Many years ago I used Remote Installation Services (RIS) on a Windows 2000 Server to install Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP to clients on my network. Sometime in the Windows Server 2003 timeframe RIS evolved into the much improved Windows Deployment Services (WDS). I left that job and as time went on never really needed to use it since, until the other week. I was given a netbook with broken USB ports and a dodgy copy of Windows XP on it.

Installing a fresh copy of XP over the network seemed to be the easiest way to do this. I was wondering how things had changed now Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2 have been released. I could remember it involving lots of huge downloads like the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. I also am only going to be using it on rare occasions so I don’t need any of the Microsoft System Centre bumph.These always seemed like overkill for the simple task in hand. Doing a few Bings and Googles didn’t really seem to bring any up to date information so I ended up piecing together the info from lots of different blogs to get to the end result. I have included the steps I took (below) in case it is of any help to anyone else out there. I’ve kept them quite vague on purpose as putting to much detail tends to overcomplicate the matter, therefore, you do need some technical knowledge to get through this successfully.

Interesting tutorial. I've played around with TFTPD32 a bit for grey activity. It makes me wonder about using PXE to load an image of an XP (or other) installation. Microsoft stopped shipping a TFTP server with their operating systems as of Windows NT 3.51, supposedly because it was not secure. (At least, they were giving.

Step 1 – Install WDS Install the Windows Deployment Services server role (I used a Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 box but more recent Server OSes are much the same). You can accept all the defaults but you may want to install it to a disk with enough space to store the images.

Open the WDS management console We need to add a “Boot image” to give WDS something to load when the client asks. I used the boot.wim file from a Windows 7 DVD (in the SOURCES folder). Give it a name like “Install Windows”. This will take a few minutes to copy to the WDS server.

After it has been added, right-click the “Install Windows” boot image and choose “Create Capture Boot Image”. A new wizard starts. Give the capture image a useful name like “Capture PC Image” and save it to anywhere you like. After the capture image is created you need to add it as a boot image exactly the same way you did with the Windows 7 DVD. Its a bit bizarre it doesn’t do this automatically but hey-ho. We now have everything we need on the server side.

Step 2 – Create a Reference PC Because we want to deploy Windows XP we have to go through the faff of creating a reference PC. With Vista and later you can just copy an install.wim file from the DVD exactly like you did when adding the boot image. Choose a spare PC and install Windows XP SP3 on it Download and apply all Windows Updates including things like Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 11. Don’t worry about installing drivers as we are trying to create a small generic image that can go onto most PCs without blue-screening.

Therefore, the less installed on, it the better. Also, don’t bother installing any applications to it unless you have licenses that can be easily reapplied. Chances are, especially with free software like Firefox, that by time you want to use the image again there will be newer versions online. Once all patches are applied I tend to defrag the hard disk.

I don’t know whether this makes a massive difference but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Step 3 – Preparing the Reference PC for Capture We need to strip the reference PC of any unique names, Security Identifiers (SIDs) etc. Before we can capture it. Thankfully, we can use a tool called SysPrep (from the XP CD) to do this. We can also provide a script to automate most of the initial setup routine when it eventually gets deployed. From the XP CD extract the contents of Drive: SUPPORTTOOLS deploy.cab to a folder “C: sysprep” on the reference PC. • Run C: sysprep setupmgr.exe – This will launch a wizard to create an answer file to automate installation.

• Type of Setup: Sysprep setup • Product: Windows XP Professional • License Agreement: No, do not fully automate the installation* • Carry on through the wizard filling out the relevant info like Company Name, Languages, Time Zone etc. Remember the less you put in, the more generic the image will be. When you get to the end of the wizard there is no “Finish” button, just use “Cancel” instead and save it to the sysprep folder.

Warning: Do not encrypt the admin password as it will cause the script to crash during deployment. *Microsoft where very helpful when they released Service Pack 3 for XP. This is because you no longer need to put a license key in during set up. This is very useful for people that don’t have special volume licensed media, just the OEM CD that comes with the box. However, Setupmgr doesn’t let you fully automate the install if you are leaving the product key blank.

• Run C: sysprep sysprep.exe • Click “Yes” to the agreement warning. • Tick the box “Use Mini-Setup”. • Shutdown Mode: Shutdown • Click the “Reseal” button. Sysprep will do it’s thing then shut down. We are now ready to capture the image Step 4 – Capture the XP image Boot up the Reference PC Boot from the network (you may need to configure this in the BIOS) and hit F12 to launch WDS. Be quick otherwise the PC will load Windows and start going through the mini setup.

No biggie but you will need to sysprep again. Choose “Capture PC Image” from the WDS options. This will load the Capture wizard that guides you through the process. It’s very simple but there are a couple of things to note. It will only let you capture a partition that has been syspreped, otherwise it will just show a blank. Zip Steam Mop Instructions.

Also, you can choose to save the image to a partition and upload it to the WDS server at the same time. This makes things a lot easier, just make sure that you fill out all the boxes in order for it to work. This process will take a while depending on how big you image is. Mine took 7 minutes to capture a 1.3GB image Step 5 – Deploy the Image We’re almost there! This process is similar to the capture step above.

Boot from the network but this time choose the “Install Windows” option from the WDS screen. This will load a GUI similar to the Windows 7 setup. It will list any images that are compatible with the PCs HAL type**. Hopefully, it will recognise the XP capture we created in Step 3 and we can deploy it. This took about 9 minutes on the laptop I was deploying it to.

It will now go through the usual XP setup process and you will be left with a happy operating system **Newer WIMs (like Vista or Win7) don’t care what HAL you have but XP is more picky. You can see the HAL type of your image by looking at the properties of it in the WDS console.

Mine says acpiapic_mp, whereas another I created from a virtual machine is acpipic_up. The _up HAL only shows up on virtual machines but the _mp HAL from my physical Reference PC seems to work on most modern motherboards. Further Adventures WDS can be used for a lot more than deploying XP images.

As I mentioned earlier, the process of deploying Vista or Windows 7 is much more straightforward. The same goes for Server OSes too.

I added Server 2008 WIMs from the media kit as well as the new version of Hyper-V 2008 R2. No more burning ISOs for me! I also added other boot images, so I can troubleshoot computers without loading the installed operating system. For example, I added the Windows Pre-installation Environment (WinPE) from a 2008 R2 OEM Preinstallation Kit.

I could then add tools and drivers to this boot image to use on any PC regardless of its primary OS. I also intalled the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) by following the. WDS forms the basis of many of the Windows Deployment Tools, so by getting a simple start with this you should be in good stead to dive deeper when necessary. Do you use your WDS server for anything else interesting? Are you having problems getting yours up and running?

Please add your comments below. Sources and More Info I used the following sites to help me gather this information • • • •.

Hello I am stuck.there is a crucial part of the instructions that appears to be missing. I have already setup my boot image and all install images for all operating systems except XP, following the instructions to add another boot image I have done this but when right clicking on this newly created boot image to capture, the wizard opens I name it Capture PC Image and describe the same but then in order to click next I have to browse the location of the WIN file name, this is where I get stuck, in the instructions it just says save but you cant save until you’ve selected a WIN file, which file is to be selected? I selected a WIN file from a previous boot setup but get an error “Image file name already exists. Do you want to append to the existing file?” Server 2008 R2 enterprise Thanks for any help.

Yes, that is a bit confusing at first! The wizard is not actually asking you to select an existing file, it just wants to know the folder path and file name to use You can save it anywhere you like, in fact I’d recommend saving it somewhere outside the default RemoteInstall directory For example, in the Location and filename box, you could put something like Y: Workspace capture test.WIM or C: temp capture.wim By the way make sure you specify it as a WIM file not WIN as you described, there’s no such thing! Recent comments on on huck on Miguel Martinez on on • RT @: I Bought 20 in 2011 for $6.07 each. $BTC was much cheaper then!

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Hi guys I this topic because I said I would, before i started a thread how to install? But didnt get astraight ans and many gave many hints, and leads, I thank them first, Here is how the story begins, I got a laptop which doesn't have a CD rom but have a PXE boot system. So I searched and found some software called 'Tftpd32' which acts like a server in windows. So I used it.

After some effort I managed to install Windows on my Lap. Here are the steps.:) Hope they help. * You need Tftpd32 soft. * Syslinux- from kernel.org * Download winima61.exe from WinImage.com crossed network cable XP or other OS running Computer and The Poor com which needs an OS.;) Im using Following Guides.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok Lets Begin. Connect the 2 PCs using the crossed network cable. Configure the CD disabled com to PXE boot from bios. Configuring Tftpd32, 3.1 Install Tftpd32 and Make a subdirectory in your pxe folder called 'pxelinux.cfg' (despite the '.cfg' this is a folder, not a file) 3.2 In your pxelinux.cfg folder create a new text document and open it using notepad. Insert the following lines: default boot prompt 0 say booting. Label boot kernel memdisk append initrd=nameofimage.imz nameofimage = Boot disk image, will install with Tftpd32.

(in ext.imz) 3.3 Save the text document and rename it 'default' No extensions. Just default.

The Tftpd32 settings Just make them look like this. And make sure all of the boxes in the Global Settings are checked except for SNTP server.

Leave all of the other settings at their defaults and click ok. Alternately you can download what I used and make the settings and use it. What I used 4. Then start the Tftpd32 on your com and THEN start the other computer, It hould ask to Press F12 to boot from network or smthing. Then some Dos CMD will run..

And will ask you the connection Giv it as TCP IP and then the IP and ETC leave them blank and proceed. When It asks the User name and password to your computer give a valied username and password. Then proceed. It will log in and again ask you for the password. Then It will successfully conect and will ask you to use 'msnet' to connect with other PC, 5. Type msnet Press enter Then a console will open asking what to do.

Global, Profile, Map, Relogon Exit. From this Use Map. Then give the shared CD rom Drive letter as its on your computer, Then computer name share name (computer name can be found on Mycom right click >Propertes>computer name) Then you will see 'Command Completed Successfully' Then Exit.

From the Map console. Now you are mapped in to the CD rom of your computer through network.

So you Type the drive letter as Im using 'I' and do the DOS stuff. (for Windows XP Im showing here) First insert a win98 cd to cd drive cd I (enter) I: >cd win I: win98>smrtdrv then cd Insert Win XP CD and. I: >cd i386 (enter) I: i386>winnt (enter) Wooo. Now the windows setup will start.:) Then do the rest and do this in final. The setup will reboot in the middle. So you must copy the WinXP files to a Flash Drive insert it to the Com and continue installation from that.

(when it asks set the path to flash drive) Hope this helps. Regards, If any Problems Drop a mail. Ha i reach far now to a part where it says '.and finally, the path to the source files. In our example, there is a 10.1.2.11 OUTPUT share, no subdir, and therefore the path here is obviously /. But we could also say the share was 10.1.2.11 C$, and then, the path would have been /OUTPUT. If you enter an invalid IP-Share-User-Path combination, then you'll be asked for a valid one another time.'

An everytime its been askig back me to put ip etc. Idk whats a sbm password/username am using windows 7 btw. All this is from. There is often more than one way to do things 'the right way'.

Installing and setting up an operating system is no exception to this. This guide is based on my experience working with XP since RC1, doing more custom installations than I can count, and interaction/discussion with other geeks. I have found this method to offer the best results for performance, stability, and error free installation. I make no guarantees. If you have a problem it is more than likely your hardware and/or its drivers, or you didn't follow the drivers installation instructions. I don't have or claim to have all the answers.

If you have a suggestion for this guide.