Windows 7 deployment on multiple HP machines

[haas1mj]

The company that I work for has a hardware lease with HP and has Windows 7 Pro pre-installed on each machine that we receive. When I setup these machines I wipe the hard drives right off the bat to remove all the bloatware and then proceed with a normal installation. However it often takes an entire day just to pull down all the Windows updates and install the basic software load for our users. Is there a way that I could create a Windows 7 Pro SP1 disc/usb drive with all the updates that would work on each HP machine that we have? My goal would be to have Windows fully updated upon installation and then simply go through and install the necessary software off our network drives. I know this can be done with a volume license of Win 7 but im unsure how to go about it with these HP machines that have Windows already tied to them. Thanks.

 

[Dstoop]

Your best bet would be to take the standard OEM windows install disk and slipstream all the drivers & updates into it. Not as easy as it used to be with XP, but still very doable.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/239...ws_7_installs_with_slipstreaming_and_usb.html

 

[winoutreach5]

First, when it comes to deploying, attempting to deploy, or simply refreshing any Windows media, you first might want to check out the reimaging rights document available from Microsoft here. The document reviews the rights of creating images and using those images for deployment scenarios.

With that said, you will want to use Windows Volume License media to create a reference machine, install all necessary software, proceed to capture your image and save it to your server.

Also, some new laptops have product keys underneath the battery. If your HP machines do, you would be able to locate the OEM product key and enter it after deploying out your customized Windows 7 VL image. As part of the imaging process, when you run Sysprep /generalize, the system specific information is removed. Therefore, each deployed machine will have to connect to the Windows Activation server and activate itself on boot.

Alternatively, you might want to take a look at the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). It’s free and it can handle all your deployments including Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008 and Windows 2008R2. Using MDT, you can easily add both applications and drivers, manage Windows updates, create task sequences, join a domain, add a KMS or MAK product key, create an administrator account, specify time zone, etc. You can also import all user data into the new environment using the User State Migration Tool (also free). To become familiar with the process of using MDT, you might want to check out these videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet:

• Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012
• Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced

You can even tie MDT into Windows Deployment Services if you wish to help streamline the deployment process.

Finally, anytime someone is attempting to do a capture process and deployment I always recommend the following videos:

• Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT
• Deploy Windows 7 The Easy Way: Using WDS, MDT and AIK – Step-By-Step

Hope this helps!

Jessica
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro