Automation Tools for Windows 7 Migration -...

The Essentials Series

Automation Tools for Windows 7 Migration

by Greg Shields sponsored by

The Essentials Series: Automation Tools for Windows 7 Migration Greg Shields

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Article 1: Best Practices in Pl anning & Executing a Windows 7 Migration .......................................... 1

XP’s Time Is Running Out .................. ............................................................................................................... 1

The Seven Key Migrati on Activities .............................................................................................................. 2

Analyzing Inventory .............................. .......................................................................................................... 3

Verifying Application Compatibility .............................................................. ........................................... 3

Creating and Managing OS Instances ........................................................................................................ 4

Migrating User Personality . .......................................................................................................................... 4

Automating OS Distribution ................... ...................................................................................................... 5

Distributing Applications an d Updates ..................................................................................................... 5

Project and Status Repo rting ......................................................................................................................... 6

Migrations Require Tools ............................................................................... .................................................... 6

Article 2: Untangling Microsoft’s Alpha bet Soup of Migration Tools .................................................... 7

Microsoft’s No-Cost Migration T ools ............................................................................................................ 7

MSIA for Analyzing Inventory ............................ ........................................................................................ 8

ACT for Verifying Application Compatibility ............................................. .......................................... 8

WAIK, ImageX, and DISM for Creati ng and Managing OS Instances ......................................... 9

USMT for Migrating User Personality ...................................................................................................... 9

WDS for Automating OS Distribution .......................................... ............................................................ 9

GPSI and WSUS for Distributing App lications and Updates ......................................................... 10

MDT for Project and Status Reporting ...................... ............................................................................. 10

Integration Comes at a Cost. Integration Saves Cost. ......................................... ................................... 10

Article 3: Ensuring Windows 7 Migration Success with Integrated Solutions .................................. 11

The Success Is in the Data .......................................... ..................................................................................... 12

Using Agents to Gather & Analyze Inventory ................................................... .................................. 12

Cross-Checking Inventory with Hardware & Application C ompatibility .................................. 12

Hardware Agnosticism Extends the Value of OS Instances .... ....................................................... 13

Migrating User Personality, During and Beyond the Upgrade ...................................................... 13


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Fully Automating OS Distribution ............................ .............................................................................. 13

Regularly Distributing Applications an d Updates .............................................................................. 14

Ongoing Project and Status Reporting ......................... .......................................................................... 14

Desktop Management Solutions Are the Best Practice .......................................................................... 14


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Article 1: Best Practices in Planning & Executing a Windows 7 Migration

Windows 7 is here and it’s ready for deployment to enterprises everywhere. If you’re one of the many who avoided the XP to Vista upgrade, then be prepared for some dramatic changes in how Microsoft’s new operating systems (OSs) are deployed. Installing Windows 7 can be accomplished through remarkably automated means, if you’re aware of the right technologies to do so.

Sometimes the most obvious paths for migration might not be the smartest nor those that will ensure the greatest success. Wrapped around the actual installation of every Windows deployment is a much‐larger set of planning and automation activities that you must leverage if you’re to ensure success.

This Essentials Series will assist you in understanding those activities as well as today’s enabling technologies for planning and executing a Windows 7 migration. Starting with this first article, you’ll learn the seven key activities that are required for every successful migration. The second article continues with a discussion of the free tools that are natively available from Microsoft. Although these tools are low in cost, you’ll quickly find that their non‐integrated approach might not make the best solution for your business’ needs. Concluding the conversation is a final article that proposes an alternative and integrated approach. That approach directly maps the seven activities into automated processes to ensure migration success.

XP’s Time Is Running Out If you’ve downloaded this Essentials Series, it’s likely that you’re aware of Windows XP’s impending sunset. Released in October of 2001, Windows XP has seen a long and prosperous life in homes and businesses all around the world. Yet although Windows XP remains a popular OS due in part to its widespread application compatibility, the core of this OS remains atop code that was developed nearly a decade ago. In almost 10 years, the world has seen a dramatic growth in malware, the introduction of regulatory compliance, and a greater demand for cohesive centralized management. These new requirements mandate a new OS that’s been specifically designed with today’s needs in mind.

Although many elected not to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, those same businesses find themselves perhaps unknowingly suffering under a web of band‐aids, code updates, and third‐party add‐on products. These required but costly components are

in a safe and secured manner fundamentally necessary to keep Windows XP operatingwhile meeting today’s new computing requirements.

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Microsoft’s release of Windows 7 in October of 2009 changed the landscape for the business desktop OS. Incorporating Windows Vista’s much‐needed kernel security re‐architecture with a series of performance optimizations, user interface (UI) changes, and useful new capabilities, Windows 7 is the OS that’s ready to take XP’s place in your business.

XP’s Sunset Is Happening Now Microsoft officially ended mainstream support for Windows XP on April 4th of 2009. Although this action doesn’t cease Microsoft’s monthly security updates for this OS, it does end non‐security related hotfixes, design changes, and some types of technical support. The end date for extended support, ceasing all efforts with this OS, is currently set for April 8th of 2014.

The Seven Key Migration Activities What you may not know is that your central hurdle in migrating to Windows 7 lies not in actually installing its bits to your hardware. Windows Vista and Windows 7 both leverage the new Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) as their mechanism for completing the actual OS installation. As the OS doesn’t require a limited‐fidelity DOS‐based installation environment, actually getting Windows 7’s bits onto your hard drives is in many ways the easiest part.

Much more challenging in any Windows 7 migration project are the activities that surround the install. These activities you’ll find are absolutely required to plan, automate, and manage the deployment, to verify hardware and application compatibility, and to ensure

. that your users’ personal data is assuredly transferred from old OS instance to new

Lacking the right tools, each of these “other” activities can be fantastically difficult. Attempting to complete them through non‐automated means creates multiple sets of stovepiped data, which complicates your project planning and execution. However, environments that leverage integrated migration solutions will find that each activity is well defined and easy to accomplish within that toolsets’ management interface. In short, the best practice in planning and executing any Windows 7 migration is to leverage solutions that can accomplish these activities in an integrated manner.

To help you understand why, let’s take a quick spin through each of the seven key migration activities. Understanding their scope, you’ll be better prepared to incorporate heir actions into your migration planning. t


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Analyzing Inventory The first step in any Windows migration involves a look at your environment’s existing inventory. This process gathers and analyzes the existing hardware and software in your environment with an eye towards answering two central pre‐deployment questions:

• What hardware will work with the new OS, and what hardware first requires upgrade or replacement? Microsoft documents Windows 7’s minimum requirements at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows‐7/get/system‐requirements.aspx. Comparing your existing equipment with these requirements is fundamentally important because installing a Windows OS to substandard hardware generally results in a poor user experience. The most effective way to obtain this comparison is by leveraging a network‐based inventory solution that interrogates machines on your network and consolidates inventory into a single database. Its resulting reports will assist you with recognizing which pieces of hardware must be upgraded or replaced prior to upgrading.

• What software exists on hardware today and must be reinstalled after the upgrade? Another critical part of inventory is the software installed to network computers. There currently exists no direct upgrade path between Windows XP and Windows 7. Further, upgrading OSs rather than completely reinstalling them has traditionally led to problems down the road. These two facts mean that your Windows 7 upgrade is likely to involve a full reinstallation of both the OS and its installed applications. You should also plan to leverage your automated inventory tool for discovering installed applications. Its reports give you the necessary data to ensure the right applications get installed to the right machines after the upgrade.

Verifying Application Compatibility Unfortunately, not every application functions correctly atop Windows 7. Some fail to work at all with this new OS. This hurdle places a priority on pre‐migration testing to determine which of your applications won’t function after the upgrade.

Automated tools exist that assist with this testing and validation process. These tools work with centralized clearinghouse databases of already‐tested applications. Their data about applications that have already been tested will greatly speed your own activities, especially in environments with large numbers of applications under management.

Another question is begged through this activity: What do you do with applications that won’t work in the new OS? This application‐compatibility problem has been a major hurdle for migration activities in the past. You’ve heard the stories where a few or even a single unsupported mission‐critical application prevents a business from upgrading. Windows 7 eliminates this hurdle in its entirety through a new feature called XP Mode. This feature leverages virtualization at the desktop to maintain a compatible Windows XP environment

plications. within the Windows 7 environment for these problem ap

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/system-requirements.aspx


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XP Mode is available with the Professional and Ultimate editions of Windows 7, and relies on an updated version of Windows Virtual PC as its core virtualization engine. Actually using Windows Virtual PC requires special capabilities that are built directly into your desktop hardware. Thus, a critical step in this second activity is inventorying hardware to ensure its compatibility with XP Mode’s virtualization engine.

Creating and Managing OS Instances In concert with the first two previously mentioned activities is the extended process of building and configuring the OS instances that you will eventually distribute to users. Traditionally, this process has been done through one of two very different mechanisms. The first, generically called “imaging,” involves the creation of one or more disk “images” that are distributed to similarly‐configured hardware. One of the primary benefits of imaging is in its ease of capturing and deploying images. After creating a “gold master” reference machine that includes the OS, installed software, and special configurations, administrators can capture an image of the gold master and store it. That image is then deployed through an automated mechanism to selected hardware.

Imaging becomes more complicated as the variety of hardware in an organization grows. Image deployments tend to be successful when the hardware configuration of the target machine matches the hardware configuration on which the image was created. Thus, multiple hardware types means that multiple images must be created.

The second technique is generically referred to as “scripting.” Different here is the mechanism in which the OS instance is created. Instead of creating a reference image from a reference machine, scripting uses built‐in instrumentation in the Windows installer itself to customize installation parameters at the point the OS is installed.

The primary benefit of using this technique is that a single script can be used to install to every class of hardware. Scripts can dynamically ensure that the appropriate drivers are installed based on the OS chosen for deployment and the target machine’s hardware configuration. Early attempts at using scripting were challenging; however, today’s integrated deployment solutions now incorporate smart configuration engines that greatly enhance the creation process.

Migrating User Personality Installing a fresh copy of an OS wipes a hard drive clean, taking with it every user customization (that is, user‐specific files and settings). Users need their personal workspaces, and rely on them as a function of their jobs. Thus, your migration project will be a failure unless it can assuredly return user customizations back to upgraded computers after an installation.

The problem with user personality is that the Windows OS and its applications spread user personality storage in numerous and unobvious places. Attempting to manually locate and offload user personality has notably and historically resulted in missed data and unhappy

in almost any migration project. users. So much so that it is a common complaint by users


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Although this data is spread all around an OS instance, smart user migration solutions know where to find it. These solutions are also configured with the necessary logic to seamlessly convert user personality between the different structures used by different OSs. Your migration project must incorporate such a solution to ensure that this data is assuredly restored after the migration.

Automating OS Distribution This article began by talking about the ease of distributing the Windows OS. Running atop WinPE, that installation process now enjoys all the networking, scripting, and automation benefits of Windows (as compared with its earlier DOS‐based roots). Yet while installing a single instance of Windows is fantastically easy, distributing it to tens, or hundreds, or thousands of computers in an automated fashion still requires automation solutions.

Depending on the configuration of your network, the scope of your migration project, and the ways in which you plan to actually invoke the upgrade, you may choose a network‐based upgrade path or one where machines must be physically relocated to special IT areas first. In either case, look carefully at the options available in your migration solution. You may discover that full automation or even self‐service automation capabilities are entirely possible.

Distributing Applications and Updates One approach that goes far into creating an environment of full migration automation is in integrating your migration solution with a desktop management solution. Doing so extends the value of your investment because the same solution that migrated your environment can later be used to manage it.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with the need for application and update distribution. The process of automatically distributing applications and updates to computers has been around for a very long time; yet many IT organizations even today find themselves still installing applications the manual way.

Your migration project will not be complete until after you’ve installed each of your users’ necessary applications back to their upgraded computer. Attempting to do this the manual way will dramatically increase the time and cost of your migration project, potentially to the point where it isn’t cost effective at all. In contrast, automated application installation solutions exist today that eliminate all the manual work. Consider it another best practice to seek integrated migration solutions that can also serve as long‐term desktop management solutions to provide just this level of service both during and after the pgrade. u


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Project and Status Reporting Finally are the all‐important needs of project management itself. If your migration project only upgrades a dozen computers, keeping track of those computers isn’t all that hard. Managing a project of hundreds or thousands, however, is another thing entirely.

The central problem with non‐integrated solutions is in how they create silos of data between each point solution. For example, if your application compatibility tool can’t share data with your automated application installation tool, you have no seamless way to ensure that the right applications get reinstalled. To ensure the highest levels of success, consider the use of integrated solutions that enable sharing of data between each of these activities. The result will be the creation of project and status reports that track your progress and ensure mistakes are not made.

Migrations Require Tools These seven key activities are fundamentally important to a successful migration project. And yet many of them are often forgotten or neglected by IT organizations that don’t effectively plan their migrations. Windows 7 is ready for today’s business, as are the tools to get you there.

Microsoft itself provides a set of free tools that assist in this process. A review of those tools is the subject of this series’ next article. Although free, these tools can be challenging and costly to successfully implement, and even keeping their long list of acronyms straight is a demanding activity in and of itself. The next article will discuss these tools and assist you

vities. with understanding how they align with these seven acti


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Article 2: Untangling Microsoft’s Alphabet Soup of Migration Tools

Most IT organizations quickly discover two hurdles in beginning an OS migration. The first is in finding the true business benefits of a new operating system (OS). Those benefits can’t be expressed in terms of raw features; they must directly relate to measurable improvements in business processes. The second is in containing the costs associated with the migration itself. Keeping these costs low is critical as businesses tend to view migration activities as sunk costs.

Yet what many IT organizations don’t realize is that these two seemingly‐separate hurdles are in fact quite interrelated. First and foremost, businesses must see a measurable improvement in value if they’re to make the jump. At the same time, the cost to transition mustn’t negate any benefits gained by jumping in the first place. As a result, many IT organizations find themselves steering towards free tools to cheapen the cost of migration, only to later discover that the tools’ limitations end up costing more.

The central problem is that many migration activities aren’t well‐planned from the start. OS migrations are uncommon occurrences in IT’s life cycle. This means that internal organizations often don’t have the background and experience to ensure the highest levels of success.

It is for these reasons you find so many solutions available that assist with OS migration. Even Microsoft itself recognizes the value in streamlining the migration process, developing and releasing a suite of no‐cost tools that support each of the seven key activities. This second article will overview those Microsoft tools, explaining where they fit within each activity.

Microsoft’s No‐Cost Migration Tools You’ve probably noticed the underlying theme behind the last article’s discussion on best practices. There, the use of integrated solutions was highlighted repeatedly as a best practice for migration success. The focus on integrated solutions is critical due to the need for data sharing between each of the seven activities. Lacking a unified repository, individual tools require manual efforts that reduce your efficiency and result in less than desired results.

That repository is a key omission in Microsoft’s free toolsets. Spanning over a half‐dozen point solutions, Microsoft’s acronym alphabet soup can be challenging to integrate successfully. Let’s take a look at the solutions, and the pile of acronyms you’ll need to learn. Each of these can be downloaded from the Microsoft Web site.


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MSIA for Analyzing Inventory The Microsoft Software Inventory Analyzer (MSIA) is a free tool that remotely interrogates computers throughout your Windows domain. This tool scans identified computers for known software installations, with the goal of reporting those installations in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

MSIA is currently limited to scanning environments of 250 or fewer computers, and generates reports in HTML, XLS, and text only. Further, MSIA will only report on Microsoft products and applications. Products from other vendors as well as software updates and hotfixes are not enumerated.

This tool provides a reasonable level of information; however, only if your environment makes exclusive use of Microsoft applications. Third‐party applications must be inventoried through a different and completely separate solution. Also, this tool’s text‐based reports do not store their information in a location that can be easily used by other tools.

ACT for Verifying Application Compatibility As mentioned in the first article of this series, some applications simply will not run atop Windows 7. Others will run, but with reduced functionality or only after special modification. This application incompatibility occurs predominantly due to the dramatic kernel‐level security changes that were first introduced in Windows Vista.

Microsoft’s Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) is comprised of a set of tools that assist administrators with analyzing, classifying, and resolving just these incompatibilities. Its tools include a compatibility manager and a standard user analyzer as well as analysis tools for tracking the most common problems. Administrators using ACT begin the process by creating and deploying Data Collection Packages (DCP), which collect information about applications along with potential compatibility issues. Once DCPs have been later collected and analyzed, applications can be prioritized by business need and assessment rating while workarounds are created.

ACT includes a built‐in set of pre‐tested applications; however, this list is by no means complete. This tool can be considered a workbench for application‐testing activities, providing a database where information about business applications can be consolidated. As with MSIA, the information gathered through this tool is not stored in a format that is sed by the other tools, creating yet another silo of data for a migration project. u


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WAIK, ImageX, and DISM for Creating and Managing OS Instances Actually creating OS images and scripts is accomplished using the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). This large download includes the necessary components to create and customize OS instances for later deployment.

Microsoft’s primary tool for image collection is the command‐line tool called ImageX. This tool captures images from reference computers and can be used for single‐instance image deployment. Captured images are stored in the Windows Imaging (WIM) file format, which is a file‐based disk format that was first introduced with Windows Vista. ImageX also has

the ability to mount existing images for command‐line modification of files and folders.

Microsoft’s solution for scripted installations is the Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management (DISM) tool. This tool, a replacement for the previous Windows System Image Manager (WSIM), provides a workbench for customizing a default installation. DISM, while easier to use than WSIM, still requires advanced knowledge of during‐the‐install configuration requirements, and as such can be challenging for inexperienced administrators. The output from a DISM customization activity is an XML‐based unattended installation script that is used in conjunction with a default installation.

USMT for Migrating User Personality Another component of the WAIK is the User State Migration Toolkit (USMT). This command‐line solution migrates user files and settings during a Windows OS deployment. USMT leverages two command‐line executables—ScanState and LoadState—along with a series of XML‐based configuration files to gather user data and ultimately redeploy it onto a replacement OS instance.

Although USMT’s ScanState and LoadState tools are effective for handling the automated transfer of user data, these tools must be integrated into another OS deployment solution to be fully automated. This integration process typically involves the manual addition of their executables to that solution’s pre‐ and post‐deployment set of actions. Effectively using these tools requires the manual configuration of a series of XML files that contain information about the data to be transferred.

WDS for Automating OS Distribution In another separation of tool capabilities, Microsoft’s Windows Deployment Services (WDS) provides the infrastructure for actually distributing OSs to target machines. This tool ingests the scripted customizations that were created using the WAIK’S DISM, combining a DISM XML file with a default WIM to create a customized installation. WDS can also host custom WIM images that were captured via ImageX.

WDS supports the distribution of images to single computers through unicast or groups of computers through multicasting. It is installed as a role atop an instance of Windows Server 2008. As with each of the other tools thus far, configurations within WDS must be created manually. WDS image deployment can occur through the use of hardware Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) extensions or through media deployment. WDS does not support the hands‐free deployment of OS images, requiring an action at each target computer to invoke an upgrade.


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GPSI and WSUS for Distributing Applications and Updates Although not technically deployment tools, Microsoft’s solutions for distributing applications and updates arrive through the combination of Group Policy Software Installation (GPSI) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). Making use of GPSI for automated application deployment requires the creation of specially‐configured “packages” of software, which are set to run silently. GPSI lacks centralized success/failure reporting capabilities, and has relatively limited targeting capabilities for discretely defining where software should be installed.

WSUS is yet another installable role within Windows Server 2008. This solution is used to install Microsoft updates and hotfixes as well as an extremely limited set of third‐party drivers. WSUS does not support the automated installation of third‐party updates through its graphical user interface (GUI); however, custom update installation can leverage its infrastructure through the use of custom scripts.

MDT for Project and Status Reporting Microsoft’s solution for larger‐scale projects is the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). This solution accelerator integrates limited project and status reporting with the services of the WAIK (including its subcomponents), the ACT, and MSXML 6.0. These extra services must be downloaded and installed separately from MDT.

MDT augments these individual tools through the creation of a Deployment Workbench, within which deployment‐related actions are created and invoked. MDT supports two types of installations named Light‐Touch Installation (LTI) and Zero‐Touch Installation (ZTI). LTI installations require administrator actions to invoke an upgrade at each target computer. ZTI installations can be centrally deployed to target computers without endpoint attention but require the services of a System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) infrastructure.

Integration Comes at a Cost. Integration Saves Cost. Microsoft’s no‐cost solutions can indeed deploy OS instances to hardware. However, as you can see in this article, the savings in software cost comes without built‐in automation and with an associated learning curve. With even Microsoft’s solutions, if you desire an integrated approach, you’ll need to invest in for‐cost infrastructure management solutions such as SCCM.

Tying all these disparate activities together is the data. That data describes the as‐is environment. It predicts the success for the to‐be environment. And it provides the configuration characteristics that are absolutely required in order for the entire project to successfully replicate the users’ experience atop the new OS. That’s the theme behind this series’ third and final article. That article will explore what an integrated solution looks

sure migration success. like, managing data throughout the project life cycle to en


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Article 3: Ensuring Windows 7 Migration Success with Integrated Solutions

When you plan your migration project, its top priority must be in minimizing the inconvenience to your users. That inconvenience can occur in any number of different ways: Users can’t work while their machines are upgraded. Computers are returned with incorrect or missing applications. User data gets lost or accidentally deleted. Any of these or a hundred other minor mistakes can quickly turn a migration project into an IT nightmare.

It is for this reason that this series keeps repeating the assertion that the most important parts of a migration project have nothing to do with the operating system (OS) installation itself. Correctly planning your migration project reduces the opportunity for mistakes, with good data being the key to good planning.

Integrated deployment solutions use by definition a centralized set of data throughout the project’s life cycle. Data collected during the initial inventory is used to validate hardware and application compatibility. That same data drives the targeting of upgrades as well as the post‐upgrade installation of applications. By using automation to eliminate a set of very specific labor costs, most project managers find this class of integrated software to quickly pay for its initial cost.

What’s interesting is that the same class of software that can manage your deployment and upgrade activities is perfectly suited for ongoing administrative activities as well. As you probably noticed in the first article of this series, the activities that are necessary for an upgrade look very similar to the everyday activities of IT administration: inventory, application deployment, user management, update and hotfix installation, reporting, and so on. All these are activities that are commonly available in today’s desktop management

. As a result, those same solutions are often a very good fit for OS migrations. solutions

In short, by investing in a desktop management solution to facilitate an upgrade, you also ain a very effective platform for ongoing maintenance. g


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The Success Is in the Data Such a solution’s real value proposition lies in its centralization of data. Whether through the use of on‐system agents or through agentless remote actions, these solutions start by creating a database of your entire environment. Inside that database are all the data points you need to manage and maintain that environment in addition to merely upgrading it.

With this in mind, let’s explore how such a system might use this data in the course of a migration and during those all‐important ongoing operations. Unlike the first article, this discussion will focus on the tasks that need to be accomplished, as well as how those actions make use of an integrated solution’s central data repository.

Using Agents to Gather & Analyze Inventory Inventory data is the backbone of a successful migration. This data is commonly collected through one of two mechanisms. The first involves the use of onboard agents, which must be first installed to each computer. Each individual agent scans its computer and typically delivers the results to a central server for database storage.

An alternative is the agentless approach, where the central server interrogates computers over the network through common APIs. The agentless approach has the obvious benefit of not requiring an agent on every endpoint; however, the lack of installed agents limits the actions that can be done by the central server.

A common tactic in today’s desktop management solutions involves the use of both approaches. Initial discovery of systems is accomplished using the agentless approach. This first sweep gathers the necessary topology and structure of the environment that enables agents to be properly configured and automatically installed. Once installed, agents complete the inventory to fill out the platform’s picture of the environment.

Cross‐Checking Inventory with Hardware & Application Compatibility Onboard agents collect hardware, software, and configuration information from each targeted computer. In the Windows environment, this configuration data is stored within each computer’s Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) repository. The WMI repository’s detailed information provides the necessary specifics about the computer’s hardware, making a piecewise comparison possible against OS recommendations. Computers that lack the appropriate hardware can be immediately identified along with the necessary pre‐migration recommendations (such as upgrade versus replace).

Third‐party platforms also benefit from their capacity to inventory the entire range of installed applications. Each computer in an environment stores information about its installed applications, making possible the creation of reports about applications and their compatibility. Comparing your inventoried list of applications with known databases of ncompatibilities assists you with recognizing where additional testing is required. i


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Hardware Agnosticism Extends the Value of OS Instances The creation of OS instances for later deployment is a non‐trivial task, especially when multiple types of hardware are present in an environment. Heterogeneous environments require a variety of devices and their drivers that must be managed during the upgrade.

Third‐party platforms benefit here through the incorporation of driver lists. The Windows OS includes the built‐in plug‐and‐play support for automatically installing the correct driver if it is available. An integrated migration solution will typically arrive with an extensive set of drivers for known hardware. This enables the creation of a hardware‐agnostic installation that automatically customizes itself at the point of install for each hardware class.

Hardware‐agnostic installations become particularly useful as time progresses. With a hardware‐agnostic installation, the same installation can be used over and over again as new hardware is purchased. The only necessary step is to ensure that new drivers are already contained or added to the solution’s database prior to deploying additional OSs.

Migrating User Personality, During and Beyond the Upgrade The process of gathering, storing, and restoring user personality information is also enhanced through an integrated migration platform. Here, user personality information can be deployed directly alongside an OS installation or disk image. This enables user personality to be reliably and efficiently deployed to the appropriate target systems.

By collecting user personality on a regular basis, users gain the ability to refresh their computer at any time as opposed to the one‐time use during a migration project. Users in such an environment can choose to have their computer seamlessly rebuilt when a problem cannot be solved. The same holds true after a computer crash, enabling a computer to be quickly provisioned with little to no loss of user data.

All of these capabilities enhance the core need for user personality migration during an upgrade. All are also possible when the platform for migration also serves as a desktop management solution.

Fully Automating OS Distribution Exceptionally critical during any migration project—particularly as the size of the project scales upward—is the ability to fully automate OS distribution. In the previous article, it was mentioned that many solutions, such as Microsoft’s LTI installation option, still require an action to occur at the computer for the upgrade to begin. This action requires administrators to be present for the upgrade and can significantly slow the entire process.

Fully automating the distribution of OSs generally requires the use of an onboard agent or Wake‐on‐LAN. These two solutions allow the target machine to reboot into WinPE and automatically begin the installation after receiving the appropriate signal from the entralized platform. c


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Regularly Distributing Applications and Updates An onboard agent can be further instructed to download and install the correct set of applications after the installation is complete. Along with the return of user personality data, this automated distribution of applications completes the entire process of rebuilding the computer. The needed data for this automation is assuredly available because each of these actions occurs as a part of the greater desktop management solution.

Applications and updates are always in need of installation. Whether new applications require deployment, monthly patches need installation, or application updates force a quick reinstall, a desktop management solution enables IT to extend the same automation into ongoing‐maintenance activities.

Ongoing Project and Status Reporting Lastly is the never‐ending requirement for status reporting. Both during the migration project as well as after its completion, IT requires metrics on computer characteristics for internal consumption as well as reporting to business leadership. Leveraging a desktop management solution as the platform for an OS migration automatically creates a database of just these metrics. That same platform can be used in ongoing activities for real‐time license compliance, configuration reporting and baselining, and constant monitoring of the environment.

Desktop Management Solutions Are the Best Practice Ensuring Windows 7 migration success requires effective planning, good data, and the support of an automation platform. The right platform integrates the seven key activities with the data that ensures their success. Furthermore, an effective Windows 7 migration

and maintenance. platform can also be used as your solution for ongoing administration

Windows 7 is here, and it’s ready for deployment to your enterprise. Do you have what it akes to be successful in planning and executing your Windows 7 migrations? t

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