Imaging / Cloning / Ghosting Windows Vista Business

[mattpant]

Hi Folks,

 

I'm soon to receive some new computers with Windows Vista Business installed and I'm keen to give it a shoot before I go and wipe the drives and stick XP on them, there's not going to be too many and they will be in the school library with mainly just internet access being used, so shouldn't have a problem with incompatible software!

 

Has anybody tried imaging a Windows Vista setup yet? if so, any tips? Step by Step guides? Is there such a thing as Sysprep for Vista I've read that Ghost is not compatible with Vista (This has been my normal method of imaging) I also believe Vista has got it's own imaging program?

 

Any help would be great to allow a successful install!

 

Regards,

 

Matt

[mrforgetful]

Only Enterprise (and Ultimate) has it's own imaging function which you'll need a VLA for.

 

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 supports imaging Vista.

[netadmin]

There is sysprep in Vista Business (version 3. something). It seems to work pretty well.

[ConTheITGuy]

I've read that Ghost is not compatible with Vista (This has been my normal method of imaging)

 

There is even a video on the Symantec website somewhere showing step by step how to do it.

 

 

Andy

[mattpant]

Anyone know where I can find this step by step video for using Ghost in Vista, can't seem to find it on the website

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

[adent]

Word of caution. Before rolling these out, check application compatibility. I suspect you will come to grief with certain curriculum based software. Better to find out before you go live.

[mattpant]

Hi Adent...

 

Thanks for the warning, but like my original post said "they will be in the school library with mainly just internet access being used, so shouldn't have a problem with incompatible software"

 

Has anybody been able to track down a guide or the video that Andy spoke about?

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

[thom]

Get an overview here http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_deploy.asp

or download the desktop deployment guide here

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx

if you want to use Microsofts new RIS - WDS

That should tell you all you need to know. Be sure to feed back your experiences.

[saruk]

We starting rolling out Vista across our School a while ago and should be finished by the end of the Easter break.

 

The new version of RIS - WDS works great. We created two images one student, one teacher and then use PXE boot from clients to install the images to the PC's.

 

If you ou a whole room on it does slow it down a bit. One PC can take about 1 hour from start to finish but a room of 30 is about half a day and we have gigabit to the desktop. The images are quite large though as they have all our software preinstalled.

 

The images work as Microsoft say and one image will work on virtually any machine, the new .img file format is ttally hardware agnostic.

[W32Jbot]

just a note about Sysprep version 3.24 that is bundled with Vista (i've mentioned this on another thread but you guys really need to be aware) you can only run Sysprep on a Vista install a maximum of 3 times, this is to prevent the exploitation of the 30 day grace period. So just make sure you take an image to store away before you sysprep

 

There is also a pretty good usergroup board on Technet here >> http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=721&SiteID=17

[thom]

Have you actualy experienced this limitation because I haven't (Using Vista Business with WDS & WAIK)

[thom]

@W32/Jbot - I take it you are talking about the Activation grace period.

Have you actualy experienced this limitation because I haven't (Using Vista Business with WDS & WAIK)

[Geoff]

This limitation can by bypassed as I have explained here:

 

http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=77211#77211

[cloggersd]

Anyone using VISTA B AND KMS with Deep Freeze?

[JoHimself]

If you want to use Ghost (any version as far as I can see - works with 2003 and 8.1) with vista then run the "net-runna Vista Preparation Tool" and then sysprep. the machine can then be imaged in the normal ghosty way.

[pdennis]

I'm using Vista Enterprise with a KMS server and Deepfreeze but had to jump through a few hoops to get everything working. There is an alternative to sysprepping every machine; use slmgr.vbs to change the CMID. You can use the Ghost console to push it out to the clients so that they will authorize with the KMS. If anyone needs details I can provide them. The newest version of Deepfreeze seems to work okay too.