Re: SMS Desktop OS upgrade?

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

I wouldn't be quite so strong in discouraging upgrades via SMS, but
maybe I'm biased ;-). There are tech papers at www.microsoft.com/sms on OS
upgrades, and many customers have done many such upgrades, so it can be
done. But it is a serious scenario that one would want to do carefully. A
well standardized environment would certainly help.

But it's true that a lot of people like to take the opportunity to do an
operating system 'rebuild' so to speak, so that's where OSD comes in handy.
Again, it's a serious scenario, so it must be done carefully. But the
alternatives (like sending out an army of techies to do the job manually)
are surely worse, so it's worth the effort. Again, a fairly standardized
environment helps a lot.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"jdevison" <jdevison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0EB30E82-9B82-4767-88CD-C81598581D4D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> As you wisely observe, upgrading any OS is begging for failure. Microsoft
> are
> especially weak with upgrades. DO NOT upgrade. Upgrage BAD!
>
> CLEAN installs, on the other hand, almost always work great. OSD should
> be
> able to...
> Back up the user's settings (user state migration tool).
> Create/resize/format the boot partition.
> Clean-Install the OS per settings in the unattend file you provide.
> Install all software applications.
> Replace applicable user settings (again with the user state migration
> tool).
>
> For user backups, you'll need HUGE STEAMING PILES of storage because
> people's profiles can get pretty fat, especially if they have their own
> Outlook PST's buried in ther local Application Data folders.
>
> Personally, I do not yet trust Microsoft's OSD feature pack. We used
> LANDesk
> in production last time. We are now testing SMS/OSD. But the principal is
> the
> same.
>
> Oh, by the way, you better have gigabit bandwidth, or you are in for some
> LOOONG nights.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: IAF
    ... With version upgrades you're always left with some ... registry keys since options are dropped, extended or added in new versions. ... This applies especially to Mail Profiles; Outlook 2000 has different ... >> 2003 cannot import settings from Outlook 2000. ...
    (microsoft.public.outlook)
  • Re: SP2
    ... some settings were not maintained. ... time for upgrades, I understand and forgive Microsoft most frequently than ... > that I'm not sure was caused by SP2, ... > reset the MCE storage back to the F: drive and it's worked fine since ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: Looking for some advice for my program
    ... upgrades aren't as painful? ... so your app would not try to read some ... text file that happened to be named like your settings file. ... using only those that it recognises, and simply ignoring any it does not ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)
  • Re: 70-291 - FAILED!! CLOSE...Got 681 - Questions regarding dns zone transfers..
    ... >pulled from the ADI Primary and the settings to allow>one transfers ... >ither that or maybe you missed the need for zone>ransfers if you're ...
    (microsoft.public.cert.exam.mcse)