Universal Windows 7 Image??

I have a base windows 7 build that i'd like to make a universal image that can be used on any computer. i have all the drivers which i got from driverpacks.net. How can i accomplish this? BTW i use Ghost as my imaging solution.
Aany help would be great thank you.....

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Stiltz79

Is this in a corporate environment?

Do you have WDS in your environment?

Why don't you setup an MDT Environment? Then not only can you deploy computers, but you can have automated tasks for Windows Update during the build, installing applications and joining domains. MDT is very powerful and can be configured to suit anyone's needs.

brad-

Stiltz79 wrote: »

Is this in a corporate environment?

Do you have WDS in your environment?

Why don't you setup an MDT Environment? Then not only can you deploy computers, but you can have automated tasks for Windows Update during the build, installing applications and joining domains. MDT is very powerful and can be configured to suit anyone's needs.

Side question, does MDT do a standalone or just networked computers? I cant seem to find any documentation on doing MDT w/ standalone. Im trying to do a side by side deployment but i need them to be offline.

OP, are you using ghost suite or the home version?

Akaricloud

Go look into sysprep's uses.

Essentially you can put all of the drivers you'd want in, run sysprep and then capture an image.

When you deploy it on the new machine it'll reload the appropriate drivers, reactivate licenses, ect.

This isn't the best solution but it can be quite useful still.

pzero

brad- wrote: »

Side question, does MDT do a standalone or just networked computers? I cant seem to find any documentation on doing MDT w/ standalone. Im trying to do a side by side deployment but i need them to be offline.

OP, are you using ghost suite or the home version?

You can create a "Media" kit (under Advanced Configuration, Media) where you can export all the tasks, selection profiles, drivers, applications etc to other media like USB/DVD etc.

I use MDT to create my gold image on a machine thats totally isolated from the production network. I then copy the media kit to USB to build machines.

higherho

Akaricloud wrote: »

Go look into sysprep's uses.

Essentially you can put all of the drivers you'd want in, run sysprep and then capture an image.

When you deploy it on the new machine it'll reload the appropriate drivers, reactivate licenses, ect.

This isn't the best solution but it can be quite useful still.

also make sure you do not use the generalize command in your sys prep if all systems are the same. If they are all the same systems then sys prep is great to use.

I have a master drive I keep updated and if I need a new image I run sysprep and then just get a duplicator and dupe the master to the slave drives and boom! many window 7 clients :0

waltdee

so far i have a fresh W7 image with some apps, also i downloaded windows 7 driverpack which includes all the drivers for all devices, and extracted the contents to c:\windows\inf\drivers, now i need to run sysprep. Do i select "generalize"? after running sysprep, and the machine restarts, do i boot to Ghost for instance, or do i need to let it boot back to windows to do anything else?

Akaricloud wrote: »

Go look into sysprep's uses.

Essentially you can put all of the drivers you'd want in, run sysprep and then capture an image.

When you deploy it on the new machine it'll reload the appropriate drivers, reactivate licenses, ect.

This isn't the best solution but it can be quite useful still.

waltdee

haha, i asked one question thats right here, thanks!

higherho wrote: »

also make sure you do not use the generalize command in your sys prep if all systems are the same. If they are all the same systems then sys prep is great to use.

I have a master drive I keep updated and if I need a new image I run sysprep and then just get a duplicator and dupe the master to the slave drives and boom! many window 7 clients :0

higherho

waltdee wrote: »

haha, i asked one question thats right here, thanks!

Np, I did it once and well all my drivers reverted on me. Here is good information on sysprep command line syntax.

Sysprep Command-Line Syntax

After you do the sys prep and it reboots you can turn your machine off. It should come up to the "Welcome to Windows 7 screen". now if you have like 100 clients + you might want to think of an easier way like MDT. Although I did this for 50 clients and it was not that bad. I duplicated fifteen 250 GIG drives at a time and completed the whole process in a week.

waltdee

Hi,

For some weird reason, i sysprep/generalize and select shut down, but everytime the machine reboot, it configures the compter for first use every time. Am i doing something wrong??

higherho wrote: »

Np, I did it once and well all my drivers reverted on me. Here is good information on sysprep command line syntax.

Sysprep Command-Line Syntax

After you do the sys prep and it reboots you can turn your machine off. It should come up to the "Welcome to Windows 7 screen". now if you have like 100 clients + you might want to think of an easier way like MDT. Although I did this for 50 clients and it was not that bad. I duplicated fifteen 250 GIG drives at a time and completed the whole process in a week.

SilverGenius

waltdee wrote: »

Hi,

For some weird reason, i sysprep/generalize and select shut down, but everytime the machine reboot, it configures the compter for first use every time. Am i doing something wrong??

Take a look at this guide, some helpful hints on how to accomplish a sysprep with Windows 7.
Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine ? Start to Finish - The IT Bros