Comments on: First Impressions of Windows Deployment Service

By: Brian Reich

Brian Reich — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:06:52 +0000

I think it’s time I write a follow-up article on this!

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:53:52 +0000

I’ve been testing server08 with the wds service for about 2week. I’m useing xp3/win7 rc1 as test images. WOW pxe is cool ,But here I go again with sysprep I DISLIKE THIS TOOL. Now with windows 7 it super complicated and has way to many setting and some just dont work BUGs says micrsoft.
I service over 7000 computers all I want is a simple tool
To PXE Boot a model computer running win2k/xp/win7 and save the image on the network or somewhere. Then be able to push the image to 1 to 200 computers at one time, Then when they boot Ask me To name them put them on our domain then most of all prompt me where it needs to be placed in Active Directory then boots up the the logon screen on our domain Ready To Work I duno what’s the big deal and why Microsoft has to make this a pain but they always do. I have figured out how to do it with xp/2k with the help of 3rd party apps with out pxe boot .
Sad to say looks like I jut might configure My WDS server as a PXE boot for a 3rd party programs to clone and deploy colnes images in our company. WDS is very solw about 10times slowers than other imaging programs and to set it all up is freking nuts.Come on MicroSoft stream line this proccess for large companys and make windows easy to capture and deploy in a timely manner like other 3rd party apps.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:38:18 +0000

I have been dealing with WDS with 2008, and every guide is horrible. Microsoft cant even write a decent guide for their own product. Creating a base image of OS’s is very simple, but creating your own custom image to add to WDS never worked once! Been dealing with this for over 1 week and am ready to purchase Ghost and kill WDS. I just want a decent Deployment of XP machines for hundreds of Laptops. WDS i think is NOT the way to go!

By: Internet Roundup About the Internet Explorer

Internet Roundup About the Internet Explorer — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:06:55 +0000

[...] Vista, Brian of Reich Consulting finally tried the Windows Deployment Service and wrote about his first impressions on it. Tags: Backup, bug, Chrome, Firefox, Google Chrome, ie, Internet, internet-explorer, [...]

By: Brian Reich

Brian Reich — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:20:43 +0000

Agreed–and of course you can’t add the Windows XP installation medium to Windows Deployment Services, but you can capture a Windows XP image. In that respect WDS offers the same Windows XP support as Symantec Ghost. I wish Sysprep would offer some of the features on XP that it offers on Vista, such as the option to search a network share for drivers, and the removal of the HAL so images can be redeployed on various hardware.

By: DemoGeek

DemoGeek — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:05:05 +0000

Just working efficiently with Vista alone is my main issue with this. With my enterprises still running mostly on Windows XP it would really make a difference if WDS can work nicely with Windows XP as well.