Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments

Activation in Disconnected locations
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd981010.aspx

 Activation Planning Guide
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd878528.aspx


Build a better image
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff721826.aspx

USMT - Scanstate and Loadstate return codes
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd823291(WS.10).aspx

How to restore your personal files after you perform a custom installation of Windows Vista or of Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932912

Image X - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722145(WS.10).aspx

more imagex - capture hard drive http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744320(WS.10).aspx

GPO control for Active X
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd631688(WS.10).aspx

Updated list of setup options as you move from Office 2007 to 2010
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179018.aspx

Info on Windows Update agent aka WSUS client
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc720477(WS.10).aspx

XP to Windows 7 issues
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

System Center Info
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/suitetrials.aspx

No floppy - No problem - Copy the Autounattend.xml file to the root directory of a USB flash drive
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349348(WS.10).aspx

BCDedit

good tutorial on bcdedit http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html

A free BCDEDIT tool called EasyBCD - http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Great boot from VHD tutorial
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html

Ultimate list of Windows 7 guides http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/257-windows-7-tutorial-index.html

Best of ... Windows7 FAQ
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7desktop/thread/45799d0c-38f2-40fc-b42b-4b53ef7c798f

use image x to backup xp ...

Need a GUI for image x not a problem go here

untested myself but worth a repost from http://www.911cd.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=19355

I've been playing around with ImageX from the Windows AIK and can confirm that this is a kickass app. I try not to get too excited about software as my partner's already written me off as a sad geek, however this is really worth checking out. I won't post much about ImageX here as there's plenty of information about it in the WinPE user guide (and online) - check out these links if you want to find out more:


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista....

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/.....

The important stuff is basically that it is a file based backup solution, it (sort of) supports incremental backups and the output file(s) can be mounted and edited easilly.

The good news is ImageX works fine under BartPE - check out Malice's post in this thread here for a plugin (it's post #20).

I've just finished some testing on a fresh install of Windows XP. I booted into BartPE after the installation had completed, but before XP install had booted. The XP partition (C: under BartPE) was 1.22GB (including pagefile). I ran ImageX using the following code to backup XP:

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /capture c: d:\XP_backup.wim "XP_Master"

The output file d:\XP_backup.wim was 461MB - backup took approximately 3 minutes.

I then booted into the XP partition and added about 63MB of programs - then booted back into BartPE and re ran ImageX using:

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /append c: d:\XP_backup.wim "XP_01" /verify

The XP partition size was 1.89GB with the new programs (and pagefile), the backup took about 3 minutes again and d:\XP_backup.wim (now containing two images) was 514MB

I rebooted into XP and made a few changes - removed pagefile; turned off automatic updates, firewall and system restore; installed 3 hotfixes; switched to classic view and installed Office 2003 (just WORD and POWERPOINT). The new XP partition size was 1.34GB. I then rebooted into BartPE and appended another image using:

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /append c: d:\XP_backup.wim "XP_02" /verify

The backup took about 3 1/2 minutes and d:\XP_backup.wim (now containing three images) was 613MB

All of the images contained in XP_backup.wim restored successfully. Restoring was fairly straightforward - I reformatted the c: drive before applying (restoring) each image in XP_backup.wim. The disk does not need to be reformated however I didn't want any existing data leaving on the disk.

The main drawback with using ImageX is that the bootsector needs re-installing as only the files from the partition are copied and applied. This is not a major problem as Vista contains bootsect.exe which can reinstall XP's bootsector.

bootsect command (where e: is drive with Vista DVD)

CODE

e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 C:

ImageX command (where 1 is the image to apply)

CODE

IMAGEX.exe /apply d:\XP_backup.wim 1 c:

To apply the second image I ran IMAGEX.exe /apply d:\XP_backup.wim 2 c:, etc...

It took longer to format the c: drive than to apply the files from the images in XP_backup.wim. Just to make sure each image could be edited individually I then mounted the 1st image contained in XP_backup.wim and removed ntdetect.com, ntldr, boot.ini and about 400 drivers and commited the changes. I then formatted c:, used bootsect.exe and applied the 3rd image from the wim file - XP rebooted without any problems on the restored partition.

My experiance with backup software is admittedly pretty limited (I've never even seen a copy of ghost let alone tried using it) but I'm seriously impressed. ImageX is command line only so scripting backups shouldn't be a major problem. Oh, did I mention it's only 372KB + it's included in the WAIK which is free to download!

diddy