Vista Setup Eases Deployment

The Windows Vista installation program, Setup, uses imaging to speed OS deployment and make it more reliable. Imaging technology creates full-disk copies of a master or model computer that can be quickly and easily duplicated on other machines. Although large customers, systems integrators, and computer manufacturers already make substantial use of third-party imaging tools, Vista uses a new file-based image format that will reduce the number of images organizations need to maintain. But deploying large numbers of computers with image-based setup is still complex and requires an investment in creating and testing images before it can be used efficiently.

Why Change Setup?

Previous versions of Windows required a complex installation process that simultaneously copied files and configured the system. The Setup program had to prepare the computer’s disk for the new OS, copy all of the necessary files onto the disk, and then run a series of programs and scripts to build the Registry to configure features and customize Windows for the user and computer. Microsoft will now employ imaging with Vista. In general, image-based setup programs are faster because less processing is required to build new computers from a master image: new files, including Registry files, are simply copied directly from the image to the new disk.