Tips & Tricks for Easy Desktop Management

Imaging machines with Windows allow for mass workstation and server deployment. Products like ZENworks, Ghost, SCCM, Altiris, and VMware require a robust and flexible clone-worthy installation of Windows to quickly deploy multiple workstations. Regardless of platform, cloning a Windows installation across machines has a list of “gotchas”. Here are a few.

For starters, read the README! Oh, the things that can be learned from Knowledge Base (KB) articles like 302577, 828287, and a personal favorite, 309283, titled “Hardware Abstract Layer (HAL) options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup”. Knowing in advance what can, and what can’t be done will save hours of work. The Wikipedia article on SYSPREP is a great starting point.

Manual changes to the Default User profile are unsupported by Microsoft.   As long as the account isn’t renamed, SYSPREP copies the Administrator profile to Default User automatically.

Leave the Administrator password blank. If you don’t, SYSPREP can’t change it and post-imaging customization becomes overly complicated. You’ll also want to be sure you avoid security issues by leaving anything security sensitive out of the base image. It’s bad practice to use clear text passwords in scripts or the registry, so use a product like WinBatch to compile authentication scripts into a single executable file. This is a great way to apply that complex 16-character password to the renamed Administrator account.

Only install patches that apply to every machine. A browser patch that breaks the CRM web app just deployed by Marketing shouldn’t be included in the base. This is a great reason to deploy a patch management solution! Patch management simplifies overall workstation management, especially imaging.

Package everything. Application packaging is a lot of work, but don’t give into temptation and build apps into the base. Avoid installation “snapshots”, and wherever possible, use MSI or scripted EXE installations. A front-loaded investment in application packaging will yield return across upgrades and migrations for years to come.

Be sure to use the latest platform-specific version of SYSPREP for the Operating System being cloned (DEPLOY.CAB is available for download from Microsoft.) Older versions have been updated for a reason!   Also be sure to make an image immediately before applying SYSPREP. This helps to avoid running SYSPREP multiple times on a single Windows build and provides a fallback position for future updates.

Use an imaging platform that supports scripting. ZENworks uses BASH, SCCM uses WinPE, and Altiris can use either. The less that a technician at the console has to decide (or do) the closer imaging comes to “Zero-touch”.

Finally, clients running VMware and VirtualCenter without SYSPREP customized VM templates are missing out. SYSPREP integrates quite nicely into template-based VM deployments and Appendix B of the “Basic System Administration” guide for VI3.5, “Installing the Microsoft SYSPREP Tools” covers this configuration. This is absolutely a requirement for VM template deployments.

C/D/H has over 10 years of experience deploying workstations with numerous imaging products and processes across multiple Windows versions, dozens of projects, and thousands of workstations; we’ve tackled everything from “one model, one image” to a single “one image fits all” process. Call us to assist you in your next deployment!