Deploying Windows 7 – Capturing a Reference Image

If your like the School I work at, you probably have quite a bit of software that has to be installed to every computer on site and even laptops. While you could use MDT 2010 to install all this software, or even group policy, image the time this would take and therefore the amount of time that PC would be sat ‘installing software’ rather than in use.

The simple way around this is to create a reference PC and then capture an image of it to install onto all your other computers. With MDT 2010 this is a very simple task and here’s how.

Deployment Share Rules

Right click on the Deployment Share and select Properties

Select the Rules tab and ensure that the Skip Capture rule is set to NO

If you have to change this rule then you need to update the deployment share and completely regenerate the boot images

Once the boot images have been regenerated then you will need to replace your current boot images in Windows Deployment Services with the newly regenerate ones

If you are unsure how to do this then view the other blog posts for details

Capture Task Sequence

The next step is to create a task sequence that will capture an image from your reference computer

Right click on the task sequence node and select New Task Sequence

Complete all the information to identify this task sequence

Select Sysprep and Capture from the drop down menu

Select the operating system that will be used (this will not effect the image being captured)

After accepting the defaults on the next screen complete all the relevant details on the OS settings screen

Enter a password for the local administrator and click Next

At the last screen check the summary and click Next to complete the task sequence

Disable Sysprep Task Sequence

In my experience the execution of the sysprep command from the task sequence is patchy at best, so to get around this issue you can follow these steps to disable the sysprep command in the task sequence and run it manually before capturing the image of the reference computer

Right click on the task sequence you have just created and select Properties

Click on the task sequence tab

Click on the Execute Sysprep option and then click on the Option tab on the right hand side. Now click on the check box next to Disable This Step and click OK to complete the configuration

Capturing The Image

On the reference computer install all your necessary software and then run Sysprep, the sysprep application can be found in the C:WindowsSystem32Sysprep folder

Select the options for OOBE (Out Of the Box Experience) and tick the Generalize option

When the PC reboots ensure it boots to the network

As it boots up you will now have another task sequence to choose from as well as your original Windows 7 deployment one, selecting the capture task you have created will start the process of capturing an image of your reference computer and uploading it to your deployment share

In some network scenarios you can get an error message when capturing the image that references a blank UNC error. To solve this error right click on the task sequence and select properties and then select the task sequence tab

You now need to add a variable into the sequence with these settings

• Name: Set Image Folder
• Task Sequence Variable: ComputerBackupLocation
• Value: \SERVERNAMEdeploymentshare$captures

To add the variable select Add | General | Set Task Sequence Variable and use the details above to complete the fields

Use the arrow buttons to move it to the top of the sequence

A video showing the capture process can be found here

Deploying A Captured Image

Once your capture has finished you will need to add the created .wim file to your operating systems node

Right click on the operating system node and select Import Operating System and select the Custom image file option

Browse for the location of the captured file(normally in a folder called captures in the deployment share) and put a tick in the move the files option (this saves on disk space by moving the file and not copying it)

Select the option to copy the windows setup files and browse for the location of the original source files you copied to the server.

Specify a name for the destination directory

Check the summary screen and click Next to import the captured image

Once the import is complete you will need to follow the steps from earlier posts to create a new task sequence to deploy your newly imported image.

You should now be able to boot your computers to the network and using MDT 2010 to deploy your captured image