Overall Architecture

This section provides information on the Software Installation and Maintenance architecture. It discusses the architecture in terms of the software deployment phases that were introduced in the preceding section.

Windows 200x Software Installation and Maintenance requires Windows 200x Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, and Windows 200x Professional. 

Staging Computers: Bringing New PCs into the Organization

A lot of time is spent preparing computers when the organization first acquires them. Without regard to which Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) the organization purchases computers from, and how the OEM prepares the computers, many organizations take new computers, format the hard drives, and then configure the computer according to their standard configuration.

To reduce the costs of staging computers, administrators can use the Windows 200x Remote OS Installation feature to stage and standardize their computers, and can install the organization’s key software at the same time.

As an example, consider an organization that wants to bring in new computers and customize both Windows 200x and Office 20xx. To do this, administrators should do the following:

1) Set up and configure Remote OS Installation.

2) Use the Group Policy snap-in to create the appropriate Group Policy Object to manage the computers in the organization.

3) Create a software distribution point for Office 20xx.

4) Customize (transform) Office 20xx the way they want it configured.

5) Use the Software Installation snap-in to assign Office 20xx to the computers in the appropriate GPO. If you assign the software to the user, the computer-assigned version can be uninstalled, and the user version advertised and then installed on first usage.

6) Install Windows 200x on a computer, and configure the operating system as desired. The target computer does not have to have the same hardware, but it must use the same Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) as the computers that will install from the image. (The use of image in this context refers to a copy of all the operating system files).

7) Add the computer to the Active Directory container where it will live when it is deployed. This container has the GPO with Office 20xx assigned to the computer associated with it.

Note: Care must be taken to configure this computer with software from the GPO where the computer will live when it is deployed. Otherwise the software may be removed and reinstalled if a different policy is applied to the computer.

Start the computer and Software Installation and Maintenance will install Office 20xx (software assigned to the computer installs when the computer starts).

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