When We are going to Windows Deploy- Must Know

• Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) is a lightweight version of Windows XP, Vista Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7 that is used for the deployment of workstations and servers.Its freely available with WAIK(Windows Automated Installation Kit).It is intended as a 32-bit or 64-bit replacement for MS-DOS during the installation phase of Windows, and can be booted via PXE, CD-ROM, USB flash drive or hard disk. 

• Sysprep is the name of Microsoft's System Preparation Utility for Microsoft Windows operating system deployment. It has been used for years, but this tool has changed significantly for Windows Vista. In previous versions of Windows (Windows XP and 2000), Sysprep was made available in the Windows OPK, Windows CD Deploy.cab file, or, in the latest service pack. With Windows 7 and Vista there is no longer a Deploy.cab file on the CD and no longer Setup Manager for creating answers files because Vista uses a new set of deployment tools (It’s all available in the OS itself).

•  It’s very important to choose the right OS license (OEM, Volume License, MSDN, Action Pack,...) if you want to prepare an operating system for disk cloning.