The operating system installation package contains all the files necessary to install the desired Windows operating system on a reference computer. In System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, they are managed by SMS_OperatingSystemInstallPackage. This package does not require a program. The task sequence references the source files as needed.

An operating system deployment boot image is a Windows Pre-Installation Environment (PE) 2.0 image that is used during the operating system deployment process. In Configuration Manager, boot images are managed by SMS_BootImagePackage. For more information, see How to Add a Boot Image from a WIM File in Configuration Manager.

Driver packages contain Windows device drivers that are not included with the operating system. In Configuration Manager they are managed by SMS_DriverPackage objects. For more information, see How to Create a Driver Package for a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

Sysprep is a Windows system presentation tool that facilitates image creation and preparation of an image for deployment to multiple computers. Sysprep is supplied with Windows Vista, but if you are deploying Windows XP or an earlier operating system, you must create an SMS_Package object package to contain Sysprep and its support files. For more information about creating SMS_Package objects, see How to Create a Package

Operating system image packages contain operating system images. In Configuration Manager, they are managed by SMS_ImagePackage objects. For more information, see How to Add an Operating System Image Package in Configuration Manager.

Because every operating system deployment installs the Configuration Manager client, you need to create a package (SMS_Package) to install the Configuration Manager client. You can use the package definition file that is included with Configuration Manager for the Configuration Manager client upgrade. For more information about creating a package with a package definition file, see How to Create a Package by Using a Package Definition File Template.

If you are migrating user state from one desktop to another, then you should use the User State Migration Tool (USMT) as your migration tool.

In Configuration Manager, you create a package (SMS_Package) object to run the USMT on the computer. A package program is not required.

You will need to create other package (SMS_Package) for the applications you want installed on the target computer.