How to Deploy Windows 7

If you are ready to deploy Windows 7, if you are ready to make the move to a new operating system, here are some tips that you can use to make that transition smoothly.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit
Do you have the right hardware? Does you PC system have the necessary components to make the transition problem free? Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit can help you with that. But you say that you have hundreds of PC’s that need to be identified, and you don’t have the time or the resources to accomplish that. Well the MAP Toolkit is an agentless tool that can provide inventory, assessment, and reporting elements so that you can securely assess IT environments for various platform migrations. Start with Windows 7, but you can also assess Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V and Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track, and Windows Azure.

Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) 4.0

Here’s the second toolkit. This suite of programs offers practical guidance for IT organizations. it helps IT professionals connect service management principles to everyday IT tasks and activities and ensures alignment between IT and the business. For example, you can get information about several business practices that work with Windows 7.

• Best Practices for Service Vendor Management
• Bridging from MOF Guidance to Microsoft Products – A Companion Guide
• Continuous Improvement – A MOF Companion Guide
• Cross Reference ITIL V3 and MOF 4.0
• Diagrams for Management Reviews
• Getting Started with MOF 4.0.
• IT Pro Quick Start Kit
• Management Reviews
• Microsoft Operations Framework 4
• MOF Action Plan – Redistributing the Workload
• MOF Action Plan – Release Readiness for Windows 7
• MOF Action Plan – Standard Changes

The word for IT managers thinking about deploying Windows 7, you are not alone.

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 (Update 1)

Ok, but enough reading. If you want to listen to an expert on deploying Windows 7, here’s your chance. He will show you how to use Hardlink Migration. With this deployment video you will see one of the features you can take advantage of when you use MDT to deploy Windows 7. Here, instead of copying all the users files off the machine, then copying them back again after the Windows 7 install completes, the Hardlink Migration keeps all the files on the machine, and just updates the pointers to them in Windows 7. It saves a lot of time during the install process.

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 (Version 2.0)

The Windows Automated Installation Toolkit (AIK) includes a variety of tools and documentation to help you deploy Windows in your organization. This works well with highly customized environments, and it includes tools that will enable you to configure many deployment options. Here is what Windows AIK includes:

• Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM)
• Open Windows images, create answer files, and manage distribution shares and configuration sets.
• ImageX
• Capture, create, modify, and apply Windows images.
• Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)
• Apply updates, drivers, and language packs to a Windows image.
• Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)
• A minimal operating system environment used to deploy Windows. The AIK includes several tools used to build and configure customized Windows PE environments.
• User State Migration Tool (USMT)
• Migrate user data from earlier versions of Windows to Windows 7.

Source:-www.windows7news.com