Windows Automated Installation Kit - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK or WAIK) is a collection of tools and technologies produced by Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

designed to help deploy Microsoft Windows operating system images to target computers or to a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)

VHD (file format)

A Virtual Hard Disk is a virtual hard disk file format, meaning it can contain what is found on a physical hard disk drive, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine...

. It was first introduced with Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

History

Windows AIK Version 1.0 was released with Windows Vista

Windows Vista

. New or redesigned tools and technologies included Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM), SysPrep

Sysprep

Sysprep is the name of Microsoft's System Preparation Utility for Microsoft Windows operating system deployment.- History :Sysprep was originally introduced for use with Windows NT 4.0. Later versions introduced for Windows 2000 and Windows XP are available for download from Microsoft and included...

, ImageX, and 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...

(WinPE) v2.0.

Windows AIK Version 1.1 was released with Windows Vista SP1 (and Windows Server 2008). A number of new tools were introduced, including PostReflect and VSP1Cln. The new WinPE 2.1 could be more customized.

Windows AIK Version 2.0 was released with Windows 7 beta. Significantly, a single new tool, DISM, replaced several earlier tools including PEImg and IntlCfg, which were deprecated. The new WinPE 3.0 has AeroSnaps—a Windows 7 feature. The User State Migration Tool (USMT) was added to this WAIK.

Windows AIK version 3.0 is exactly the same as 2.0. The hash values of the ISO images are exactly the same:

CRC32: 9008BC2A
MD5: 1E73B24A89ECEAB9D50585B92DB5482F
SHA-1: 793F4CC4741EBAD223938BE0EEEE708EDA968DAA

The version number has only been updated to correspond with the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. Microsoft has also released a Windows Automated Installation Kit Supplement for Windows 7 SP1. Windows Automated Installation Kit Readme references the WAIK Supplement, which optionally adds WinPE v3.1 to a previously installed, compatible WAIK.

The Sysprep

Sysprep

tool is not included with WAIK, but is instead included on the Operating System installation media (DVD).

WAIK 1.0—v6.0.6000.16386—Released with Vista
WAIK 1.1—v6.0.6001.18000—Released with Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008

Supported operating systems include:

Windows Server 2008,

Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1,

Windows Server 2003 SP1 with KB926044, Windows Server 2003 SP2 and

Windows XP SP2 with KB926044.

Filename: 6001.18000.080118-1840-kb3aikl_en.iso

Version: v936330AIK – Released: 4/9/2008–1375.9 MB

WAIK 2.0 - v6.1.7000.0—Released with Windows 7

Filename: KB3AIK_en.ISO

WAIK 2.0 RC: 6.1.7100.0—Released with Windows Vista

Supported operating systems include:

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2,

Windows Vista SP1,

Windows Server 2008 family,

Windows 7 family and

Windows Server 2008 R2 family of operating system.

Filename: KB3AIK_en.ISO

Win7 WAIK: 6.1.7600.16385 Includes DISM.exe, same version number

Supported operating systems include:

Windows Server 2008,

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2,

Windows Vista SP1,

Windows Server 2008 family,

Windows 7 family, and

Windows Server 2008 R2 family.

Filename: KB3AIK_en.ISO

Version: v1.0—Released: 8/6/2009—1706.6 MB

Preinstallation environment

WAIK includes Windows Preinstallation Environment

Windows Preinstallation Environment

, a lightweight version of Windows that can be booted via PXE

Preboot Execution Environment

The Preboot eXecution Environment is an environment to boot computers using a network interface independently of data storage devices or installed operating systems.PXE was introduced as part of the Wired for Management framework by Intel and is described in the specification The Preboot...

, CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

, USB flash drive

USB flash drive

A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...

or external hard disk drive and is used to deploy, troubleshoot or recover Windows environments. It replaces MS-DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

boot disk

Boot disk

A boot disk is a removable digital data storage medium from which a computer can load and run an operating system or utility program. The computer must have a built-in program which will load and execute a program from a boot disk meeting certain standards.Boot disks are used for:* Operating...

s, Emergency Repair Disk

Emergency Repair Disk

For information about generic boot/recovery discs, see Recovery discA Microsoft Windows Emergency Repair Disk is a specially formatted bootable media made by some Windows operating systems that contains information about a particular Windows installation, first seen in Windows NT 4.0...

, Recovery Console

Recovery Console

The Recovery Console is a feature of the Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. It provides the means for administrators to perform a limited range of tasks using a command line interface. Its primary function is to enable administrators to recover from situations...

and Automated System Recovery

Automated System Recovery

Automated System Recovery is a feature of the Windows XP operating system that can be used to simplify recovery of a computer's system or boot volumes. ASR consists of two parts: an automated backup, and an automated restore...

boot disks. Traditionally used by large corporations and OEMs (to preinstall Windows client operating systems to PCs during manufacturing), WinPE is now available free of charge via the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).

User state migration

WAIK for Windows 7 includes User State Migration Tool

User State Migration Tool

The User State Migration Tool is a Microsoft command line utility program intended to allow advanced users, comfortable with Scripting language, to transfer files and settings between PCs. This task is also performed by Windows Easy Transfer, recommended for general users...

v4.0, a command-line interface

Command-line interface

A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks...

tool for transferring Windows user settings from one installation to another as part of an operating system upgrade or wipe-and-reload recovery, for example, to clean out a rootkit

Rootkit

A rootkit is software that enables continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence from administrators by subverting standard operating system functionality or other applications...

. USMT v4.0 can transfer the settings from Microsoft Windows XP or later to Microsoft Windows Vista and later.

External links

Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Preinstallation environment

User state migration

See also

External links