So, another Windows Deployment BLOG... What the heck are we thinking? :)
Truthfully, we're working on figuring this out a way for everyone to have one central place to go. Until that time we'll drop a lot of (hopefully) interesting content here, ask questions, and cross-post with the other Bloggers on TechNet and elsewhere when there's interesting deployment stuff out there.
OK, now that that's out of the way… Who am I? Who else is here? What will we talk about?
Whose Blog is it anyway?
My name is Pat Azzarello, and I'm a Senior Program Manager in Windows, working on deployment technologies - aka Windows Setup. For those new to the Windows deployment world, there are a lot of options for how you install Windows, and as we have a HUGE number of machines out there, we take our charter very seriously.
I'll probably be the primary blogger, but it's open to other members of the deployment team, our tech writers, and others.
What we'll (probably) talk about
We'll offer solutions to deployment issues, talk about upcoming release features (when we can disclose them publicly, or course) and probably ask your opinion on things as well.
Our team owns the following core technologies for Windows Vista, Windows Server, Windows 7, and beyond:
· Retail setup
· Upgrade and Migration (incl. USMT)
· WinPE
· SysPrep and Unattend
· OPK and WAIK (deployment kits)
· Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
· Windows Image (WIM) format and ImageX
· Windows component management tools (i.e., PkgMgr, DISM) and infrastructure
· CAB format
Although we'll focus primarily on our teams’ technologies, we do recognize that things outside of our deployment team have a great impact on deployment. Topics like licensing, drivers, virtualization, VPN, application compatibility configuration, network infrastructure and support resources potentially affect the success of your deployment. If there's a topic you're looking to hear more about - let us know!
We won't talk much about things that don't impact deployment, but there will be times when we may offer up some additional personal or other information - but this won't be the place where you find me pondering why people wait 5 minutes in the aisle to park 25 feet closer to the health club door, then get on a treadmill for an hour.
Our Customers
For the consumer who buys a copy of Windows from a retail store, it should be easy to install. We ask a few questions, get to the point where we don't need to ask any more questions, put the bits on the hard drive, and try to predict how long it will take so the user can grab a cup of coffee (Microsoft is in Seattle, after all) while we finish.
For those who build machines to resell (we call the biggest ones OEM's, and the smaller ones "System Builders") we provide tools, documentation, and "best practices" to help make it easy for them to get Windows on the machine. The biggest OEM's generally build their own solutions using some building block tools we provide, and they're extremely sensitive to the time it takes to install the software - so much so that some incent employees who can shave seconds off their process.
The smallest resellers use the retail media, the same way anyone picking up a copy at a retailer would - though they can usually click through the screens faster and with fewer hesitations to ponder the true meaning of the words on the screen.
Then there are the businesses and governments that use computers running Windows. I've yet to find any business running Windows that doesn't do something special. Again there is a continuum between the small business that runs Windows with Office and doesn't need anything more, to highly customized computers that require highly customized deployment systems, to Internet cafes and training centers that deploy Windows over and over again – and need to get really efficient at it.
Solutions
As there are no absolutes in how our customers deploy Windows, we have a big job to manage the scenarios, tools and docs in a way that can be consumed. It’s the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK or Windows AIK) that provides a large number of tools and documentation to build a solution to deploy Windows. This kit is also used by many other solutions, including Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and System Center. Since the WAIK is the most common thread amongst our users, we’ll discuss these tools and docs in this blog a lot, but many of these discussions will also apply to our OEM’s and System Builders.
Microsoft also delivers end-to-end solutions, built on the technologies that our team creates, primarily for the business/government users: I consider two of them to be our primary offerings, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and System Center (formerly SMS) and will probably offer many links to their blogs and sites. Though they will take an investment in time to understand and become fluent in, these tools can help you deploy faster and lower your deployment costs.
Check Back Soon: Future Topics
We’re looking for feedback from you on what we should cover in this blog. The next couple of installments are already written, and focus on the “Why”, not so much the “Who” or “How”. After that I’d like to drive the content based on what you want. Like the TV show Dirty Jobs, we’d like to hear suggestions from you – but please, don’t make me compete with Mike Rowe for the dirtiest job.
