Rapid Desktop Replacement
-
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Saves time on the first deployment.
BS
Getting an imaging system setup and running nicely is not a 2 hour job. It needs thought, research and planning like any other project.
It's totally worth doing and I'd encourage anyone to do it though.
But you don't need ANY Of that. You can image from a standard VL download DVD. No one suggested an image deployment system, just moving to VL imaging rights so that you can deploy from a stock image rather than a full OEM install and remove the software.
I can do it with zero setup. Zero, literally. And I do. Having a deployment system is for large, central offices. Using standard image installs that VL allows takes so little effort that you can't possibly do it more easily without it.
-
You can figure out when you are justified in moving from super basic DVD images run locally on each machine instead of an imaging server. There is a crossover point. But what we are talking about, using a central image rather then doing a full install is literally easier at your first machine. What @Carnival-Boy is doing I can't figure out how it could be more efficient at any scale, even a single machine. I could see it being cheaper, but as imaging rights for a full company are only about $120, it doesn't take much IT time saving to justify.
-
@scottalanmiller I should have quoted more of your post, it seemed to imply setting up the whole shooting match. I agree VL is an easy way to save some time.
-
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller I should have quoted more of your post, it seemed to imply setting up the whole shooting match. I agree VL is an easy way to save some time.
I've not talked about imaging SYSTEMS at all in the thread. Only that using an image based deployment is faster and easier than using OEM install media where you have to them remove the bloatware after the install.
-
You could use retail media (for installing, not imaging) for that matter newer ones support the Slic actiation in the BIOS from OEM. Win7 will have the Key on the Case.
-
@Jason said:
You could use retail media (for installing, not imaging) for that matter newer ones support the Slic actiation in the BIOS from OEM. Win7 will have the Key on the Case.
To use it for installing you need imaging rights. Otherwise you have to use the OEM media.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
To use it for installing you need imaging rights. Otherwise you have to use the OEM media.
That is not what imaging rights are.. You can install. You can't make images from it. Imaging means to make an image to apply or clone to multiple devices.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/learn-more/brief-reimaging-rights.aspx
-
@Jason said:
@scottalanmiller said:
To use it for installing you need imaging rights. Otherwise you have to use the OEM media.
That is not what imaging rights are.. You can install. You can't make images from it. Imaging means to make an image to apply or clone to multiple devices.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Licensing/learn-more/brief-reimaging-rights.aspx
Yes, I understand that. But my understanding what that FPP media could only be used if the licensing was there from this as well.
-
This line from the brief is one of the ones that I have always understood to apply to FPP copies as well:
"Summary: Reimaging is the copying of software onto multiple devices from one consistent image. "
-
The FPP disk would be the "one consistent image" in that circumstance.
-
FPP could be used for all devices with an FPP license, of course. But can you use FPP media for an OEM machine without VL reimaging rights?
-
That would imply if you bought a new computer with windows 8.1 Pro OEM that has downgrade rights to Win7 Pro. You cannot actually downgrade this unless you buy a volume license to image it. Since the manufacturer isn't going to provide you with the OEM install disk for windows 7 on your computer.
-
@Jason said:
That would imply if you bought a new computer with windows 8.1 Pro OEM that has downgrade rights to Win7 Pro. You cannot actually downgrade this unless you buy a volume license to image it. Since the manufacturer isn't going to provide you with the OEM install disk for windows 7 on your computer.
That was my understanding of it, yes. But that makes sense.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
FPP could be used for all devices with an FPP license, of course. But can you use FPP media for an OEM machine without VL reimaging rights?
Correct. See OEM downgrade steps process for example: http://www.microsoft.com/OEM/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=_RodMIe4Mhw
-
Thanks @Chris
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller I should have quoted more of your post, it seemed to imply setting up the whole shooting match. I agree VL is an easy way to save some time.
I've not talked about imaging SYSTEMS at all in the thread. Only that using an image based deployment is faster and easier than using OEM install media where you have to them remove the bloatware after the install.
But you're forgetting that now instead of removing bloatware, you have to download and install drivers and all the Windows updates that would have been part of the base OEM install.
Those are negatives, but not ones that should EVER stop you from doing it anyway. And besides, you can easily add the drivers and software installation packages (not installed, just the installers) to the image. Then once the image is in place, install the drivers from your folder, install the local copy of the apps.. and away you go..
So this slightly updated image, yet no where near very custom, might take you an hour or so to get ready... it will save you hugely in the long.
You can take it even further by completely updating Windows updates before take the image, a process that even a new OEM Dell install normally takes 1+ hours of downloading to do... you've just saved that on every machine you deploy.
-
@Dashrender said:
I've not talked about imaging SYSTEMS at all in the thread. Only that using an image based deployment is faster and easier than using OEM install media where you have to them remove the bloatware after the install.
Drivers are trivial. You stick them on a USB stick if you need, or on the network if you don't. And if you get past the most basic level of effort, you build them into a disc image and use that. I've not forgotten that, I just see it as so little effort that it would normally not need to be mentioned. I would need to update and manage the drivers from the OEM disk and need to run Windows updates anyway. So I don't see either of those as being more work and if I had to do this more than once it would move from break even to benefit there too.
-
@Dashrender said:
So this slightly updated image, yet no where near very custom, might take you an hour or so to get ready... it will save you hugely in the long.
You can take it even further by completely updating Windows updates before take the image, a process that even a new OEM Dell install normally takes 1+ hours of downloading to do... you've just saved that on every machine you deploy.
In a lot of cases this is great. But there are plenty where it is overkill too. Drivers on USB are just so easy for a small business.
-
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller I should have quoted more of your post, it seemed to imply setting up the whole shooting match. I agree VL is an easy way to save some time.
I've not talked about imaging SYSTEMS at all in the thread. Only that using an image based deployment is faster and easier than using OEM install media where you have to them remove the bloatware after the install.
But you're forgetting that now instead of removing bloatware, you have to download and install drivers and all the Windows updates that would have been part of the base OEM install.
Those are negatives, but not ones that should EVER stop you from doing it anyway. And besides, you can easily add the drivers and software installation packages (not installed, just the installers) to the image. Then once the image is in place, install the drivers from your folder, install the local copy of the apps.. and away you go..
So this slightly updated image, yet no where near very custom, might take you an hour or so to get ready... it will save you hugely in the long.
You can take it even further by completely updating Windows updates before take the image, a process that even a new OEM Dell install normally takes 1+ hours of downloading to do... you've just saved that on every machine you deploy.
Dell offers .CAB files for each model with all drivers. You can either automatically install them or extract them with 7zip and let device manager install them.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
Drivers are trivial.
For you, maybe. Not for me. Maybe because I'm not really an IT pro, but drivers are my biggest issue with clean installs. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
For example, I do a clean Windows 7 install. It doesn't have a network adapter driver. I go to hp.com and type in the model of the PC. It gives me two different options. I don't know which one is the card in my particular PC. How do I find out? The other issue is that downloading files from HP.com is just about the slowest website in the world. It can take hours.
HP isn't bad. Lenovo was nightmare. It has an 'update manager' which I installed first, but that failed to download all the drivers. And I spent hours trying to find a WWAN driver. I don't think it actually exists on Lenovo's website. In the end I gave up.
Uninstalling HP's bloatware takes about 10 minutes, if that.
Now if I was doing a re-install, I'd probably use a clean version of Windows, rather than the HP recovery media. But the fact that the PCs comes pre-installed out of the box means sticking with this and not doing a clean install when I purchase the PC is faster. You may have issues with bloatware (I don't see why), but I don't speed is a valid reason for doing a clean install.
