Planning Your Preferred Client Configuration

Planning Your Preferred Client Configuration

After you identify your business needs and decide which features of Windows Vista to use, determine how to implement these features to simplify the management of users and computers in your organization. An important means to simplification is standardization. Standardizing desktop configurations makes it easier to install, update, manage, support, and replace computers that run Windows Vista. Standardizing users' configuration settings, software, hardware, and preferences makes it easier to deploy operating system and application upgrades, and configuration changes can be guaranteed to work on all computers.

When users install their own operating system upgrades, applications, device drivers, settings, preferences, and hardware devices, a simple problem can become complex. Establishing standards for desktop configurations prevents many problems and makes it easier for support personnel to identify and resolve problems. Having a standard configuration that you can install on any computer minimizes downtime by ensuring that user settings, applications, drivers, and preferences are the same as before the problem occurred.