Hello,

I will be installing XP Pro onto a number of machines. I want to ensure that
I have full configuration control of what is installed on the machines.

As well as the basic operating system I will need device drivers installed
and some services stopped.

Can I create a master version and somehow clone this onto other machines? If
not what are my other options to ensure the configurations of each the
machine is the same. I would prefer not to take a manual approach of
configuring each machine as this is time consuming and error prone.

Any Suggestions?

Thanks!!

B wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I will be installing XP Pro onto a number of machines. I want to ensure that
> I have full configuration control of what is installed on the machines.
>
> As well as the basic operating system I will need device drivers installed
> and some services stopped.
>
> Can I create a master version and somehow clone this onto other machines? If
> not what are my other options to ensure the configurations of each the
> machine is the same. I would prefer not to take a manual approach of
> configuring each machine as this is time consuming and error prone.

Yes of course. That's what imaging software is for. You don't think
system builders hand-install millions of operating systems, do you? ;-)

If you only have a few machines (under 50, say) then you don't even need
to mess about with sysprep (Google for it). I prefer Acronis True Image
but there are other imaging programs such as Ghost and BootIT NG. It
depends on how many "a number of machines" is and whether they have
identical hardware whether you would want Acronis's home or Enterprise
edition.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

For now we have about 30 systems in the first batch over the first , but that
could increase to about 100. They will all be identical hardware platforms.

So are you saying you should use sysprep for > 50.
For less than 50 you should use Acronis True Image, Ghost or BootIT NG?

Is there an easy way to create a report of the current system
configuration/profile, which would consist of hardware list, device driver
list, services enabled, user accounts ... etc. I would like to have a record
of the system before it goes out and prehaps compare it to a master files to
ensure the configuration is correct.

Thanks,
B

"Malke" wrote:

> B wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I will be installing XP Pro onto a number of machines. I want to ensure that
> > I have full configuration control of what is installed on the machines.
> >
> > As well as the basic operating system I will need device drivers installed
> > and some services stopped.
> >
> > Can I create a master version and somehow clone this onto other machines? If
> > not what are my other options to ensure the configurations of each the
> > machine is the same. I would prefer not to take a manual approach of
> > configuring each machine as this is time consuming and error prone.
>
> Yes of course. That's what imaging software is for. You don't think
> system builders hand-install millions of operating systems, do you? ;-)
>
> If you only have a few machines (under 50, say) then you don't even need
> to mess about with sysprep (Google for it). I prefer Acronis True Image
> but there are other imaging programs such as Ghost and BootIT NG. It
> depends on how many "a number of machines" is and whether they have
> identical hardware whether you would want Acronis's home or Enterprise
> edition.
>
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"
> MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
>

B wrote:
> For now we have about 30 systems in the first batch over the first , but that
> could increase to about 100. They will all be identical hardware platforms.
>
> So are you saying you should use sysprep for > 50.
> For less than 50 you should use Acronis True Image, Ghost or BootIT NG?
>
> Is there an easy way to create a report of the current system
> configuration/profile, which would consist of hardware list, device driver
> list, services enabled, user accounts ... etc. I would like to have a record
> of the system before it goes out and prehaps compare it to a master files to
> ensure the configuration is correct.

For that many machines, I'd use Acronis True Image Enterprise Server
with Snap Deploy and Universal Deploy/Restore. If you spend some time on
Acronis' website reading about this, all your questions about procedures
will be answered.

Personally, I prefer Acronis to Ghost (and I don't believe BootIT NG
will be as flexible for your needs as either of those), but that's
subjective. Some people prefer Ghost.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User