Choosing a Deployment Strategy for Windows 7
When it comes to deploying Windows 7, one of the challenges administrators face is trying to figure out which deployment method is the best suited for a particular scenario. Fortunately, Microsoft has documented some guidelines for Choosing a Deployment Strategy in detail. The following table will help you with your decision but you might want to download the complete document here.
| High-Touch with Retail Media | High Touch with Standard Image | Lite-Touch, High-Volume Deployment | Zero-Touch, High-Volume Deployment | |
| IT skill level | IT generalist | IT pro with optional deployment experience | IT pro with deployment experience recommended | IT pro with deployment and Configuration Manager 2007 R2 expertise |
| Windows license agreement | Retail | Retail or Software Assurance | Software Assurance | Enterprise Agreement |
| Number of client computers | <100 | 100–200 | 200–500 | >500 |
| Infrastructure |
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| Application support | Manually installed commercial applications | Manually installed commercial or line-of-business (LOB) applications | Automatically installed commercial or LOB applications | Automatically installed commercial or LOB applications |
| User interaction | Manual, hands-on deployment | Manual, hands-on deployment | Limited interaction at the beginning of installation | Fully automated deployment |
| Lower cost and effort by… | …automating client computer configuration | …creating standardized images | …providing network-based deployment to support large-scale deployment with limited interaction | …providing network-based deployment to support large scale-deployment with no interaction |
| Helping to… | …create reproducible and faster client computer installation | …reduce configuration testing and deployment time | …leverage standardized images with network access by using pull automation | …leverage standardized images with network access by using push automation |
| Strategy description | High-Touch with Retail Media | High Touch with Standard Image | Lite-Touch, High-Volume Deployment | Zero-Touch, High-Volume Deployment |
| Windows 7 Tools |
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