Introducing Windows 7 to the Network

[CommodoreS]

I will shortly be introducing Windows 7 clients to a new Win2008 R2 64 Bit network which AD has only been configured to be used by windows XP clients. Is there any changes I will need to make for the Win 7 Clients to work in the same way as the Windows XP clients?

 

I am also wondering if it would be best to get Win 7 64 bit or 32 bit version, as I heard there can be problems connecting printer drivers and I am guessing I may also get software compatibility issues.

 

Thinking of Printers I am also wondering what the best way to automatically deploy the shared printers and drivers to the machines is. Whether there is a fantastic (and cheap or free) software tool out there which would help with this or an easy way to do it via AD which will work reliably. It will be a mixed Win XP/Win 7 network so it would be good to know how other people have configured their printers.

 

I am also wondering if Windows 7 will work in the same way as Windows XP with sysprep and WDS or if I will run into any problems, as the sysprep ini seems to have Win XP specific settings in it.

[psydii]

Buy and read the Windows 7 Resource Kit.

 

Trying to make windows 7 work the same way as XP is to my mind like trying to make XP work like 98. Accept and embrace the changes and read up on the gotcha's.

 

64bit here without any problems, well, that relate to the 64bitness of the system - there are plenty of general W7 'quirks' that I could do without.

[themightymrp]

There can be quite a few differences when running Win 7 on your network, particularly when using roaming profiles!!! Read around on here for help but theres a fair bit different.

 

Personally I would go with 32bit on the machines unless you have more than 4gb RAM planned, the printer driver thing is a nightmare otherwise (personal experience, not necessarily the same for everyone). I deploy printers using the Group Policy Preferences which is built in. No real problems for me so far. As for sysprep and WDS its completely different. The ini file is now an XML file that you build with a config manager tool (cant remember the name off the top of my head).

 

All the necessary help can be found on eduGeek though Or pm me for some specific help

[3s-gtech]

I built new GPOs for Windows 7, transferring policies across with care. New mandatory profiles were next, along with updating WSUS settings, and logon scripts (I have removed most of these, as GPP handles printers etc much better).

[themightymrp]

Very similar to what I did

[sparkeh]

All 64 bit Win 7 here and can't say I have had any printer issues at all. Just put the 64 bit drivers on the server and deployed printers through GPP and we were golden.

[themightymrp]

It all depends on the printers you have, some of ours don't have 64 bit drivers available (they are old!)

[sparkeh]

It all depends on the printers you have, some of ours don't have 64 bit drivers available (they are old!)

Oh well of course if the printer doesn't have x64 drivers you are stuck, I thought the point being made was that there is something inherent within Win7 64bit that made deploying printers difficult.

[zag]

I'm doing the same thing here at the moment rolling out windows 7 site wide.

 

Check my thread here http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/89469-windows-7-students.html

 

Basically I've removed mandatory profiles, created a few group policies on my windows 7 machine and its working great so far.

[themightymrp]

@sparkeh - sorry didn't mean for it to sound that way. There is no problem in the deployment of printers to 64bit, I just dont because of the lack of drivers. My bad

[Michael]

As a recommendation (talking from experience), I would create new GPOs from scratch. And if you manage more than one site, you can then export/import those same GPOs for other sites.

 

As for printer drivers, it is fairly simple. 2008 R2 is 64Bit, so you're required to install the 64Bit driver first (on your print server). You can then optionally install the 32Bit driver afterwards. The driver must be exactly the same, so for example:

 

PCL5 version 1.2.0.0 X86

PCL5 version 1.2.0.0 x64

 

Windows will pick the correct driver it needs (on the workstation) automatically.

[CommodoreS]

Thanks for all the replies. Regarding the "Windows 7 Resource Kit." to be honest I struggle to learn reading books (I struggle with theory but excel in practical), and learn stuff much quicker watching videos, or even better seeing a real life working configuration/example and making notes of what has been set/changed and configured to fully understand how things are working. I also prefer to use guides with pictures.

 

I wondered if anyone has the time if they would be able to send me a copy of their AD configuration for Win 7 Clients. If so I would be very grateful as I would be able to try this on my Test Network and have time to understand things better.

 

With printers I found a guide at: http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000492.htm which I followed through, but no printers appear on my Win XP SP3 Test Client, so I am wondering if this works for Vista and 7 Only. I really need a solution that would work on both Win XP and Win 7 clients, and will pull the printer driver down so no manual intervention is required to install printers onto the clients.

 

So with Roaming and Mandatory Profiles does anyone know a guide which would help explain the options better, or again would be able to post a link to another Edugeek post or provide a working example.

 

One other thing I am unsure of is Win 7 Licence Keys and Activation. For Win XP I have been using a volume licence key, and wonder if I need to get something similar for Win 7, as all new machines have been supplied with their own unique Win 7 Product Key. I am also wondering how activation will work with Sysprep and Network Win 7 Machines. It would be a pain having to activate each one manually.

[garethEds]

I will shortly be introducing Windows 7 clients to a new Win2008 R2 64 Bit network which AD has only been configured to be used by windows XP clients. Is there any changes I will need to make for the Win 7 Clients to work in the same way as the Windows XP clients?

 

I am also wondering if it would be best to get Win 7 64 bit or 32 bit version, as I heard there can be problems connecting printer drivers and I am guessing I may also get software compatibility issues.

 

Thinking of Printers I am also wondering what the best way to automatically deploy the shared printers and drivers to the machines is. Whether there is a fantastic (and cheap or free) software tool out there which would help with this or an easy way to do it via AD which will work reliably. It will be a mixed Win XP/Win 7 network so it would be good to know how other people have configured their printers.

 

I am also wondering if Windows 7 will work in the same way as Windows XP with sysprep and WDS or if I will run into any problems, as the sysprep ini seems to have Win XP specific settings in it.

 

First thing we did when we started planning everything was spend the day reading everything we could find on Edugeek. The depth of knowledge on here was astounding as a lot had gone through the procedure. As for WDS there is a sticky thread on that although I'd go MDT2010 with WDS.

 

Then once you have read everything ask away. It sounds like I'm being awkward but trust me reading everything will get you quite far.

 

Gareth

[TheScarfedOne]

My recommendation from experience is to create a new sub OU structure for your Win7 machines. Set up new GPOs for the workstation/machines, and also set up new Win7 User Config GPOs too, using loopback mode. That way, you can start to test and then build/deploy your new network segment, without any policies from the XP side getting under foot - or any changes you need to make affecting your legacy setup.

 

Ive done this a few times now as well - so any questions ask away. I think there are plans to release a set of basic GPOs that most of use - to help people get started.

 

Test, test, test and test again. Good tip is to involve a pilot group of users as the testing. They will like being involved, and you get the feedback before letting it loose on everyone.

[CommodoreS]

Update: I just solved the problem with printers working using: PeteNetLive - KB0000492 - Deploying Printers with Group Policy Preferences as the XP Client needed KB943729 installed.

 

I am familiar with using WDS for Win XP. I have just not yet used it with Windows 7. That should change during half term when I get a chance to play and find all the problems.

 

Its a shame there are no step by step how to guides here, or a post which links to other important posts of things to know about and things to consider.

[glennda]

My recommendation from experience is to create a new sub OU structure for your Win7 machines. Set up new GPOs for the workstation/machines, and also set up new Win7 User Config GPOs too, using loopback mode. That way, you can start to test and then build/deploy your new network segment, without any policies from the XP side getting under foot - or any changes you need to make affecting your legacy setup.

This is what i did - was a chance to ensure things where setup correctly and in an sensible order rather then botch by multiple people over multiple years

[themightymrp]

Just got around to reading the updates to this thread, yep should have mentioned about the Group Policy Preferences download. I would have posted that right now if you hadn't already figured it out

 

As for activating windows, you need to look at installing KMS on a server which will sort out the activations for you. Read the following:

 

Deploying KMS Activation

[CommodoreS]

Looking into this more, do branded laptops automatically activate windows when using an OEM licence key (something to do with reading a BIOS code on the machine?)

[CommodoreS]

I have found 2 pretty good articles which easily explain how to configure sysprep for Windows 7 at:

Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine

and

how can I join a Domain using Windows SIM - www.windows-noob.com

 

On a Win 7 client, I have tried using the same GPOs and config used for the Windows XP setup and everything seems to be working fine, although I expect after more testing I may find problems.

[Little-Miss]

Currently in the same boat as you but I'm a noob with WDS too

[CommodoreS]

Other WDS related sites I found which might help you.

 

For capturing and deploying using WDS:

 

how can I CAPTURE an Image using WDS - www.windows-noob.com

and

how can I DEPLOY an image captured using WDS ? - www.windows-noob.com

 

And for injecting Network Card drivers into boot.wim

How To Mount and Inject Drivers into Windows 7 PE 3.0 | Commodore.ca | Windows

 

And that is pretty much everything you need to know on how to use WDS on 2008 R2.

[CommodoreS]

Also sysprep for XP is much easier than for Windows 7.

 

For XP you just need to run setupmgr.exe in the sysprep folder which allows you to create an answer file called sysprep.inf to automate most of the setup process.

 

I also came across some older RM laptops which would just not work with WDS, despite injecting the network driver into boot.wim. The only workaround I could find was after running sysprep (XP) instead of using WDS was to use Ghost from a Hirens Boot CD and an external USB hard drive to capture a Ghost image. To quickly apply the images I took the hard drives out the laptops, connected them to a PC, copied the Ghost image back onto them and then plugged them back in the laptops. For individual rebuilds I now just use the external USB HDD and Hirens.