Configuring Windows 7 (Training Kit) - Part 9. This training kit is designed for IT professionals who operate in enterprise enviroments that use Windows 7 as a desktop operating system. You should have at least one year of experience in the IT field, as well as experience implementing and administering any Windows client operating system in a networked environment. | CHAPTER 2 Configuring System Images As a network professional in an enterprise environment you have probably configured a reference computer created an image and used a distribution server to apply that image to your client computers. You should be familiar with the Sysprep tool and how you can remove hardware-specific information from an image. This chapter looks at recent developments and enhancements to the various tools you use in configuring system images disk image files that include an operating system and in particular the use of file-based Windows Image WIM images and the ImageX tool. In previous Microsoft operating systems the use of virtual hard disks VHDs containing system images was limited to virtualization and the facility was used with Hyper-V Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Virtual PC software when implementing virtual machines. In Windows 7 this has been extended and you can create and use VHDs on hardware PCs that are not virtual machines. In Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate editions you can boot from VHD back up an entire system disk to VHD and install a system image to VHD. This new operating system feature enables you to recover quickly from a catastrophic system disk failure and provides failover protection without needing to implement disk array systems. This chapter looks at how you capture a system image and prepare it for distribution to other computers. It also looks at how to configure a VHD to hold a system image and how to enable a computer running Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate to boot from a VHD containing a system image. The chapter covers the various tools and methods you use to prepare system images for capture and to manage VHD files. EXAM TIP The use of native VHDs on non-virtual computers is a new feature in Windows 7 and is likely to be tested in the 70-680 examination. Exam objectives in this chapter Capture a system image. Configure a VHD. Lessons in this chapter Lesson 1 Capturing System Images 56 Lesson 2 .
