Desktop Deployment Methods - What method do you employ?

[alexkeller]

I mean that it's possible to apply settings to the user only at those times when it's needed by changing the desktop configuration right at the used side.

[srochford]

HP / Toshiba recovery CD's when needed - but I think this is only two desktops this year that have needed reinstalling.

 

All software is pushed out through MSI's so the basic XP install is enough.

 

I am curious - how often do you guys find you need to reinstall a PC - it is not enough here to justify spending any time setting something like RIS or WDS up. We used to use Ghost under Windows 98 but under XP we just have not found the need.

 

Or is it something that is just done as a matter of course every few months to keep the PC's healthy?

 

I realise how the above might sound patronising - but it is meant as a genuine question as there maybe something I am missing.

 

Asking questions is always good - you don't learn if you don't ask :-)

 

We don't routinely re-image but the benefit of WDS etc is that you can make sure you get all the machines the same - no chance of forgetting bits or tweaks. We deploy about 800-1000 new machines per year so it's really useful to have something that's pretty much totally automatic!

[ChrisPal]

apply settings to the user only at those times when it's needed

Meaning that it's possible to define when the settings will be applied somehow?

[alexkeller]

Yes. When I said on-the-fly I meant that it's possible to configure the desktop based on the events. So what I do here. I deploy a standard OS image and configure desktops after according to what the configuration I assigned for the user. Desktop is configured automatically when user logs on to the system. I find such event based is very handy as there's no need to keep several preconfigured images as I did it previously. As an example from recent experience. We moved one room from one floor to another. And the bad thing with all that was that we have another network segment set up on that floor. Users have to lose their gateway configuration and the printer setup as the consequence. But the most handy thing I like from managing desktops with desktop authority is that such situations are easily fixable there. I just changed the profile settings and refreshed the policy for the OU with users from that room. But you'd better refer to their site for more details.

[ChrisPal]

Thanks for the info, Alex! That's a really interesting link. That's very similar to what I want to get. That timing section is what you are talking about? Nice demo. Thank you. I'll probably try it, I see they say they provide fully functional version for trial. Thanks once again.

[ctbjs]

I don't suppose anyone has any good links or guides on how to setup WDS to run in native mode (I don't have previous RIS images available but retaining the ability to deploy XP images to client machines?

 

When I say guides I mean something that will explain what it is you need to do in order to start from scratch through to deploying to workstations so this will include how to get your boot.wim and how to capture images etc etc

 

It frazzles me why there is so little clear information out there to explain these new technologies.

 

I would also like to use BDD with WDS to build full images to classrooms.

 

Any help will be much appreciated.