While this tip will only scratch the surface if you are planning to deploy a common Windows ‘image’ to multiple machines, a tool which is absolutely essential is Microsoft Sysprep. In a nutshell, this program converts the current Windows installation (in this case XP) to a generic/template state. After running Sysprep, when the machine reboots you will get a brief wizard which walks you through the process of assigning your computer a name and setting up the Windows Administrator account password.
I recently had to rebuild 15 training machines and instead of manually setting up each one, I simply built one install how I needed it and then imaged it to the other machines. My entire process was:
- From scratch, set up one machine exactly how I needed it. Install all programs, apply all the settings, create user accounts, etc.
- Use the Sysprep tool.
- Create an image of the ‘template’ machine’s hard drive (after Sysprep was run).
- Copy the image to the other machines.
- Start up each of the machines after the image was copied and walk through the Windows setup wizard.
- Done.
Using this method I was able to complete 15 machines in just about 1 day. Doing everything manually would have taken significantly longer.
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