In IT, nothing is simple—least of all understanding every new Microsoft release. In this month's survey on deploying Windows Vista, one reader asked Microsoft, "Why isn't this information more 'in-your-face'? This survey is the first I've heard of some of this stuff. I don't have the time to search for all the new technology. I'm responsible for lots of stuff and can't focus on finding all the new technologies."
I know that readers are interested in Vista, the next version of Microsoft's desktop OS and the replacement for Windows XP: Traffic to our Web site spikes when Paul Thurrott writes a Vista article. Like the reader quoted earlier, people want information about new Vista features and reviews of the latest Vista Community Technology Preview (CTP). Now that we're approaching Vista's Release to Manufacturing (RTM), I asked readers about their plans for upgrading to Vista and deploying it.
Of the 551 survey respondents, 39.6 percent said they had no Vista plans. However, 29.6 percent plan to move to Vista within one year of its release, 24.4 percent within two years, and 6.4 percent within three years. Hardware and application compatibility tied for readers' biggest deployment concern, and the deployment aid that readers requested most from Microsoft was imaging tools. In an interview, Microsoft addressed these concerns and pointed readers to some not-so-well-known tools.
Hardware and Driver Compatibility
I asked Vista Deployment Program Manager Manu Namboodiri which survey findings were most intriguing. He replied, "People said hardware compatibility issues were as big as app compat. I would've thought app compat and the process of migration would be a bigger deal than hardware. It could be that they foresee 64-bit coming, various devices, Tablet PCs, laptops, desktops."
Many respondents want the "ability to deploy the same image to multiple hardware platforms." Manu said, "Vista has a new imaging format, Windows Imaging, which is file-based as opposed to sector-based." Because Windows Imaging Format (WIM) is file-based, you can copy an image and edit it while retaining the original image. And because the images are individual files, you can easily manipulate them in the file system. He continued, "You can create one image and put it on a Dell laptop, an HP desktop, and a Tablet PC, for example. You can deliver the same image to multiple architectures because Vista detects the HAL [hardware abstraction layer] on the fly. Usually, you need a different image for each HAL. Because the imaging format is file-based, we can use the right image for the HAL, so we eliminate a lot of hardware compatibility issues. But drivers will always be needed, and we can inject drivers on the fly."
Manu added, "The only constraint is 32-bit and 64-bit. Obviously, they will require separate images. However, the imaging technologies are not just for desktops. They're for the servers as well. We're consolidating imaging technologies so you can use the same tools to deploy Longhorn Server."
Simplified Deployment
Because imaging came up so often in the survey, I asked Manu to address specific reader requests for ways Microsoft can reduce the cost and complexity of deployment. Several respondents wanted the "ability to layer images so that there is a base image, along with department images."
Manu answered, "You can layer Vista images because we provide single instancing. For example, you can create a base image and a marketing image and store them both inside a single WIM container, which stores the common files only once; we call that single instancing. But if the question is, 'If I patch the base image, is the marketing image automatically patched?'—that is not possible. You definitely need to patch each individually."
Another reader requested "the ability to edit an image after deployment and roll out the changes in multicast fashion. Also the ability to easily adjust an image for new hardware; or better yet, images that are not hardware restricted."
Manu admitted, "We do not support multicast. You'll have to build your own multicast architecture on top of what we provide." However, he went on, "I think the reader is asking how you service an image. Before Vista, the problem was that you might have 10 images. You'd get a patch and test it against four or five of them. You might miss some images, and those images would get out of synch. If someone tried to patch, they could get the old image and still have an unpatched system. But with Vista, you don't have to boot up the image, install the patch, shut it down, and recapture it. All you have to do is drop the patch straight into the image. The chances of images getting out of synch are low because you can do offline service and online service exactly the same way."
Readers also asked for "delivery of OSs over the network and flexibility in how images can be deployed."
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