Frequently Asked Questions About Setup and Deployment

There are multiple ways to deploy Windows:

Unattended installations use scripts and answer files to configure an operating system without requiring user input. Imaging involves installing an operating system to a computer and then running Sysprep to remove all identifying information. The captured image can be deployed onto any other computer. During deployment, the configuration of the computer (making it unique again) can also be scripted through answer files.

Unattended installations can work on any type of hardware, while imaging requires one image per Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). This can often take up to an hour and does not scale well. Imaging can allow you to deploy over 100 computers at once, but is considered less flexible because non-Microsoft image formats do not allow you to modify an image after it is captured, while the Microsoft image format can be edited.

Originally released with Windows 2000, Remote Installation Services (RIS) is a Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE)-based deployment technology that allows Windows setup to initiate over a network. Two types of installs are available, RISetup (often referred to as "flat" installs/images), which is analogous to unattended setup, and RIPrep, a file copy-based deployment solution. This uses the same technology as Sysprep to prepare a system for duplication.

Automated Deployment Services (ADS) is a new Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE)-based deployment technology that runs on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. It deploys Windows 2000 Server family and Windows Server 2003 operating systems through imaging to computers that boot on the network. ADS also provides infrastructure for automated script execution, allowing administrators to run scripts remotely through a secure communication channel that captures standard output, standard error, and result codes into a centralized log.

Please refer to this table for a comparison:

Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) is based on Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 and allows IT staff to build custom deployment solutions. WinPE can run Windows setup, scripts, and several imaging applications and can be booted from a CD-ROM, hard disk or across the network from a RIS server. See the Microsoft Licensing Web site for WinPE licensing information.

Sysprep is a tool similar to RIPrep for RIS that allows a "master computer" system to be disk duplicated. It does this by resetting the system attributes that need to be unique (computer name, Security ID (SID), domain/workgroup relationship, and several other attributes). The result is deployed systems (as many as necessary) that are as close to a disk-duplicate of the source system as possible. During the deployment of a Sysprep image, various operating system configuration settings may be customized for each system using a file called sysprep.inf.

A good place to start is the deploy.cab file on the Windows product CD (Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 all include this file). This file is located in the \Support\Tools\ directory on your Windows CD. The Windows 2000 deploy.cab includes Sysprep and its additional required files, as well as a Microsoft Word document to assist with deployment. The Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 version contains a version of Sysprep and its additional required files, as well as two help (*.chm) files to assist with deployment.

Additional deployment information:

To avoid RIS and ADS conflicting on a network, you must configure both RIS and ADS to answer the boot requests of only those devices that you want managed by the respective server. This can be done by selecting the MAC address of the desired computers or the SMBIOS GUID and adding it to a record on the computer running the ADS or RIS service. ADS and RIS can be configured to respond to all PXE booting in the same broadcast domain. If an administrator configures both services to respond, PXE booting may receive an ADS boot program instead of a RIS program, or vice versa.

In addition to the deploy.cab file, the articles below can also assist you in getting started with Sysprep. Please consult the version specific to the version of Windows you are deploying, as there are differences in the behavior of Windows, Sysprep, and mini-setup/Windows Welcome (present in Windows XP only).

You need to use the version of Sysprep specific to the operating system you are deploying. While there is a version of Sysprep available on the Windows product CD in the deploy.cab, you should always use the most recent version available, which you can download from the links below. Sysprep is often updated with Windows Service Packs (but is not included in the Service Packs themselves). The most recent versions of Sysprep (and the time of last update) are available for download using the links below:

Once Sysprep makes the operating system generic so it can be deployed over multiple computers, the system is sealed. During the deployment process, Sysprep runs through mini-setup that allows the user to configure the computer with information specific to the hardware. Mini-setup can be automated by using setup manager to create a Sysprep.inf file that is stored in the root directory of the image. This file can then be configured to add additional drivers to the system as well as configure the computer name, password etc.

For more information on the Sysprep.inf file and setup manager please see deploy.cab on the Windows CD. If you are using ADS, you can update the Sysprep.inf file during the deployment task sequence before mini-setup starts. See the ADS documentation for details.

Microsoft does not support the use of third party SID-changing utilities. When disk duplicating Windows to new hardware (even if it is a physically identical system), Sysprep must be used.

Please see The Microsoft Policy Concerning Disk Duplication of Windows XP Installations KB article for the policy concerning disk duplication of Windows XP installations. For earlier versions of Windows NT-based operating systems, refer to the Do Not Disk Duplicate Installed Versions of Windows article.

The mass-storage controller in your source system and target system are different. You need to populate the [SysprepMassStorage] faqSection of your Sysprep.inf file. Please refer to the KB article How to Troubleshoot "Stop 0x0000007B" Errors in Windows XP.

If you are using Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, download the most recent version of Sysprep and documentation, and search for the "-BMSD" switch, which can populate this faqSection of the Sysprep.inf for you.

The quickest and easiest way is to use Setup Manager, included in the deploy.cab on the Windows Product CD. This can set up a basic unattended setup file that you can then use as a framework for more advanced answer files.

The best place to start is the deploy.cab on the Windows product CD (Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 all include this file). It is located in the \Support\Tools\ directory on your Windows CD.

The Windows 2000 deploy.cab includes Sysprep and its additional required files, as well as a Microsoft Word document to assist with deployment. The Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 version contains a version of Sysprep and its additional required files, as well as two help (*.chm) files to assist with deployment. These documents cover the components that can be added, removed, or modified within Windows for the specific version of Windows noted by the document.

Please refer to the following support articles, which should assist you in getting started:

Please refer to the KB article "Stop 0x0000006b" or Setup Stops Responding at "Setup is Starting Windows" When You Install a Windows XP SP1 Client Image from a RIS Server and apply the fix noted to your Windows 2000 Domain Controllers.

Beginning September 2003, you can download ADS from the Microsoft Web site and install it on any Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition computer.

ADS is designed to deploy Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server and Datacenter Server, and Windows Server 2003 (all 32-bit editions). Deploying other operating systems is not currently supported.

In addition to licensing constraints, the design of ADS is limited to servers as follows:

ADS is a standard feature of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. No additional licensing fees are required.

For those computers that do not have PXE enabled NICs, customers may install the OS using ADS imaging tools installed on WinPE or a remote PXE boot floppy. Both options require manual intervention during the bootstrap process. After the OS is installed, the ADS administration agent can be installed to use ADS for secure remote scripting.

There are multiple ways to update the operating system while it is being deployed. You can use ADS to install the patch as part of the deployment task sequence, you can use Sysprep to install the patch directly after mini-setup completes, or use a Microsoft solution such as SUS or SMS to automate the software update management process. Patches cannot be applied directly to images.