70-624 Quick Tips !!

pllegends

The 70-624 is a much more complex exam than the 70-620 in that it covers a lot of new tools and processes for Vista and Office 2007 deployment.
It covers Vista and Office 2007 deployment and migration scenarios. You must know the tools to use!! I am currently studying for this exam and I will begin sharing my review mini-lessons, which are derived from all the Microsoft websites, books,forums,etc I visit and read. In the meantime there is much material on the Microsoft website to help prepare.

Check out Windows Vista Virtual Labs to start practicing
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/vista.mspx

Check out the Top On-Demand Webcasts to learn deployment,Imaging and using BDD
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetvista.aspx? ab=webcasts

Check out Microsoft TechNet for Vista for Step-by-Steps guide and more
hxxp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/default.aspx

Check out Microsoft TechNet for Business Desktop Deployment
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx

Check out Microsoft TechNet for Office 2007 Deployment
hxxp://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/office/default.mspx

pllegends

Test Tips #1 Vista Deployments
If you have done deployments before you will be familiar with the use of images, network shares and the PE environment, if not, I will explain as we go along since Vista has new tools and processes for their Vista and Office deployments.
New Computer Installation
In a new computer installation, you will install Vista on new hardware, or install Vista on an existing computer, but not save any of the information currently on the computer. To do this you:
1. Modify the Vista image to add the necessary drivers and optional components.
2. Install this image on a test computer, and then add additional applications (i.e. Microsoft Office) and any additional configurations
3. Save the image onto a network share or removable medium (i.e. DVD)
4. Provide the medium to the user to install Windows Vista. You can also configure computers to automatically start using Windows PE and connect to the image in the network share to install Windows Vista
5. When the installation starts, the user is asked personalization questions and installation continues automatically. You can also use an answer file to perform a complete unattended installation.
Upgrading
If you are upgrading existing hardware to Windows Vista, you need to choose a new computer installation of Windows Vista when:
• No operating system exists on the computer.
• The installed operating system does not support an upgrade to Windows Vista.
• The computer has more than one partition and will support a multiple-boot configuration (Windows Vista and the current operating system).
In this scenario, all of the user settings and data will be preserved during the upgrade. The first three steps are the same. But in this scenario, the user is not asked any questions during the installation. Windows Vista Setup completes the installation by upgrading the user’s data, settings, and applications to the new Windows Vista desktop.
Windows Vista upgrades from Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, and Windows 2000 Professional, otherwise you need to choose a new computer installation.
Computer to Computer
To install Windows Vista on a new computer while still maintaining the user data and application settings from another computer, choose to use a computer-to-computer deployment.
1. Use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to gather data and settings from the old computer and store the information on a network location or on removable media.
2. Create the installation image using the new computer deployment installation.
3. Use the installation image with the settings and data from the old computer to install Windows Vista on the new computer. The installation is unattended, and the user data and settings are maintained on the new computer
You can use the USMT when migrating from computers running Windows 2000 or newer. You can migrate settings to new computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista.

pllegends

Test tips#2
Windows Imaging Format
Most medium-to-large organizations use an image-based deployment to deploy desktop operating systems. Vista uses Windows Imaging Format, a new hardware-independent image-file format that contains the files and folders that duplicate a Vista installation on a disk.
Windows Imaging Format has the following features:
• WIM does not require that the destination hardware match the source hardware so you need only one image to address many different hardware configurations. In the past, you needed the PC hardware configuration to be the same as the machine the image was created from. If you had different hardware setups, a different image had to be created. With WIM, you can create WIM files and then add drivers for other machines and hardware.
• WIM lets you store multiple images within one file. Each image can be extracted to make individual images, or you can leave it as one file. You store images with and without applications in a single image file. You can make one of the images bootable, if you want, allowing you to start a computer from a disk image contained in a WIM file.
• WIM enables compression and single instancing, reducing the size of image files. Single instancing allows you to store two or more copies of a file for the space cost of one copy.
• WIM allows you to service an image offline therefore you can add or delete system components, patches, and drivers without creating a new image. This means that you can update an image in minutes and service the image offline.
• WIM lets you install a disk image on partitions of any size, unlike other image formats that require you to deploy an image to a partition that is the same size or larger than the source disk.

With prior imaging solutions, adding new hardware, language packs, updates, and drivers usually required creating new images. To address this issue, Vista is modularized so that the setup file that installs the operating system is composed of multiple components rather than a single file. Modularization allows you to:
• Add device drivers, service packs, and updates to the image file used to deploy Vista. You can add these offline without actually installing the image on a computer.
• Update individual component in the installation image without recreating the entire image.
• Deploy multiple language versions of Windows Vista with a single image file. Languages, including English, are optional components and can be added separately

sthomas

Cool, thanks for the info!

gomcse2002

Many thanks for your useful tips.

pllegends

Test tip#3
Modifying installation
Vista is built and distributed as a single image with the WIM file format. You can customize Vista installations before you begin the actual installation and during the installation. You can modify the installation:
1. During the Offline servicing phase when updates are applied to a Windows image, before deploying it to a computer. Offline servicing applies service packs, language packs, and other security updates to a Windows image.
2. During the Windows PE phase which is used to configure Microsoft Windows PE options and basic Windows Setup options. These options include specifying the disk configurations, selecting the specific image to install, and the product key to apply.
3. During the Online configuration phase (generalize/specialize passes), these passes apply settings to Vista during installation. The generalize pass is used to configure basic operating system components. The specialize pass applies system-specific information.
4. During the optional First boot phase (auditSystem/auditUser passes), this is run only if you start using audit mode. It is optional and runs only if you use Sysprep to start using audit mode. Audit mode is used to install additional device drivers or other applications that cannot be installed as part of the Setup. The auditSystem configuration pass processes settings before a user logs on to the system, and the auditUser configuration pass processes settings after a user logs on to the system.
5. Out of box experience (OOBE) phase (oobeSystem pass) applies settings to Windows before an end user logs on. During this pass, the user will accept the end-user license agreement (EULA), configure the computer name and user accounts, and configure network connectivity and regional settings. This pass is the only configuration pass exposed to an end user.

pllegends

Test tip#4

Planning a Vista deployment
1. The first step is to identify all applications that are currently in place.
2. After you have inventoried all of the applications, analyze the applications to see if they work on Vista. Microsoft has for download, the Application Compatibility Toolkit (5.0) to help you analyze the applications and migrate the applications to Windows Vista.
3. Decide for each application whether to migrate the application or make it Vista compatible, if they currently are no.
4. Determine what user settings and data to migrate. Windows Vista can move application settings, desktop settings, and data as part of an upgrade. Vista includes the User State Migration Tool (USMT) to assist you in migrating user-specific information.

These steps are just part of an aid/process that Microsoft has developed to assist you in planning, building, testing and deploying. The aid is called Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007. This is a collection of best practice guidance for all the necessary stages of the deployment process from a business viewpoint. This includes guides and project plans and the BDD 2007 tools and utilities, created by Microsoft, for deploying Microsoft Vista, Windows XP Professional and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.
BDD 2007 uses tools such as:
• Microsoft Deployment Workbench
• Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK)
• Windows PE 2.0
• Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0
• User State Migration Tool 3.0
• and Windows Deployment Services.
In the following posts I will go into further details about these tools.

pllegends

Test tips #4 continued

Vista implements User Account Protection, in which all users, including administrators, run in a limited user account. Administrators can run applications with their full privileges if they provide approval. This new security model means that some applications may not run on Vista. Microsoft has for download an Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0 which provides:
• The ACT Configuration Wizard, which guides you through the initial configuration of your ACT project, database, and log processing service.
• Data collection abilities that enable you to gather your compatibility status information and configure your compatibility evaluator settings and schedule from one central location.
• Data analysis that enable you to view compatibility reports for your applications, computers, devices, Web sites, and Microsoft Windows Updates, to filter your reports for specific data, and save and export your reports.
• Data organization abilities that enable you to categorize and prioritize your application inventory, to select your application compatibility assessments, and to track your deployment status.
It has Compatibility evaluators specific to Windows Vista
It contains a data collection components, the Application Compatibility Toolkit Data Collector (ACT-DC) that enable you to maintain your evaluator scheduling, collect your compatibility data, and upload the compatibility issue data to your ACT database.
It includes developer and tester tools.
It also links you to the online ACT Community, where you can share your application compatibility testing information with other ACT Community members. Additionally, the ACT Community provides comprehensive compatibility assessment details including My Assessments, Community Assessments, and assessments from both Microsoft Corporation and the software or hardware vendor.
With ACT, you can:
• Analyze your portfolio of applications, Web sites, and computers.
• Evaluate operating system deployments, the impact of operating system updates, and your compatibility with Web sites.
• Centrally manage compatibility evaluators and configuration settings.
• Rationalize and organize applications, Web sites, and computers.
• Prioritize application compatibility with filtered reporting.
• Add and manage issues and solutions for your enterprise-computing environment.
• Deploy automated mitigations to known compatibility issues.
• Send and receive compatibility information from the Microsoft Compatibility Exchange

***For more specific information on ACT's components, use the search in Microsoft.com to download the ACT 5.0 Product Evaluation Guide.

pllegends

Test Tips#5
Know the User State Migration Tool
The User State Migration Tool (USMT) version 3.0 allows you to save and restore users’ settings (user accounts, desktop and application settings) and user files to minimize the time required to configure users’ computers after installing Vista. You can use it to perform unattended migrations and to migrate files and settings for computers with multiple users. You also have the ability to encrypt and compress the store. You can use it when migrating from computers running Windows 2000, or Windows XP. If you are performing an upgrade computer installation, you do not need to use USMT.
USMT includes two command-line tools:
• Running ScanState on the source computer collects and stores the user files and settings.
• Running LoadState on the destination computer restores these files and settings to the destination computer, using the store.

USMT 3.0 also has three default migration rule (.xml) files named MigApp.xml, MigUser.xml, and MigSys.xml. You can alter the default .xml files and you can also create customized .xml files. Depending on what you want to migrate, you can specify all or none of the default .xml files on the command line.
The .xml rules enable you to:
• Choose what to copy and what not to copy.
• Arbitrate conflicts between the source computer and destination computer.
• Change data and data locations.
• Emulate missing settings.
• Remove settings from the destination computer.
Windows Vista also provides an updated version of Files and Settings Transfer Wizard now called Windows Easy Transfer which provides a user interface to migrate user state from one computer to another.

I strongly recommend you check the Microsoft Windows Vista TechNet ,

hxxp://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/91f62fc4-621f-4537-b311-1307df0105611033.mspx?mfr=true

To learn the step by step on using the USMT 3.0 Tool and further details on its components

pllegends

Test tips #6
The Windows Automated Installation Kit
The Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) is designed to help original equipment manufacturers (OEM), system builders, and IT professionals deploy Windows onto new hardware. The WAIK includes deployment tools and documentation that describes the current methods, tools, and requirements for deploying Windows Vista:
• Windows Installation- is a collection of documents providing detailed information about how to deploy Windows Vista onto new hardware. This section is organized into five installation phases to help you build, deploy, and maintain your Windows Vista installations:
• Phase 1: Preinstallation Planning
• Phase 2: Preinstallation Preparation
• Phase 3: Preinstallation Customization
• Phase 4: Image Deployment
• Phase 5: Image Maintenance
• Deployment Tools Technical Reference-is a comprehensive technical discussion of the technologies used in the WAIK, including:
• Command-line tools.
• Windows Setup Technical Reference.
• Sysprep Technical Reference.
• XImage Technical Reference.
• Windows PE Technical Reference.
• Windows System Image Manager Technical Reference.
• Troubleshooting Installation Problems-is a collection of common problems and solutions.
• Glossary-is a collection of terms and definitions used in the WAIK.


Documentation included are the :
• Getting Started with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK), which provides instructions on building an end to end deployment.
• Windows Automated Installation Kit User's Guide (Waik.chm), which guides you through planning, preparing the environment, creating and customizing an image, capturing, modifying and testing the image and deploying, maintaining and servicing the image.
• Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) User's Guide (Winpe.chm), provides instructions on creating a customized version of Windows PE and Enabling PE to boot from different media.
• Unattended Windows Setup Reference (Unattend.chm), which provides coverage of all the customizable settings in the Unattend.xml file.
• Imaging APIs for Windows (Wimgapi.chm), provides coverage of all the Windows imaging APIs.
• Component Platform Interface (CPI) Reference (Cpiapi.chm), Documents the APIs used in Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM).

pllegends

Test tips#7
Windows System Image Manager

Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) is a tool used to create and manage unattended Windows Setup, XML-based answer files. The answer files are used to customize and automate the installation of Windows Vista. You can create an answer file by using information from a Windows image (.wim) file and a catalog (.clg) file. The answer file is used during Windows Setup to apply the settings to the Windows installation. It does not modify the settings in a Windows image file itself.
Usually, an administrator creates a catalog file that contains the configurable settings in a Windows image. You can open this catalog in WSIM to view the settings for the image. You can then add these settings to your answer file. You can choose when to apply a specific setting during Windows Setup by adding that setting to a particular configuration pass.
An answer file is associated with a specific Windows image. New component settings, packages and or other updates can be added to a configuration pass in the answer file. Using WSIM, you can open the Windows Image (or catalog), open the existing answer file, and then make the changes you want to the answer file. WSIM will validate the settings in the answer file against the settings available in the Windows image or catalog.
You can also add additional third party applications, out- of- box device drivers, additional language packs, service packs and other updates that you want to be installed during Windows Setup by using Windows SIM.. By opening a distribution share, you can view the complete list of the available out-of-box device drivers and applications that you can add to an answer file. Typically, these out-of-box drivers are processed during the auditSystem configuration pass.

pllegends

Test tips#8
Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM)
collection of tools that helps you prepare for migration to Office 2007.Included are:
-OMPM File Scanner (offscan.exe) is a command-line tool that scans files for conversion issues. The scan results are stored in XML log files on the computer it scans. The scanner does not scan documents that are password protected or IRM-protected. It also does not scan embedded objects within documents, but it does report that the document has embedded objects.
-Utilities that automate the creation of a new database (SQL 2000, 2005 or Express) and import the xml log files generated.
-there is a Access 2007 based reporting solution that provides reports for analysis and defines file sets for automated processing.
-Office File Converter (OFC) allows you to convert specific files to the new Office 2007release file formats in bulk. All computers that contain files to convert are required by the OFC to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack.
-Version Extraction Tool (VET) allows you to extract saved versions of a file in Word 2003 (or earlier) to different files.

pllegends

Test tips#9
The Deployment Workbench is a MMC snap-in to create and manage source files, distribution shares, and application installation parameters.
The components of BDD 2007 are :
-Distribution share, which is used to create and manage the distribution share containing source files related to the operating systems, applications, packages, and out-of-box drivers used in the deployment process.
-Builds, which are used to create and manage the various builds to be deployed
-Deploy, which provides the ability to configure various deployment methods.
You can:
Add the operating system source files
Add application source files
Add additional out of box drivers
Create and manage build configuration
Create a distribution/deployment point
The Deployment Workbench will also create custom PE based boot disks and organize workstation configurations on a group or individual basis.

pllegends

In Office 2007, Microsoft has added new file formats to Microsoft Office Word, Powerpoint, and Excel to enhance security, integration and reduce file size. Microsoft has developed an Office Compatibility Pack for these file formats that will allow you to exchange documents between Office 2007 and prior Office releases.
With this install to Office XP or Office 2003, you can open, edit, save and create files using the Open XML formats that is used in Microsoft Office 2007.
To install, first make sure your system is up to date (High-Priority/Required Updates from Microsoft Update).Then:
• Download the Compatibility Pack from Microsoft
• Doubleclick the FileFormatConverters.exe file to start the setup.
• Follow the on screen instructions.

pllegends

ImageX is a command-line tool used to create desktop images.With it you can create, edit and depoy an offline image without creating a new image for distribution. You can also take an image of an existing computer for distribution or for backup.
You can save the image to a distribution share.
You can use scripting tools to create and edit images.
ImageX is a free product, and available as part of Microsoft Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) as well as Microsoft's Business Desktop Deployment 2007