture and because the files within are so similar and each is single-instanced whenever possible, that image can stay around 3GB – even though it represents eight unique operating system images appended into one WIM file.

Sysprep is the last tool I’ll cover in this initial post. Sysprep in Windows XP and earlier was delivered as an INF file and in Windows Vista and newer (including Windows Server) as an in-box executable file. In both cases Sysprep can generalize the image and prepare the system for cloning. It can also prepare a system for Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE), which essentially resets Windows to the state it would be when purchasing a Windows PC from a retailer – all necessary drivers are still in-place and the user is prompted to input account, locale, time zone and related information. When using Sysprep, you should not join the machine to a domain and rather opt for a Workgroup.

Sysprep is now located in the %windir%\system32\sysprep folder. There you will find a couple of things, the language folder – which determines the UI language for Sysprep – and the “Panther” folder – which includes the logs from the Windows Setup engine.

You would typically run Sysprep in the command line and use either the /generalize or the /oobe switch, depending on what you are doing. For imaging, this is most likely be the /generalize switch with the /shutdown switch and possibly point to an unattend file via /unattend:unattendpath. The User Interface for Sysprep lets you run the general commands (except for the /unattend and /quiet switches). 

Of note here as well is the /audit switch – accessed also from the upper drop-down menu in the UI above. With Audit Mode, you can Sysprep the Windows installation and then re-enter the machine in a “Sysprepped” state and configure the system further prior to capturing the system image for cloning.

Now we’ve covered the main terms and the Windows utilities. I wanted to highlight a couple of related videos we’ve created on TechNet.

• Preparing an Image using Sysprep and ImageX
• Capture the Customized Windows Installation
• Deployment Image and Servicing Management

In the next blog, I’ll go into the pros and cons of different image and build types. Stay tuned and thanks for reading,

Jeremy Chapman
Windows Deployment

The new Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 is now available for download! MAP 5.0 is an agentless tool designed to simplify and streamline the IT infrastructure planning process across multiple scenarios through network-wide automated discovery and assessments. This Solution Accelerator performs an inventory of heterogeneous server environments and provides you with usage information for servers in the Core CAL Suite and SQL Server, SQL Server 2008 discovery and assessment for consolidation, Windows 2000 Server migration assessment, and a readiness assessment for the most widely used Microsoft technologies—now including Office 2010.

What’s new in MAP 5.0?

• Heterogeneous server environment inventory – Know what’s in your IT environment. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit performs a network inventory of IT assets remotely without the use of agents, identifying heterogeneous server environments consisting of Windows Server and Linux operating systems, including those running in a virtual environment. MAP 5.0 also automates the discovery of Linux-powered LAMP stacks.
• Software usage tracking for Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server, and SQL Server – Right-size your IT environment with MAP Toolkit 5.0, and simplify your software license management and compliance processes. MAP 5.0’s new usage tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for key Microsoft server products: Windows Server, SharePoint Server, System Center Configuration Manager, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. Run updated reports whenever you need to accurately assess current software usage and client access history in your environment. This reduces time and administrative costs for managing your server and client access licenses (CALs) and helps you to streamline the management of your software assets.
• Microsoft Office 2010 readiness assessment – Streamline your migration to Office 2010 with MAP 5.0’s hardware compatibility proposal document. The MAP Toolkit provides readiness details and specifics of your IT infrastructure inventory, including hardware and OS requirements and upgrade recommendations for planning a seamless deployment of Office 2010. The actionable recommendations and assessments presented shorten the time it takes to plan your Office 2010 migration and prepares your IT environment for Office 2010 deployment and migration scenarios.
• SQL Server discovery and assessment for consolidation – MAP 5.0’s new database discovery feature gives you the information you need to optimize your database resources and investments. MAP helps you simplify database administration and provides wide-ranging details of databases and server instances—information you can utilize for consolidation. Use the MAP Toolkit’s proposals to better utilize hardware and database resources, reduce administrative costs, and streamline your software licensing needs—all essential for cost-effective IT planning and operations.
• Windows 2000 Server migration assessment – As support for Windows 2000 Server ends soon, MAP 5.0’s Migration Assessment feature helps you prepare for migration to Windows Server 2008 R2 by assessing the Windows 2000 Server environment and legacy workloads in the form of proposals and reports. The MAP Toolkit’s actionable recommendations help you to understand the potential business impact of maintaining legacy workloads and the benefits of migrating to the robust Windows Server 2008 R2 environment. With migration to Windows Server 2008 R2, you’ll be able to utilize the increased IT flexibility and efficiency from such technologies as Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services, as well as tap into power-savings features to decrease TCO.

Is your organization spending valuable resources planning its IT infrastructure? Download the MAP Toolkit 5.0, and let this tool do the heavy lifting for a wide variety of your IT planning projects.

• Download the MAP 5.0 Toolkit.
• Checkout the MAP Overview DEMO
• Check out the Springboard Series on TechNet Pilot and Deploy Zone for more info on MAP, ACT, MDT and other Solutions Accelerator Tools!
• Check out the great video series our friends at TechNet Edge did on MAP:
  • Part 1- Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0: Overview
  • Part 2 – Office 2010
  • Part 3 – Windows Server 2008 R2 consolidation
  • Part 4 – Database Discovery for SQL
  • Part 5 – Heterogeneous Server Environment Inventory
  • Part 6 – Software Usage Tracker

Over the past few months, we have talked quite a bit about the MDT 2010 Beta (Your Adding Office 2010 to MDT 2010 Environment Questions Answered!, Your Building a LiteTouch Bootable USB Image Questions Answered!, and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1 – Now in Beta Release!) We are very pleased to announce the the RTM of MDT 2010 Update 1 is now available.

If you’re making the move to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and/or Office 2010, you need tools and guidance to help you through the process. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010, a free Solution Accelerator, is designed to fill that need. The latest MDT 2010 Update 1 release, now available for download, offers something for everyone:

For System Center Configuration Manager 2007 customers:

• New “User Driven Installation” deployment method. An easy-to-use UDI Wizard allows users to initiate and customize an OS deployment on their PCs that’s tailored to their individual needs.
• Support for Configuration Manager R3 “Prestaged Media.” For those deploying Windows 7 and Office 2010 along with new PCs, a custom OS image can easily be loaded in the factory and then customized once deployed.

For Lite Touch Installation:

• Support for Office 2010. Easily configure Office 2010 installation and deployment settings through the Deployment Workbench and integration with the Office Customization Tool.
• Improved driver importing. All drivers are inspected during the import process to accurately determine what platforms they really support, avoiding common inaccuracies that can cause deployment issues.

For all existing customers:

• A smooth and simple upgrade process. Installing MDT 2010 Update 1 will preserve your existing MDT configuration, with simple wizards to upgrade existing deployment shares and Configuration Manager installations.
• Many small enhancements and bug fixes. Made in direct response to feedback received from customers and partners all around the world, MDT 2010 Update 1 is an indispensible upgrade for those currently using MDT (as well as a great starting point for those just starting).
• Continued support for older products. MDT 2010 Update 1 still supports deployment of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Office 2007, for those customers who need to be able to support these products during the deployment of Windows 7 and Office 2010.

So make sure to Download MDT 2010 Update 1 from the Microsoft Download Center. Looking for more information?

• Make sure to visit both the MDT site as well as the the Deployment area on the Springboard Series on TechNet.
• Check out
  • How Do I: Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Using MDT 2010?
  • Deployment Workbench in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010
  • Video Demonstration: Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7
  • MDT 2010 Print-Ready Documentation
• Ask questions, post answers, and share your insights in the MDT Forum.

Let us know your thoughts on MDT and how moving from image based deployment to package based deployment has saved you time and money.

This weeks post is the part two to the Your Building a LiteTouch Bootable USB Image Questions Answered! post from 6/21. Big thanks to Jeremy Chapman from the Windows Product Team and Brian Shiers from the Microsoft Office team for the assist.

Over the last couple of weeks at TechEd and from folks who participated in the Bus Tour, we were consistently getting the same question, “How do I add Office 2010 Professional Plus to my MDT 2010 Update 1 Beta environment?” The good news is that most of it is documented in the help files of MDT 2010. With this MDT release adding Office 2010 support, however, there is little additional documentation explaining the differences compared to Office 2007. The description below is actually derived straight from the MDT help files, but I added a few screenshots and go to explain the “Office Products” tab that lights up in MDT once you add Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 to the Deployment Workbench. MDT provides you access to leverage the Office customization features in a single deployment console.

The first step is to get MDT 2010 Update 1 Beta from Microsoft Connect. If the link doesn’t work for you, you may need to create an account first. MDT 2010 Update 1 is in the “Solution Accelerators” program. There is a “Security Solution Accelerators” program, too, with great content, but don’t confuse it like I did the first time for the “Solution Accelerators” one. Once you are in there, you can download MDT 2010 Update 1 in both x64 and x86 versions, or print-ready documentation here.

This is what you’ll find about importing applications in the help files of the Deployment Workbench (minus screenshots):

MDT 2010 allows you to use the New Application Wizard in the Deployment Workbench to create new applications that are deployed from the deployment share. The New Application Wizard copies source files for this type of applications to the deployment share.

To create a new application that is deployed from the deployment share

1. Click Start, and then point to All Programs. Point to Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and then click Deployment Workbench.
2. In the Deployment Workbench console tree, go to Deployment Workbench/Deployment Shares/deployment_share/Applications (where deployment_share is the name of the deployment share to which the application will be added).
3. In the Actions pane, click New Application.
4. The New Application Wizard starts.
5. Complete the New Application Wizard.

Information for Completing the New Application Wizard

The New Application Wizard finishes. The application is added to the list of applications in the details pane in the Deployment Workbench.

Now that Office 2010 is imported, you can do a few things specific to Office 2007 and 2010 – these items are not called out specifically as Office 2010 items in the help files of the Deployment Workbench. After Office has been imported into Deployment Workbench, then right-click the application and click properties:

Now click on the “Office Products” tab and you will see this:

If you select “ProPlus” from the drop down menu called “Office product to install”, it will enable the fields below:

Note the Office product to install is based on the source files you have initially provided in the setup of the application in MDT. ProPlus and Standard are the 2 volume license skus you typically see available here depending on the source

The Office Products tab is essentially a graphical user interface to adjust settings in the Office config.xml file. Here you see the display level for the installation window, you can set according to your preference (I prefer none, meaning Office will install invisibly with no progress screen, but that is up to you), choose languages (they will match the OS language by default, otherwise English), accept the EULA automatically so it doesn’t interrupt the automated process and suppress reboot.

Many of these settings plus many more can be controlled with the Office Customization Tool (OCT), you can see the full list of OCT configuration options here. MDT provides you direct access to invoke the OCT. You can use the OCT to customize which components and features of Office are configured upon installation. You can create role specific MSP packages to customize your application to meet your specific user group needs. For example, I can give Finance roles Excel, PowerPoint and Word, marketing roles just PowerPoint and Word, and sales roles Access, PowerPoint and Word. The MSP files you generate are automatically stored in the Updates folder of the Office source directory.

Office also automatically installs items in the Updates folder in its source directory, so in the future you can simply drop the update files into that location and they will install automatically with Office for each new MDT-based installation. If you create more than one MSP file for multiple roles, you would normally store them in a different location and use admin files to determine which MSP is applied to each installation.

The Office Customization Tool also lets you dictate the type of activation (Key Management Service [KMS] or a Multiple Activation Key [MAK]), the Product Key field from the Office Products tab can be used for a MAK key, but it is not obfuscated in the deployment control files and could be discovered easily if media-based deployment materials are lost or stolen. KMS is the recommended activation approach for medium-to-large organizations (same for Windows activation, too), learn more about Office 2010 activation here.

An optional area to look at if you are using Office Communicator or Live Meeting, you can set application dependencies in MDT to require for example that Office 2010 is installed prior to those applications being installed.

Above, I have just right-clicked on an Office Communicator application, opened Properties, then the Dependencies tab. If I click Add, I will see a list of applications in my application store and can select Office 2010 from the list. This means that if you select to install Office Communicator without selecting Office 2010, it will select it for you. Another option is to use an application bundle to group all related Office Products in the correct installation sequence. That will mean that you will only see one entry in the application selection list in the Lite Touch Installation wizards at install time. You can even use these approaches for Office add-ins and other related applications – they just need a silent install command.

Once you’ve gone through these steps, you should have a working and automated build. This should hopefully get you started with Office 2010 integration in your MDT environments. There is always more you can customize and configure and more in the Office and MDT documentation I’m not covering.

If you are working with MDT or any of the deployment tools and have questions or suggestions for content that you just cannot find in the documentation, let us know and we will try to answer the more popular ones with posts like these.

Hello, I’m Olivia Riley Cornejo, and starting today I’ll be blogging about the experiences some of our commercial customers (large and small) are having in their Windows 7 deployments. Hopefully their stories will help answer questions you may be having about migrating to Windows 7 in your own environment and inspire you to try it for yourself. Oh, and you can follow me on Twitter @ORCornejo.

The first customer I’d like to highlight is Feeding America, a hunger-relief charity with food banks across the United States. I’m sure you’ve heard of the amazing work they do to help feed millions of people every year. As you can imagine, this great work also has the potential to be quite challenging logistically without the right equipment. The organization turned to Windows 7 to help maximize productivity and give employees more time to focus on their job instead of focusing on how they’ll do their jobs.

With more than 4,000 employees across a network of over 200 food banks and a national office, Feeding America can’t afford to be bogged down with endless IT issues. With Windows 7’s ease of use, Feeding America can focus on what really matters – getting food to people in need. The Feeding America team tells me that Windows 7 has been easy for employees to understand quickly, and the IT department doesn’t receive a lot of “how do I do this?” questions. The collective favorite feature is Snap – Feeding America employees like being able to compare documents side by side.

Patrick Whalen, the IT Infrastructure Manager for Feeding America, is pleased with the deployment and loving the benefits of Windows 7:

I absolutely recommend Windows 7 for other non-profit organizations. It doesn’t have needy hardware requirements and can run on older machines so it’s very affordable.

Because the reception and deployment have been so successful, Feeding America just received approval to deploy Windows 7 across 20 additional food banks next year. Here at Microsoft, we’re hoping that having the latest and greatest in technology will really allow them to be as efficient as possible and help even more people.

Especially right now, it’s more important than ever to donate to Feeding America with kids out of school for the summer and some not getting the full meals they received during the school year. I just donated online and it takes less than a minute!

To learn more about Feeding America’s deployment experience with Windows 7, read Microsoft’s case study.

We’ve been talking about the value that Windows 7 Professional brings to small businesses for a while, including productivity benefits that can help businesses save time and money. Today we’d like to share some details from an IDC White Paper sponsored by Microsoft worldwide research study, which explores the business value and return on investment (ROI) of Windows 7 for small and midsize businesses.

The study found that both end-users and IT managers reported faster reboots, shorter start-up times and fewer software failures with Windows 7 than previous versions of the operating system. Additionally, the research found that the majority of users reported significant time savings associated with many of the new features.

IDC’s research team conducted qualitative case study interviews, quantitative end user and IT manager surveys, and used an ROI model for Windows 7 deployment to generate their results. Through the Windows 7 ROI analysis and the end-user survey, research showed Windows 7 deployment resulted in positive changes in all measured categories, ultimately saving businesses time and money.

Researchers found the payback to companies started just after seven months and a return on investment of 375 percent. It showed that each user saves an average of about 43 hours, or $1,400 total benefit per PC, annually.

We’re happy to find that Windows 7 is helping small and midsize businesses work more efficiently and we’re thankful to all of the businesses out there that helped us develop Windows 7 Professional for you! If you want to find out more about how Microsoft and Windows 7 is helping small and midsize businesses, please visit us at the Windows for Small and Midsize Business site. If you have time, drop us a line and let us know how Windows 7 Professional is working for you.

I have a couple of things to tell you about today. First off, we are excited to announce that Windows 7 has sold 150 million licenses to-date. As I’ve said before, Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history with 7 copies of Windows 7 sold every second. Earlier this month, I published a post about Tami Reller’s keynote at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. Technology Conference. One of the points that stood out for me was her comment that between companies actively deploying and evaluating it, approximately 75% of enterprises are looking at Windows 7 for their organization. That’s amazing! And of course people continue to be excited about the features and benefits of Windows 7, and the PCs that our partners are delivering for Windows 7. You can read about many of the awesome Windows 7 PCs from my colleague Ben Rudolph (Ben the PC Guy) over on the Windows Experience Blog.

One of the things that people love about Windows 7 is how seamlessly it works with Windows Live, our free apps for sharing, photos, movies and communication. Starting tomorrow June 24th, we are releasing the beta versions of the new Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Sync. You can read more about this from the Windows Live Team on Inside Windows Live. Together, the new Windows Live Essentials combine the power of the PC and the reach of the cloud to enhance the Windows 7 experience. The way people connect and share with each other continues to shift toward the cloud and we recognize that. The PC continues to be the hub for important activities such as managing email, organizing photos, watching movies and listening to music. What the new Windows Live Essentials does is blends together the best of the PC with the best of the cloud. I’ll be posting my thoughts about Windows Live Essentials tomorrow.

During the Get On The Bus Tour, I did a demo using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 where I took a Windows XP machine with Office 2003 on it and migrated it to Windows 7 and Office 2010 in under 40 minutes. I have received several emails with questions on this presentation, so here are the answers to those questions.

What is MDT 2010 and how do I get it???

• Check out my post on the MDT 2010 here and information on how to access the latest version.

How do I build the image and use the tool?

• Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration Using MDT 2010?

• Part 1: Building the Deployment Environment
• Part 2: Initiating the Install and Migrating the PC

How do I build that bootable USB stick?

1. Based on the size of the content folder, acquire a USB drive that will store all of your files. (Remember, you can do everything by storing your deployment files on the network also and boot from the LiteTouchPEx86/x64.iso files – they are typically under 300MB)
2. Prepare the USB drive to be bootable
   1. Insert drive
   2. Open an elevated Command Prompt
   3. Type “diskpart.exe”
   4. Type “list disk” and find the disk number
   5. Type “sel disk 1” (replace the “1” with the actual number)
   6. Type “clean”
   7. Type “cre par pri”
   8. Type “active”
   9. Type “format fs=ntfs quick”
   10. Type “assign”
   11. Type “exit”
3. Now copy the content in the “content” folder to the root of the USB stick.
4. Now you should have a bootable USB stick with your image and custom build on it.

How can I view your Get On The Bus Tour presentation?

Thanks again to everyone who attended our Bus Tour events!

Microsoft is making several announcements at TechEd this week that developers should be sure to catch, like the introduction of our new Windows Phone Marketplace policies. We’re also providing more details about some developer features, one of which I think is worth exploring more closely; private beta distribution through Windows Phone Marketplace. This is noteworthy not only as a cool new Marketplace feature, but also as a prime example of Microsoft embracing the concept of the public and private cloud.

At MIX in March we talked about the Windows Phone Marketplace and the public distribution aspects of that infrastructure. We also stated our intent to deliver a system whereby developers will be able to distribute applications to beta testers prior to marketplace certification. This week we are able to talk about this capability in more detail.

The public model enables developers to market and distribute applications to all phone users globally or based on a particular geography.  In contrast the private model enables developers to use the same Marketplace service to distribute applications to a defined set of people that they select for beta-testing. Developers will identify their beta-testers and then upload their application to the developer portal. The Windows Phone application deployment system will then ensure that the application is available on the beta-tester’s phones via a “deep link” the tester will receive in email. We’ll be rolling this mechanism out as we finalize the developer portal this fall.

This private distribution for beta-testing represents an important first step for Windows Phone. Those of you who have heard me present on Windows Phone 7 know that I frequently speak of the importance that cloud services play in creating user experiences. Microsoft is a leading proponent of the “cloud” services that compliment local software, be that software on a server, desktop or phone. Cloud services are increasingly providing both public and private functions, whereby an organization can tap into a public service’s extensive storage, bandwidth and infrastructure for private projects. Windows Phone Marketplace is one such cloud service and our long term strategy is to adopt the public and private cloud model with Marketplace as well. Initially, we are enabling private distribution of applications for registered developers in a way that is optimized for beta-testers. This will enable developers to more easily distribute test applications in a secure way. We also appreciate that as phones come to market and people begin bringing them into corporate environments, IT will look for a similar private distribution solution. We are working with our corporate customers to understand the full scope of their distribution needs. We anticipate that our eventual corporate distribution solution will be an extension of the private cloud model we’re introducing for developers in Windows Phone Marketplace.

So we’re starting by implementing a feature to help developers test applications, but over time we’re going to build on this public and private cloud philosophy to make the Marketplace infrastructure accessible to corporate and business customers as well. This will create an even richer marketplace for the games and applications that already live there by attracting an even broader base of customers who will no doubt want more than line of business applications on their new Windows Phone 7.