Windows Vista : Platform Components (part 1) - Windows Imaging, Answer Files, Windows SIM

Understanding the new deployment tools and how they interconnect is the first step in beginning a Windows Vista deployment project. Figure 1 illustrates the Windows Vista deployment platform. At the lowest tier are Windows Imaging (.wim) files, which are highly compressed, file-based operating system images.

Figure 1. Windows Vista deployment platform components.

At the second tier are answer files. Earlier versions of Windows had numerous answer files, including Unattend.txt and Sysprep.inf, to drive the deployment process. Windows Vista uses a single XML-based answer file, Unattend.xml, to drive all of its configuration passes. (A configuration pass is an installation phase.) This improvement makes configuration more consistent and simplifies engineering.

At the third tier are the various deployment tools for Windows Vista. The Windows Vista distribution media includes some of these tools, including Sysprep and other command-line tools. The Windows AIK includes the bigger tools, such as Windows SIM, Windows PE, Windows DS, and ImageX. These are the basic tools necessary to create, customize, and deploy Windows Vista images. They are stand-alone tools that don’t provide a deployment framework or add business intelligence and best practice to the process.

The fourth tier, BDD 2007, provides the missing framework, business intelligence, and best practices. BDD 2007 is a process and technology framework that uses all of the tools in the third tier, potentially saving your organization hundreds of hours of planning, developing, testing, and deployment. BDD 2007 is based on best practices developed by Microsoft, its customers, and its partners. It includes time-proven management and technology guidance as well as thousands of lines of thoroughly tested script code that you can use as is or customize to suit your organization’s requirements.

Using BDD 2007, you can perform both Lite Touch Installation (LTI) and Zero Touch Installation (ZTI) deployment. LTI requires very little infrastructure and is suitable for most small and medium businesses. ZTI requires an SMS 2003 infrastructure and is suitable for organizations that already have SMS 2003 in place.

1. Windows Imaging

Windows Vista is distributed in .wim files, which use the new image-file format. This format has the following advantages:

• Windows Imaging files are a file-based image format that lets you store multiple images in one file. You can perform partial volume captures by excluding files, such as paging files, you don’t want to deploy using the image.

• This format reduces file sizes significantly by using a compressed file format and single-instance storage techniques: The image file contains one physical copy of a file for each instance of it in the image file, which significantly reduces the size of image files that contain multiple images.

• You can service the image contained in the .wim file—adding and deleting packages, software updates, and device drivers, for example—without recreating a new image by applying it, customizing it again, and recapturing it.

• You can mount .wim files as folders, making it easier to update files in images they contain.

• Windows Imaging files allow you to nondestructively apply an image to the destination computer’s hard disk. You can also apply an image to different-sized destination drives because .wim files don’t require the destination hard disk to be the same size or larger than the source hard disk.

• Windows Imaging files can span media so that you can use CD-ROMs to distribute large .wim files.

• Windows PE .wim files are bootable. For example, you can start Windows PE from a .wim file. In fact, Windows Setup and Windows DS start Windows PE from the .wim file Boot.wim, which you can customize by adding items such as device drivers and scripts.

2. Answer Files

An answer file is an XML-based file that contains settings to use during a Windows Vista installation. An answer file can fully automate all or part of the installation process. In an answer file, you provide settings such as how to partition disks, the location of the Windows Vista image to install, and the product key to apply. You can also customize the Windows Vista installation, including adding user accounts, changing display settings, and updating Microsoft Internet Explorer favorites. Windows Vista answer files are commonly called Unattend.xml.

You use Windows SIM to create an answer file and associate it with a particular Windows Vista image. This association allows you to validate the settings in the answer file against the settings available in the Windows Vista image. However, because you can use any answer file to install any Windows vista image, settings in the answer file for components that do not exist in the Windows image are ignored.

The components section of an answer file contains all the component settings that are applied during Windows Setup. Components are organized into different configuration passes: windowsPE, offlineServicing, generalize, specialize, auditSystem, auditUser, and oobeSystem. Each configuration pass represents a different installation phase. You can apply settings during one or more passes. If a setting is available in more than one configuration pass, you can choose the pass in which to apply the setting.

Microsoft uses packages to distribute software updates, service packs, and language packs. Packages can also contain Windows features. By using Windows SIM, you can add packages to a Windows Vista image, remove them from a Windows Vista image, or change the settings for features within a package.

The Windows Foundation Package, included in all Windows Vista images, includes all core Windows Vista features such as Media Player, Games, and Backup. Features are either enabled or disabled in Windows Vista. If a Windows Vista feature is enabled, the resources, executable files, and settings for that feature are available to users on the system. If a Windows Vista feature is disabled, the package resources are not available, but the resources are not removed from the system.

3. Windows SIM

Windows SIM is the tool you use to create and configure Windows Vista answer files. You can configure components, packages, and answer file settings. Windows Setup uses Unattend.xml to configure and customize the default Windows Vista installation for all configuration passes. For instance, you can customize Internet Explorer, configure Windows Firewall, and specify the hard drive configuration. You can use Windows SIM to customize Windows Vista in the following ways and more:

• Install third-party applications during installation.

• Customize Windows Vista by creating answer files (Unattend.xml).

• Apply language packs, service packs, and updates to an image during installation.

• Add device drivers to an image during installation.

With earlier versions of Windows, you have to manually edit answer file settings using a text editor, even after initially creating an answer file by using Windows Setup Manager. The Windows Vista answer file (Unattend.xml) is based on XML and far too complex to edit manually, however. So you must use Windows SIM to edit Windows Vista answer files. Figure 2 shows Windows SIM.

Figure 2. Windows SIM.