Windows Thin PC

[Patrick]

Microsoft have released Windows Thin PC, a lite edition of Windows 7
optimised for terminal server clients and the like. It is available to
all MS Schools Agreement signatories as a Software Assurance Benefit.
It replaces Windows Fundamental for Legacy PCs.

[ndog37]

Thanks for letting us know. I have noticed this download in the
Software Assurance Section.

I am using Windows Thin PC and natively booting as VHD file. This is
great for making immutable snapshots and so forth.

If you are interested in booting as VHD file you can do one of the
following.

1) Prepare an offline generalized wim file and change:
key "HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Fbwf" value "Start" from 0 to
3

2) Alternatively you can remove the FBWF Packages if you have the
Standard 7 SP1 Toolkit (from microsoft wim file). It will be even
smaller than the above.
dism /Image:X: /Remove-Package /Packagename:WinEmb-FBWFProvider-
Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.7601.17514
dism /Image:X: /Remove-Package /Packagename:WinEmb-File-Based-Write-
Filter~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.1.7601.17514

PS use: "dism /Image: x: /Get-Features" to see what you can remove. In
the case of example 1.

Also with Thin PC there are a whole lot of features you can add such
as search function etc, but for these you need to download the
"Standard 7 SP1 Toolkit" http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11887

Regards

On Jul 4, 11:02 am, Patrick <nzschoolt...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Microsoft have released WindowsThinPC, a lite edition of Windows 7

[Patrick]

VHD booting is recommended only for a test environment (by MS). You
should not deploy them to your production machines.

Our experience is they become corrupted relatively easily in which
case you have lost the whole hard disk as it is a single file. Also if
your HDD develops bad sectors, similarly you have lost that whole hard
disk file and its contents will be very difficult to recover.

We only use VHD to develop the image, it is deployed to a production
machine by converting to a wim and then imaging as normal.

[ndog37]

VHD systems do get corrupted easily, eg not shutting down properly can
corrupt the filesystem, in the case of a VHD chkdsk will not work.
This why one should use parent child VHD relationships when dealing
with VHD systems.

In schools I use VHD for cow laptops, and use a child VHD file, this
gets discarded every time it is booted and reloaded with the backup
VHD child file (which is about 300KB). This works perfectly and means
I do not need to use deep freeze or the like. In the rare case the VHD
child files both get corrupted there is an option to restore them (PE
environment which runs some scripts and reboots in the BCD menu). So
problem taken care of.

In the case of Teacher laptops, machines that need antivirus (eg SEP),
machines that need to be updated all the time, (basically a machine
you wouldn't use deep freeze on), VHD systems are not the way to go.

Regards

[Patrick]

This sounds very complex when I can just image the computer from a
WIM, takes about the same amount of time as it does to copy the VHD,
also gives me hibernation which is not available on the VHD.

[Julian Davison]

Then I suggest you use WIM :)

All falls under horses for courses...

[Nathan Symington]

When building a windows 7 image the idea is to get a generalised wim file which excludes drivers and software. The wim file is only there to have the latest updates relevant only to the OS.

The second step is to deploy the wim. If you want to go VHD way of course you will need to build your own deployment win PE environment (such as pxelinux -> memdisk -> winPE 3.1 or BartPE) and have some way either manual or automated of using imagex, diskpart and bcdedit to deploy the wim to VHD. You also want to inject drivers and software scripts relevant to the machine in this "PE stage". The PE stage should also be responsible for creating initial child VHD and registering in BCD the entries required. Additionally you will need to have a customised PE.wim file prepared which works as a recovery system and this will be installed to the machine BCD in this step.

When the wim gets booted you should have a script (injected in step 2) to automate the other tasks such as keying, installing, activating, creating secondary child VHD for the "usable" stage etc..

The initial setup is heavily scripted and requires thorough testing, but when implemented it means less technical downtime overall. If the system falls over the recovery PE is booted (on the local BCD) and it fixes itself, if a physical disk needs replacing then deploying a new wim is easy as the deployment system is already in place (step 2)

Strictly speaking I only use VHD systems as an alternative to deepfreeze for machines that real data doesn't get saved to, such as kids laptops. The main weaknesses of immutable VHD system are only thin PC, enterprise and ultimate are supported, security updates are irrelevant as well as antivirus..

In any case I love this system with Thin PC. It makes the crappy acer aspire one 522 netbooks all cheap schools buy actually seem fast. And with the machines reloading themselves every boot they act as if they were new machines everytime.

Regards

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