Misson Critcal problem,need your advice how can I do this.

[clivebuckwheat]

I Am about to deploy Windows 7 to about 450 pc's. I have to do the following.

1. Identify if the pc is a desktop or a laptop via a script and then depending on what it is install some apps on first login.

2. Activate windows automatically

My question is this is there a way to tell if a computer is a laptop or desktop via a script or a batch file?, and how would one go about installing a few apps on first login?.

I haven't had much success in creating a unattend.xml, is there a utility I can use to generate one I find the WAIK cumbersome.

Edited June 2, 2010 by clivebuckwheat

[cluberti]

1. Yes - assuming you're doing this under the previous Windows install or a WinPE booted with WMI support, you can use the Win32_SystemEnclosure class, specifically the ChassisTypes array return (for example 3 is desktop, 9 is laptop). If you use MDT to build and deploy your desktops, you can use (or set) Task Sequence variables to act based on machine type for installing apps, drivers, etc. I strongly suggest you look into MDT 2010 for this project as it's a really great front-end for WSIM/unattend, and it's PE images it creates to deploy can be booted over the network from WDS if desired (or run from USB or DVD media, although that's definitely the harder way to do a rollout of a few hundred PCs).

2. There are a few posts about this already; I suggest looking into those.

[clivebuckwheat]

will MDT 2010 help me create an unattend.xml?. I am so confused with the WAIK kit.

[cluberti]

Yes - take a look at a very small-scale production and see if you can do it (it talks about deployment from a USB key, but everything to the point of actually creating the USB media would be the same as doing it any other way). If you can do this, you can do a large-scale network rollout (really, it's about as easy as breathing once you get the hang of it, and moving from these skills to System Center ConfigMgr aren't that much a stretch either... ).

You'll need a few things to do this, and I'm making the assumption you already have these things on hand other than MDT itself:

1. A Windows Vista or Windows 7 client, or Server 2008 or 2008 R2 machine to use for installing the MDT "deployment workbench" (it's what it's called). If this is going to be permanent, ultimately it helps to use Server 2008/2008R2 for this if server space is an issue, because you can also use this as your WDS network deployment machine later, and because some of the MDT files are copied from this machine over the network if you do end up doing WDS for deployment.

2. Your Windows installation DVD, copied to the hard disk in a temporary folder.

3. Any applications you want to install in your rollout, copied to the hard disk in a temporary folder.

4. The WAIK for Windows 7.

5. MDT 2010 (x86 if your MDT machine is x86, x64 if it's x64 Windows).

6. Optional - download the MDT 2010 print-ready documentation if you want to do a deep read on MDT.

To set up MDT 2010 in a nutshell, assuming a Server 2008 R2 machine as the "MDT box", you obviously #1 install and patch Windows, #2 install the WAIK, #3 install MDT 2010, #4 (optional) install the WDS role. Once MDT is installed, you open the deployment workbench mmc and download the pre-requisites you need from Deployment Workbench > Information Center > Components. You really only need MSXML 6.0 and the WAIK, and if this is Server 2008 R2 you'll have both if you've already installed the WAIK.

Once you're here, read the guide linked above. Getting a basic working deployment shouldn't take more than an hour or so.

[clivebuckwheat]

Thanks I checked out your link you put in the post it's pretty sweet what you did.