Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) is a suite of utilities for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 customers who have subscribed to Microsoft Software Assurance

Microsoft Software Assurance

Microsoft Software Assurance is a Microsoft maintenance program aimed at business users who use Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and other server and desktop applications...

 program. It aims to brings easier manageability and monitoring of enterprise desktops, emergency recovery, desktop virtualization and application virtualization.

Diagnostics and recovery

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT), formerly Emergency Repair Disk Commander (ERD Commander), is a set of tools that helps diagnose an offline copy of Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

. It comes on a bootable

Booting

In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...

 disc and is run during computer startup. It can uninstall installed hotfix

Hotfix

A hotfix was originally the term applied to software patches that were applied to live i.e. still running systems. Similar use of the terms can be seen in hot swappable disk drives...

es, perform crash analysis, recover deleted files and access System Restore

System Restore

System Restore is a component of Microsoft's Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, but not Windows 2000, operating systems that allows for the rolling back of system files, registry keys, installed programs, etc., to a previous state in the event of system malfunction or failure.The...

's restore checkpoints on the offline operating system in an environment similar to Windows graphical user interface

Graphical user interface

In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

.

Microsoft DaRT is a successor of ERD Commander, which was part of the Winternals Administrator Pack from Winternals. ERD Commander later became a Microsoft property with its acquisition of Winternals on July 17, 2006.

Microsoft DaRT is based on Windows Preinstallation Environment

Windows Preinstallation Environment

Windows Preinstallation Environment is a lightweight version of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2 that is used for the deployment of workstations and servers...

. The tool set includes:

• Registry editor: Edits Windows Registry
  Windows registry
  The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains settings for low-level operating system components as well as the applications running on the platform: the kernel, device drivers, services, SAM, user...
  
  
• Locksmith: Resets a user account's password
• Crash Analyzer: Analyzes crash dumps
• File Restore: Restores deleted files
• Disk Commander: Repairs volumes, master boot record
  Master boot record
  A master boot record is a type of boot sector popularized by the IBM Personal Computer. It consists of a sequence of 512 bytes located at the first sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk...
  
  s and partitions
• Disk Wipe: Irrecoverably erases data from hard disk
• Computer Management: A group of utilities that help retrieve system information, enable, disable or manage device drivers, Windows services and software that run during computer startup, inspect the event logs of the offline system and manage partitions.
• Explorer
  Windows Explorer
  This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
  
  : A file manager
  File manager
  A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties...
  
  
• Solution Wizard: A guidance tool that helps user choose the proper repair tool
• TCP/IP Config: Displays and modifies TCP/IP configuration
• Hotfix Uninstall: Uninstalls windows hotfixes
• System File Repair
  System File Checker
  System File Checker is a utility in Microsoft Windows that allows users to scan for and restore corruptions in Windows system files. This utility is available on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003...
  
  : Revives corrupted or deleted system files by copying them from the Windows installation source
• Search
  Windows Search
  Windows Search is an indexed desktop search platform released by Microsoft for the Windows operating system....
  
  : Searches a disk for files
• Standalone System Sweeper: An antivirus that scans a system for malware, rootkits, and potentially unwanted software. Uses the same engine as Microsoft Security Essentials and other Microsoft antivirus products. An independent version of this product which is currently in beta stage is available to general public free of charge.

ERD Commander originally included more tools, including a web browser.

Network administration

Microsoft Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM)

Provides enhanced management capabilities for group policy

Group Policy

Group Policy is a feature of the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems. Group Policy is a set of rules that control the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. Group Policy provides the centralized management and configuration of operating systems, applications, and...

. It integrates with the Group Policy Configuration MMC snap-in

Microsoft Management Console

Microsoft Management Console is a component of Windows 2000 and its successors that provides system administrators and advanced users an interface for configuring and monitoring the system.- Snap-ins and consoles :...

 and adds change control, offline editing, and delegation capabilities. Change control tracks and manages

Revision Control System

The Revision Control System is a software implementation of revision control that automates the storing, retrieval, logging, identification, and merging of revisions. RCS is useful for text that is revised frequently, for example programs, documentation, procedural graphics, papers, and form...

 changes to Group Policy Objects (GPOs). It presents a virtual vault which houses the GPOs. To make any changes, a GPO must be checked out of the vault and the changed version checked in. The system enforces the latest version of the GPO and archives the older version, which can be restored back if need arises. Offline editing capabilities allow GPOs to be edited without a live connection to the network and Active Directory

Active Directory

Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....

. The changes are merged on the next connection. AGPM also adds delegation capability, where the responsibility of managing the Group Policy can be divided among different administrators. Each administrator is concerned with only a certain set of GPOs, which can then be administered independent of others. Optionally, it can be configured so that changes are reviewed by other administrators before being enforced. Advanced Group Policy Management is based on GPOVault, a product by DesktopStandard Corporation which Microsoft acquired in October 2006.

Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM)

A tool for managing, enforcing and monitoring BitLocker drive encryption across an entire organization from a center location. MBAM consists of administration console which can be access using a web browser, as well as an agent which must be installed on every computer in the organization, either manually or using Active Directory

Active Directory

Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....

.

Microsoft Asset Inventory Service (AIS)

A hosted service which tracks the usage of all software across the computers connected to the network, identified by name and vendor. It tracks and manages in real-time which users are using what application and the licenses associated with each. It can also generate usage reports.

Virtualization

Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V)

An application virtualization

Application Virtualization

Application virtualization is an umbrella term that describes software technologies that improve portability, manageability and compatibility of applications by encapsulating them from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in...

 and application streaming

Application Streaming

Computer application streaming is a form of on-demand software distribution.The basic concept of application streaming has its foundation in the way modern computer programming languages and operating systems produce and run application code. Only specific parts of a computer program need to be...

 platform that allows clients to run applications locally via on demand streaming from a centralized server. This makes sure that all clients run the application with the same configuration. App-V also allows standalone virtualized applications to run locally on the client.

Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V)

A desktop virtualization

Desktop virtualization

Desktop virtualization , as a concept, separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using the client–server model of computing....

 solution: It turns a physical server computer into multiple logical virtual computers

Virtual machine

A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...

 that run their own operating systems and applications. User connect to these new machines over the network via thin client

Thin client

A thin client is a computer or a computer program which depends heavily on some other computer to fulfill its traditional computational roles. This stands in contrast to the traditional fat client, a computer designed to take on these roles by itself...

s, computers that are just powerful enough to connect to the MED-V server. Microsoft advertises MED-V as a compatibility solution that allows enterprises to run legacy applications inside virtual machines, similar to what Windows Virtual PC

Windows Virtual PC

Windows Virtual PC is a virtualization program for Microsoft Windows. In July 2006 Microsoft released the Windows-hosted version as a free product...

 and Windows XP Mode do.

Releases

• MDOP 2008
• MDOP 2008 R2
• MDOP 2009
• MDOP 2009 R2
• MDOP 2010
• MDOP 2010 R2
• MDOP 2011
• MDOP 2011 R2

External links

• Official blog
• MDOP on Microsoft TechNet
  Microsoft TechNet
  Microsoft TechNet is a Microsoft program and resource for technical information, news, and events for IT professionals. Along with a website, they also produce a monthly subscription magazine titled "TechNet Magazine"....
  
  
• DaRT documentations on Microsoft Download Center