

If you’re a seasoned MDT Guru, you’re probably going to find this a little ho-hum elementary. Not trying to steal thunder or take credit away from anyone where it’s due I just didn’t necessarily catalog the URL or Tweet of every process, tip or trick I’ve come across for the last 5 or so years. Because lots of these steps are now ingrained in my process, I may not be able to cite references to where the original idea came from. So aside for compiling some of these ideas I can’t possibly take all the credit. In fact, this is mostly a consolidation of well known & documented steps in addition to popular or leading practices recommended by those who share a passion for imaging.

So over the next few weeks I’ll be going over the basics of building an MDT imaging lab. Now, I may not be a world renowned expert like some people (hint: see the Resources page) but I can hold my own, and this was an excellent opportunity for me to go over the basics of image building with my new friend. Although he had used MDT, he wasn’t as experienced with it as I was and so was looking for some guidance which I was happy to do. I recommended leveraging the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) for imaging and combining it with the PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit (PSADT) to help accomplish his goals. I met someone recently who is in a similar IT position looking for some advice with respect to Operating System Deployments (OSD) – both bare metal and upgrades – and application packaging & deployments.
