This book provides comprehensive information about planning, designing, and implementing automated installations in medium and large organizations. Options range from automated installations of a basic operating system to complex installations of a customized operating system and applications. The technologies and tools discussed in this book include: unattended installation, image-based installation with the System Preparation (Sysprep) tool, and Remote Installation Services (RIS). IT professionals can use the guidelines discussed in this book to create a functional specification that describes how to automate the installation of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional.

This book contains the following chapters:

Choosing an Automated Installation Method

Designing Unattended Installations

Designing Image-based Installations with Sysprep

Designing RIS Installations

Migrating User State