Build your own Vista install DVD
Published by Admin on 24.7.06 at 7/24/2006 01:58:00 PM.
The bottom is about to fall out of the market for imaging tools like Symantec Ghost: Windows Vista is based entirely around Microsoft’s own system imaging technology. The Vista install DVD is, in fact, just one big system image.
In the XP world, most advanced users are used to customising the Windows install disc. It’s a straightforward, if tedious, process to slipstream service packs and patches, add extra drivers and create answer files that allow XP to install with no user input.
But this flexibility only extends to the installation of Windows itself. To clone a full system with apps installed, Symantec Ghost or a similar utility must be used to create that image.
However, all this is about to change. Windows Vista is based entirely around Microsoft’s Windows Imaging Format (or WIM), a file-based imaging standard rather than a sector-based. this means that the image isn’t a bit-for-bit image of your disk layout, and hence you can apply the image to a new system without destroying the contents of the hard drive.
Also, Vista is hardware-agnostic, so you can use a single system image as a source for multiple hardware platforms, even if they have quite different hardware configurations. Link
In the XP world, most advanced users are used to customising the Windows install disc. It’s a straightforward, if tedious, process to slipstream service packs and patches, add extra drivers and create answer files that allow XP to install with no user input.
But this flexibility only extends to the installation of Windows itself. To clone a full system with apps installed, Symantec Ghost or a similar utility must be used to create that image.
However, all this is about to change. Windows Vista is based entirely around Microsoft’s Windows Imaging Format (or WIM), a file-based imaging standard rather than a sector-based. this means that the image isn’t a bit-for-bit image of your disk layout, and hence you can apply the image to a new system without destroying the contents of the hard drive.
Also, Vista is hardware-agnostic, so you can use a single system image as a source for multiple hardware platforms, even if they have quite different hardware configurations. Link