Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Beta 2 - Now Available - PowerShell | Be What's Automated .. ™ - Site Home

I have been working extensively on Windows Deployment via MDT and Configuration and have also been involved in designing and delivering the Optimized Desktop Practice Accelerator Series which talks about Windows 7 and Office 2010 Deployment.

Today, I got an email confirming that MDT 2012, which was in Beta 1 earlier, has now been available in Beta 2. Here is an excerpt from the email.

Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is pleased to announce Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2012 Beta 2 is available for download on Connect now.

· New Connect members join the MDT 2012 Beta 2 program now. (Windows Live ID required)

· Existing Connect members bookmark this link to get the latest project details.

New features and enhancements make large-scale desktop and server deployments smoother than ever! For System Center Configuration Manager customers, MDT 2012 Beta 2 provides an improved, extensible wizard and designer for customizing deployment questions. MDT 2012 makes full use of the capabilities provided by System Center Configuration Manager 2012 for OS deployment. MDT 2012 integrates with
configuration templates from the Security Compliance Manager (SCM) tool to ensure a secure Windows installation from the beginning of the deployment.

Details

The latest version of MDT offers new User-Driven Installation components and extensibility for Configuration Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2012. MDT 2012 offers integration with the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolkit (DaRT) for Lite Touch Installation remote control and diagnostics. Beta users now also have the ability to migrate MDT 2012 task sequences from Configuration Manager 2007 to
Configuration Manager 2012. MDT 2012 offers improved support for Configuration Manager 2012 while still supporting Configuration Manager 2007. New monitoring capabilities for currently running deployments ease Lite Touch Installation through an improved deployment wizard user experience, and enhanced partitioning support ensures that deployments work regardless of the current structure.

I'm certainly excited about this and would give it a shot in my lab soon.

Happy Deployment! :)