Install Windows over a network with Windows Deployment Service

Step 1 – Install WDS

Install the Windows Deployment Services server role (I used a Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 box but more recent Server OSes are much the same). You can accept all the defaults but you may want to install it to a disk with enough space to store the images.

Open the WDS management console

We need to add a “Boot image” to give WDS something to load when the client asks. I used the boot.wim file from a Windows 7 DVD (in the SOURCES folder). Give it a name like “Install Windows”. This will take a few minutes to copy to the WDS server.

After it has been added, right-click the “Install Windows” boot image and choose “Create Capture Boot Image”. A new wizard starts. Give the capture image a useful name like “Capture PC Image” and save it to anywhere you like. After the capture image is created you need to add it as a boot image exactly the same way you did with the Windows 7 DVD. Its a bit bizarre it doesn’t do this automatically but hey-ho.

We now have everything we need on the server side.

Step 2 – Create a Reference PC

Because we want to deploy Windows XP we have to go through the faff of creating a reference PC. With Vista and later you can just copy an install.wim file from the DVD exactly like you did when adding the boot image.

Choose a spare PC and install Windows XP SP3 on it

Download and apply all Windows Updates including things like Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 11.

Don’t worry about installing drivers as we are trying to create a small generic image that can go onto most PCs without blue-screening. Therefore, the less installed on, it the better. Also, don’t bother installing any applications to it unless you have licenses that can be easily reapplied. Chances are, especially with free software like Firefox, that by time you want to use the image again there will be newer versions online.

Once all patches are applied I tend to defrag the hard disk. I don’t know whether this makes a massive difference but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Step 3 – Preparing the Reference PC for Capture

We need to strip the reference PC of any unique names, Security Identifiers (SIDs) etc. before we can capture it. Thankfully, we can use a tool called SysPrep (from the XP CD) to do this. We can also provide a script to automate most of the initial setup routine when it eventually gets deployed. From the XP CD extract the contents of Drive:\SUPPORTTOOLS\deploy.cab to a folder “C:\sysprep” on the reference PC.

Run C:\sysprep\setupmgr.exe - This will launch a wizard to create an answer file to automate installation.

Type of Setup: Sysprep setup

Product: Windows XP Professional

License Agreement: No, do not fully automate the installation

Carry on through the wizard filling out the relevant info like Company Name, Languages, Time Zone etc. Remember the less you put in, the more
generic the image will be. When you get to the end of the wizard there is no “Finish” button, just use “Cancel” instead and save it to the sysprep folder. Warning: Do not encrypt the admin password as it will cause the script to crash during deployment.

Step 4 – Capture the XP image

Boot up the Reference PC

Boot from the network (you may need to configure this in the BIOS) and hit F12 to launch WDS. Be quick otherwise the PC will load Windows and start going through the mini setup. No biggie but you will need to sysprep again.

Choose “Capture PC Image” from the WDS options.

This will load the Capture wizard that guides you through the process. It’s very simple but there are a couple of things to note. It will only let you capture a partition that has been syspreped, otherwise it will just show a blank. Also, you can choose to save the image to a partition and upload it to the WDS server at the same time. This makes things a lot easier, just make sure that you fill out all the boxes in order for it to work.

This process will take a while depending on how big you image is. Mine took 7 minutes to capture a 1.3GB image.

Step 5 – Deploy the Image

We’re almost there! This process is similar to the capture step above. Boot from the network but this time choose the “Install Windows” option from the WDS screen. This will load a GUI similar to the Windows 7 setup. It will list any images that are compatible with the PCs HAL type. Hopefully, it will recognise the XP capture we created in Step 3 and we can deploy it. This took about 9 minutes on the laptop I was deploying it to. It will now go through the usual XP setup process and you will be left with a happy .