Curtis Schongalla A+, Network+, Security+, MCSA, & CCNP

Windows Deployment Services

This weekend I setup Windows Deployment Service on my test lab environment and started learning more about it. It is similar in some ways to other deployment software I have worked with like LanDesk using ImageX and WinPE and Dell KACE's similar WinPE environment and their image format. So far I setup the service and set the DHCP options for booting via PXE and loaded some images. I tested it with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 and it works pretty well for both and images quickly.

One thing I really like about it is that it supports multicast, which would be really useful for deploying a large number of computers without too large of an impact on network traffic. I will have to spend some more time working on it soon. I have not had a change yet to work on setting up an unattended install file and have only used it so far with a sysprep unattended config file. I would like to create some new unattended install and sysprep files for Windows 8 when I get a chance.