free barcode generator in asp.net c# Lesson 1: Designing an Image Creation Strategy in Visual Studio .NET

Creator Denso QR Bar Code in Visual Studio .NET Lesson 1: Designing an Image Creation Strategy

A system image that includes all of the applications, drivers, updates, and language packs that a workstation needs is called a thick image. A thin image is a system image that contains the operating system, but fewer applications or other software components, if any at all. Instead of deploying the applications, updates, device drivers, and language packs with the operating system, administrators deploy them afterward. Hybrid images are similar to thick images in that they install all of the applications and other software components the workstation will need, but like thin images, they do not include all of those other components as part of the image file. Instead, they access the additional components from a share on the network.

You can use the following questions to test your knowledge of the information in Lesson 1, Designing an Image Creation Strategy. The questions are also available on the companion CD if you prefer to review them in electronic form.

Answers to these questions and explanations of why each answer choice is correct or incorrect are located in the Answers section at the end of the book.

Microsoft helps Windows 7 desktop administrators design and create Windows Imaging files with two primary support packages: the Windows 7 AIK and MDT 2010. Which of the following tools is not included as part of the Windows 7 AIK

Which of the following lists the three most common methods for creating operating system images, in order of increasing complexity

3. 4.

a. Create an Unattend.xml or Autounattend.xml file. B. Start the reference computer and supply it with the answer file to enable the oper-

c. Prepare the reference computer for imaging by running the Oscdimg.exe utility. D. Start the reference computer with a Windows PE disk and use the ImageX.exe

utility to capture a Windows Imaging file. When you are creating a deployment share using the Deployment Workbench application included in MDT 2010, which of the following can you not use as a location for the share

Which of the following types of computer is not a required component in a Windows 7 AIK or MDT 2010 workstation image creation lab

The basic image creation process described in Lesson 1 of this chapter, in which you install and configure a reference computer and then capture an image of that computer for later deployment, is essentially a method of customizing a workstation image. Without this process, you would have to install the core operating system image on each workstation and update it from there, which is exactly what you are doing when you perform a manual installation by inserting a Windows 7 installation DVD into a new computer. By adding applications, updates, device drivers, language packs, and configuration settings to the core operating system, you are taking a generic image and bringing it closer to the functional specification you defined for the workstation. In this lesson, you learn about how to modify images directly, by editing them in place.

After this lesson, you will be able to:

Understand the circumstances under which you might want to update custom image files. Understand how to customize images by adding files. Select a tool or technique for modifying image files.

The reference computer image creation process assumes that administrators have a relatively complex workstation configuration that they want to deploy to a large number of computers. However, this is not always the case. If you have only minor changes to make to the core operating system image, such as applying a few updates or a language pack, it might be easier to modify an image directly while it is offline, rather than deploy it on a reference computer and capture an entirely new image. Every Windows 7 installation disk includes a Windows Imaging file called Install.wim, located in the Sources folder, which contains the core images for one or more editions of the operating system. After copying this file to a read/write medium, such as a hard disk, you can use the ImageX.exe or Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM.exe) utility from the Windows 7 AIK to do any or all of the following:

Add packaged applications Add packaged updates Add device drivers Add language packs Enable or disable operating system features Append a volume image to a workstation image Combine multiple images in a single Windows Imaging file

For more information on using DISM.exe to modify offline images, see Using Deployment Image Servicing and Management, later in this lesson. It is up to the individual administrator to decide at what point capturing a new reference computer image becomes preferable to manually customizing an image file. After you have customized an offline image file, you can install it on your target workstations using any of the standard deployment methods.