Office Home And Business clubbing of windows vista
 

i desire to club the windows vista and windows server 2008 within a single bootable
disk.
please aid for your previously mentioned problem.
i have currently performed the clubbing of photos of .wim files.
i failed on this technique.
As the internal files of both the OS is equivalent ...i want a a further way out
to extract the appropiate file from your single set up.wim file .
"CH" wrote:
> Interestisng post and info. Apprciated the links you and *Mark VDBerg posted
> a while ago.
>
> CH
>
> "MICHAEL" <u158627_emr@dslr.net> wrote in message
> news:uVWcYS$rGHA.1596@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> >
> >
> > Vista^as installation plan is dramatically different to any previous
> > version of Windows: rather than being an ^ainstaller^a, the install DVD is
> > actually a preinstalled copy of Windows that simply gets decompressed onto
> > your PC.
> >
> > So how does it adjust to your hardware? How do you slipstream updates and
> > drivers into it? Can you also ^apreinstall^a your favourite apps into your
> > Vista DVD?
> >
> > And most importantly, can you build a custom Vista install DVD that doesn^at
> > set up all the ^afree AOL trial^a crap that typically comes bundled in with
> > Windows?
> >
> > We asked Microsoft Australia Technology Specialist for Windows Client,
> > John Pritchard how it all works and got some surprising answers.
> >
> >
> >
> > Dan Warne: Vista^as ^aimage based install^a basically means that what you get
> > on your Vista DVD is a preinstalled image of Vista, is that right?John
> > Pritchard: Yes, what users^a DVDs will contain is the install Windows
> > Imaging (.WIM) file, which is basically our operating system folders
> > wrapped up into one image file.
> >
> > The users will put their DVD in, boot off it and run the setup and it will
> > look to them like they are doing an install, but what it is really doing
> > is grabbing the install.wim and executing that as an upgrade or clean
> > install depending on what the user wants.
> >
> > Dan Warne: So it^as basically decompressing a preinstalled version of Vista
> > onto the hard drive, and when you do an upgrade, it^as basically putting a
> > clean set up of Vista on there and migrating your XP settings into Vista,
> > right?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes,Windows 7 Professional Key, that^as right, it^as a compressed image. We will ship
> > it with fast compression, and then users just desire to have the space on
> > the hard disk for that image to be offloaded and decompressed.
> >
> > There^as also the advantage that it is file-based, not sector-based image,
> > so you can set up the image onto your hard drive without overwriting
> > other data.
> >
> > We also have advanced User State Migration with Vista. Users can take
> > their settings from a previous version of Windows,Windows 7 Enterprise, migrate them off the PC
> > and put them into an installable format for a new PC.
> >
> > So, for example if they wanted to wipe their XP installation completely
> > and start again with Vista, they could take their data off their XP
> > installation with the User State Migration Toolkit and then restore it
> > into Vista once they^ave completed their installation.
> >
> > The User State Migration Toolkit can collect settings from Windows 2000
> > and XP SP.
> >
> > Dan Warne: So is that something that ordinary consumers could use to
> > migrate data from an old PC to a new Vista PC? Would it be easy enough for
> > consumers to use?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, it would be easy enough for consumers to use, though
> > in that market there^as also the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
> >
> > James Bannan: I^ave used the XP Tool, the Transfer Wizard, a number of
> > times for upgrading computers. The User State Migration Tool is more
> > powerful but it is command-line based, so not as user friendly. You^ad
> > certainly find that power users would be drawn to it, definitely,
> > especially as you can combine it with the WIM file image being a file
> > based imaging format, meaning it^as not an overwrite of your whole hard
> > drive (unless you wish it to be).
> >
> > Dan Warne: So in terms of the way the WIM system works, would it be
> > possible to use WIM to back up, say, a Dell laptop completely as an image,
> > and then restore it onto a Lenovo laptop with different hardware, for
> > example? Would Windows be able to adjust to that different hardware?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, and that^as one of the great benefits of it. The WIM
> > format, being a file-based format, is separated from the hardware you^are
> > running it on. So you could take an IBM, Dell, Toshiba, whatever you^ave
> > got, build your image up in it, and the way the traditional imaging
> > plan works, you can sysprep the machine, drop it and then create the
> > image.
> >
> > That way you can restore the image on multiple platforms. The caveat is
> > that I wouldn^at go from a 32-bit architecture to a 64-bit architecture,
> > but staying inside 32-bit, you are no longer tied to the Hardware
> > Abstraction Layer (HAL) any more, and that is a great feature that
> > releases us from so many challenges we^ave had in the past with HALs and
> > multiple photographs.
> >
> > You can now build your golden machine just like before, capture the image
> > and then that image can be deployed widely and as you will need to.
> >
> > Dan Warne: what about keeping an image up to date. Users have had to get
> > quite expert in doing this with XP because of its very out-of-date
> > driverbase. Is this made easier with WIM?
> >
> > John Pritchard: yes, you can update WIM photos very easily.
> >
> > There are two basic steps: one, you can just load a folder anywhere in the
> > image you like. If there^as something that requires a folder under the
> > system32 directory that is completely unique to some particular hardware,
> > you have the liberty to inject that folder into your WIM.
> >
> > The other way is that you can use a DriverLoad utility, and that will
> > actually place important things like disk drivers into their required
> > location in the image, so when you are running a setup, it can look
> > through its normal repository for drivers and bang, it^as there, because it
> > has been injected.
> >
> > James Bannan: Out of interest, this all does rely on the image having been
> > sysprepped, is that right? Because even though it is a comparable deal with
> > XP, even if the drivers are there, it does still desire to run through that
> > setup plan of assigning drivers to hardware. With WIM, I assume you
> > couldn^at just do a clean build, capture, inject the drivers, and drop it
> > back on? It would still need to have to run through the driver allocation?
> >
> > John Pritchard: With the actual released build of Vista, a user can mount
> > the install.wim file on the Vista install DVD, mount it and put the
> > drivers in themselves through the command line utilities.
> >
> > When they unmount it, they^ad have to burn yet another DVD of course, but they
> > could have put drivers in there with it mounted into the file system. The
> > drivers are actually injected into the right locations in there.
> >
> > That^as with an image that comes from Microsoft; if they need to build
> > their own golden machine, they have to reboot it, boot into something like
> > WinPE, and then use ImageX to capture the image, and once you^ave got that
> > WIM image, you can inject drivers into it just like the Microsoft-supplied
> > WIM.
> >
> > Dan Warne: A lot of drivers nowadays come bundled up into EXE files that
> > install everything into the right place for you. How would you inject
> > those into a WIM image?
> >
> > John Pritchard: You can actually do that with the unattend.xml file. You
> > would put those EXE files on the disk and let the unattend operation set up
> > them. If you look at the Windows System Image Manager, it has the
> > capability to say, ^alook at these packages on a distribution share, and
> > run these drivers as an application after you have built the system.^a
> >
> > James Bannan: at what point in the install do those apps run?
> >
> > John Pritchard: They^are accomplished in part seven, that^as after the system has
> > been built, before logon. Now, with the EXE packaged drivers, you can
> > install them onto your golden machine, then build an image based on that.
> > That^as the other way of doing it, of course.
> >
> > Dan Warne: I know that I've a cynical journalist^as mind, but isn^at that
> > a bit of a risk for malware to be injected into Vista install DVDs, given
> > that those apps are executed before logon?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, well I would certainly recommend when people are
> > looking at any content they make sure they have the approved and
> > hologrammed DVDs to make sure they^are dealing with the genuine product, to
> > get away from not knowing where the source comes from. But if they have
> > got control of the unattend and built it themselves then hopefully they
> > know what they are putting on it.
> >
> > James Bannan: plus I believe ImageX itself can do a verify on a WIM so I
> > guess that is an advantage if you have got the original WIM, a corrupted
> > WIM won^at match up to the original.
> >
> > Dan Warne: I guess like any software that can be corrupted, people will
> > just have to go back to the original hashes.
> >
> > John Pritchard: I think it comes back to people having the original
> > software first, and that is the level of assurance I would look for.
> >
> > Dan Warne: I guess I was thinking more of a corporation that might have a
> > WIM image sitting somewhere on a network share and a rogue employee might
> > go in and add something to the image.
> >
> > James Bannan: it^as probably a bit too much to rely on WIM to be able to
> > protect itself from rogue IT administrators^a| you^are asking a lot.
> >
> > Dan Warne: yeah, I guess if you have file access you can do pretty much
> > whatever you like can^at you.
> >
> > James Bannan: pretty much.
> >
> > John Pritchard: Also with larger enterprises they^all have something like
> > SMS, and the users don^at see that. It^as deployed under SMS like an
> > application^a| it^as managed centrally and that has very good plan around
> > that to protect corporate WIM pictures.
> >
> > James Bannan: So could you inject the Office installation files into your
> > WIM, and could you have different installs for different machines, based
> > on different unattend.xml files for example?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Certainly,Office Home And Business, and this is where you^are getting into
> > leveraging not only the unattend file, but also the Windows System Image
> > Manager. You can set up all your applications as packages, so you can have
> > one unattend file that installs office, and some other that doesn^at. An
> > unattend file can do patches, drivers and applications, effectively
> > simulating a GUI run-once.
> >
> > James Bannan: I guess then, if your home user who is interested within this
> > kind of thing but doesn^at have access to WDM or SMS, they^are just going to
> > have to customise a number of unattends and specify the one they want when
> > they do the build.
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, and if you choose to build your own DVD and put your
> > unattend file into the root of the DVD, there^as only one option there. It^as
> > called autounattend.xml ^a it has to be that name because it^as what the
> > build method looks for. So if you wanted to have various unattended
> > installations, you^ad just have to manually switch those files yourself.
> >
> > James Bannan: I guess though you could probably have an open-source PXE if
> > you wanted to.
> >
> > John Pritchard: That one I don^at know about.
> >
> > Dan Warne: [sarcastic] open source is the enemy, James!
> >
> > James Bannan: [laughs] yes but Microsoft is interested in how its software
> > integrates with everything else, surely^a|
> >
> > John Pritchard: It^as always good there to hear from what our customers are
> > saying and what they have to have.
> >
> > Dan Warne: What about the method of updating the Vista image with service
> > packs and patches? The course of action for slipstreaming in XP is relatively
> > straightforward once you know how but it isn^at exactly intuitive, or as
> > easy as running Windows Update.
> >
> > John Pritchard: Well, in Vista, we can do that once the machine is built
> > and on the network; you can use WSUS, or if they have an SMS environment
> > you can patch the deployed machine in either of those two ways, so that
> > doesn^at change.
> >
> > But once you build an image, it poses a problem because it^as likely to be
> > out of date as soon as you close it off. So, with that,Office Home And Student, you can take the
> > image, and say, ^aOK, I^all build a command line file that enables me to
> > mount the image, apply the pictures to the OS while it is mounted, and then
> > seal up and commit the changes to the image, and distribute the image.^a
> >
> > Dan Warne: So is there an automated way to grab all the patches off
> > Windows Update and automatically apply them to an image? Or would you have
> > to download each patch individually and manually apply them?
> >
> > John Pritchard: You^ave got the image effectively mounted as a file system,
> > so you^ad apply the patches as command-line patches. You would have to get
> > each patch and apply it. It^as like slipstreaming SP2 into an SP1
> > installation.
> >
> > But if you have an image that^as, say 2.5GB, instead of patching it and
> > having to push that entire image file out to different file shares, what
> > you can do is instead of sending out the whole patched image again, you
> > simply make your patch commands and then just send out the command line to
> > mount the image and apply the patches locally and unmount the image. So at
> > each point, they can run a series of batch files to update their image.
> >
> > Dan Warne: So, in terms of customising the Vista install DVD to remove
> > software components. Because inevitably within a large operating system there^as
> > a lot of stuff in there that people don^at want or use, like in XP, the MSN
> > Browser. Is there an interface for configuring WIM that is a bit more
> > componentised, rather than just looking at the files on the disk? Can you
> > actually select apps in Windows and just get them ripped out of the image?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, where I^ad go to for that is if you take the Microsoft
> > DVD that will be shipped out,Purchase Windows 7, we again go back to the unattend.xml and you
> > can build an unattend.xml that says, ^aI want this, I want this, I want my
> > partitions configured like this, do all that but also select that you want
> > this game, but not solitaire, or whatever.^a
> >
> > You can then put that unattend.xml file on a USB key and if you plug that
> > in when Vista is installing, it will base its install method on the
> > unattend.xml instruction file. It means that you don^at have to build a
> > custom DVD for a custom set up. Consumers can take the System Image
> > Manager, build up the unattend as they would like, put it on a USB key and
> > use that to set up through the Microsoft-standard image file.
> >
> > Dan Warne: Cool, so that^as presumably a new feature in Vista? I knew you
> > could script Windows installations previously, but you^ave never been able
> > to run that script from a USB key, right?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, that^as right. This is where we^ave got the ability to
> > look for the USB port. It^as like having a WINNT.SIF file being looked for
> > in the root of a floppy drive. What I do for my customers is they have the
> > bootable Vista build DVD and they put their unattend on a USB key, which
> > saves them having to rebuild their DVDs all the time.
> >
> > James Bannan: a lot of corporate customers more than likely have the
> > facilities to be able to install off a network share, won^at they. It^as a
> > fairly safe guess that most power users would have more than one computer
> > at home. You^ad have your file server, or something along those lines, so
> > you wouldn^at have to go to the length of having a USB key, would you. You
> > could just have the unattend.xml in the share root and launch the
> > installation from there, is that right?
> >
> > John Pritchard: Yes, you can do, if you boot up under something like
> > WinPE, because you obviously have to be able to get to the share, get an