Business Desktop Deployment 2007 available

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This morning I received a much anticipated e-mail stating the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is now available.

 

What is BDD 2007?

As many of you might have read in my post about Deploying Windows Vista Centrally this tool really makes it easy to deploy hundreds and thousands of Microsoft Windows Clients by providing guidance, tools, scripts and sequencing scenarios.

The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is the successor to BDD 2003, which allowed administrators to deploy Windows XP and Office 2003. These products can still be deployed with BDD 2007.

 

Where can I find BDD 2007?

There are two main pages of interest:

 

 

What's in BDD 2007?

The setup program for the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is only 27,6 MB in size. If you download both the x86 and the x64 version of it you end up with downloading 55 MB of data. Of course size isn't everything, but the last beta I saw was just over 700 MB in size, so there must be something missing… and there is!

Prerequisites

Before you can deploy BDD 2007 you have to manually install the following prerequisites on your server:

 

  • Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1
  • Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0
  • Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0
  • Windows Script Host (WSH) 5.6.

 

The client also needs the Windows Script Host (WSH) 5.6, but requires only Microsoft Core Extensible Markup Language (MSXML) Services 3.0 besides it.

WAIK

The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) was part of the Beta download of the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007, but you have to manually download and install it in the final release.

Windows Deployment Services

Another thing missing from the final release of the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is Windows Deployment Services (WDS). Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is part of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 ServicePack 2 and part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK).

Windows PE 2.0

Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment is also not part of the download. This isn't a problem if you deploy Windows Vista, because you'll find the *.wim file on the DVD. You will also find this file within the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK).

 

Conclusion

The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is a great tool if you want to deploy Windows Vista in a structured way: It provides tools, scripts, documentation and deployment scenarios and helps you not to overlook certain areas of attention.

You have to still (buy, ) download and install al the deployment tools for your preferred deployment which reduces the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 to a mere layer of guidance. At least the download fits on a CD-Rom… Most of the tools are now part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) which weighs about a GigaByte.

I recommend the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 to everyone that is not very 'into' Windows client deployment and because it's graphical it is most suitable for women.

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