In this section, you apply images captured from your reference computer to your destination computer. This process is called build-to-plan (BTP).

Prerequisites

  • A Windows PE RAM disk. You can create this by using the process described in Windows PE Walkthroughs.

  • Image-application tools. You can add image-application tools, such as ImageX, to the Windows PE disk.

  • One or more Windows image (.wim) files that you have prepared for deployment. You can capture and prepare images by using the processes described in Capture Images.

  • One or more destination computers. These are the computers that you distribute to customers.

In This Section

The following processes are described in the how-to topics in this section:

  1. Boot the destination computer by using Windows PE.

  2. Select the hard disk and prepare the partitions.

  3. Apply the image files to the hard-disk partitions by using image-application tools.

The following diagram shows how the fictitious OEM, Fabrikam, deploys a Windows image onto a destination computer, Fabrikam Model FNB1.



Image showing Image Apply process

Deploy to Multiple Hard Disks

If you are deploying images to a computer with multiple hard disks, see these topics to make sure your images are applied to the intended disks.

Manage Multiple BIOS-based Hard Disks

Prepare to deploy images to a computer with multiple BIOS-based hard disks.

Manage Multiple UEFI-based Hard Disks

Prepare to deploy images to a computer with multiple Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based disks.

Understanding Disk Location Paths

Use the physical location path of a disk to identify each disk when deploying images to computers with two or more unique, non-system disks or to computers with multiple UEFI-based disks.

Apply Images to Hard-Disk Partitions

Apply Images by Using ImageX

Apply images by using ImageX, and configure the boot partition by using BCDboot.

Deploy a System Recovery Image

Describes how to deploy a recovery solution to reinstall the factory image in the event of a system failure. This topic describes using Windows RE and custom third-party recovery solutions.

See Also