WDS+discover+image


 * If you wanted to deploy Windows 7 to 100 computers, you could configure 100 USB devices with the Windows 7 installation media and answer files for unattended installation, or you could configure one Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server and perform the installation over the network—a much more convenient option.

If you are going to perform more than a couple of operating system installations over the network, and you are using an AD DS network and Windows Server 2008, you should consider using Windows Deployment Services (WDS). WDS, a role that is available to a computer running Windows Server 2008, allows for the automatic deployment of operating system images. WDS uses multicast technology, which means that rather than transmitting a separate copy of the full operating system image across the network to each computer that you want to install Windows 7 on, WDS transmits the operating system once to all computers configured to receive it.

The WDS discover image contains a Windows PE image and WDS client software. You should not boot into Windows PE from a Windows PE boot disk (for example) to attempt to access a WDS server. You should not attempt to boot to Windows PE or from a discover image if your target computer is PXE-compliant. ||