Additional Resources for Designing Unattended Installations

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

These resources contain additional information and tools related to this chapter.

  • "Choosing an Automated Installation Method" in this book for more information about planning Sysprep installations.

  • "Designing Image-based Installations with Sysprep" in this book for more information about answer files, distribution shares, and unattended and automated installations.

  • "Migrating User State" in this book for more information about migrating user data and settings.

  • "Designing a Group Policy Infrastructure" in Designing a Managed Environment of this kit for more information about folder redirection.

  • "Planning for Remote Server Management" in Planning Server Deployments of this kit for more information about Emergency Management Services.

  • The Storage Technologies Collection of the Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference (or see the Storage Technologies Collection on the Web at https://www.microsoft.com/reskit) for more information about disk partitions and file systems.

  • Microsoft Windows Corporate Deployment Tools User’s Guide (Deploy.chm) for more information about using Sysprep. Deploy.chm is included in the Deploy.cab file in the Support folder on the Windows Server 2003 operating system CD.

  • The Windows Catalog link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.

  • The Windows Update link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.

  • The Windows Preinstallation Environment link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources for information about Windows PE and Windows PE licensing plans.

  • The Microsoft Platform SDK link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources to download the Core SDK which contains information about configuring a .theme file.

  • The TCP/IP Boot Disk link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources for more information about creating a TCP/IP boot disk for distributing disk images across a network.

  • The Microsoft TechNet articles "User State Migration in Windows XP," "Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating Files and Settings," "Deploying Windows XP Part I: Planning," and "Deploying Windows XP Part II: Implementing" for more information about migrating user data and settings.

  • Article Q294895, "Description of the Application Compatibility Toolkit 2.0 for Windows XP," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

  • Article Q216573, "How Windows Determines ACPI Compatibility," and article Q298898, "How to Determine the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) That Is Used in Windows XP," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information about determining the type of HAL that is installed on a computer.

  • Article Q252448, "How to Create an MS-DOS Network Startup Disk in Windows 2000," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information about creating a network boot disk by using a Windows NT Server 4.0 operating system CD.

  • Article Q167685, "How to Create an El Torito Bootable CD-ROM," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information about using the El Torito specification to create a bootable CD.

  • Articles Q142857, "How to Create a Network Installation Boot Disk," and Q128800, "How to Provide Additional NDIS2 Drivers for Network Client 3.0," in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information about creating a network boot disk by adding NDIS and NDIS2 drivers to an MS-DOS boot disk.

  • Upgrade Advisor

    Use Upgrade Advisor to identify incompatible software and hardware on a destination computer before you perform a clean installation or an upgrade. To download the Upgrade Advisor tools, see the Windows Upgrade Advisor link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources. You also can run the Upgrade Advisor tools by using the /checkupgradeonly parameter with the Winnt32.exe tool. The Winnt32.exe tool is included in the i386 folder on the Windows XP Professional operating system CD and on the Windows Server 2003 operating system CD.

  • User State Migration Tool

    Use the User State Migration tool to save user settings and data before you perform an unattended installation. To download a free version of the User State Migration Tool, see the User State Migration Tool link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.

  • Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer

    Use the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer to identify security vulnerabilities that require further configuration after you perform an unattended installation. See article Q320454, "Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) Version 1.0 Is Available" in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. To find this article, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base link on the Web Resources page at https://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.

For best results in identifying Help topics by title, in Help and Support Center, under the Search box, click Set search options. Under Help Topics, select the Search in title only checkbox.

  • "Using roaming user profiles" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, for more information about roaming profiles

  • "Disk Management overview" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, for more information about configuring disks.

  • "Best practices for permissions and user rights" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, for more information about permissions.

  • "Start" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, for more information about using the start command to run installation programs in batch files. To find "Start" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, look under Support Tasks, click Tools, click Command-line reference A-Z, and then click Start.