Automated deployment of Windows Vista can now be tested by using a beta release of an updated OS Deployment (OSD) feature pack—a free add-on for Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 that allows it to deploy OS images to SMS-managed PCs, thereby avoiding the need to send a technician to the computer. Released in June 2006, the beta feature pack will allow customers and partners to begin testing deployment of Vista (Beta 2 and later) using SMS 2003. It also adds support for 64-bit Windows XP. Microsoft expects the final version to be available in Aug. 2006.

Updated Windows Image Format

The update to the OSD feature pack was required because Vista will use a new format for system images. The updated Windows Image (WIM) format in Vista stores the file structure of the deployed OS, and when coupled with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) tools available for Windows Vista, it eliminates the need to build separate images for each hardware configuration. Furthermore, because utilities can access individual files inside Vista OS images, systems administrators can change an image (for example, install a patch or a new driver), without re-creating the entire image. Together, WIM and WAIK should dramatically reduce the time required by administrators to maintain OS images.

The current SMS OSD feature pack is incompatible with the newer Vista WIM files (and that used by the next version of Windows Server, code-named Longhorn), and the new Vista WAIK tools cannot read or manipulate WIM images built with the older OSD feature pack.

The updated SMS OSD feature pack resolves these incompatibilities. It can capture images of 32-bit and 64-bit versions of both Windows XP and Windows Vista Beta 2 (and subsequent releases) in the new WIM image format, and also can convert existing SMS OSD WIM images to the newer format.

Resources

The beta OSD FPU can be downloaded from connect.microsoft.com.

Background on Systems Management Server and the OS Deployment feature pack can be found in the "Systems Management Server Roadmap Updated" on page 3 of the May 2006 Update.

Vista setup and deployment is described in "Windows Vista Setup Eases Deployment" on page 3 of the July 2006 Update.