Microsoft70-415: Implementing a Desktop Infrastructure

Explore chapter 2 of Windows desktop infrastructure through practical scenarios and labs using Windows 2008 server 2012, Windows 7, and Windows 8, highlighting varied learning styles and hands-on repetition.

Break down bite-sized concepts in Windows desktop infrastructure, explain the theory, components, and acronyms, and show demonstrations of implementing the technology in home, lab, and enterprise.

Apply Microsoft deployment minutiae to Windows desktop infrastructure by mastering both graphical deployment methods and PowerShell commands; read and interpret PowerShell commands to understand the targeted infrastructure.

Configure a full desktop infrastructure lab with Hyper-V, Server 2008 R2 and 2012, VM deployments, and System Center tools like Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, DPM, and VMM.

Set up a hands-on lab to explore desktop infrastructure concepts using video presentations, PowerPoint slides, and visuals; troubleshoot real-world issues like DNS or domain controller failures to reinforce learning.

Explore a hands-on lab layout with a Florida domain controller and multiple servers, showing deployment of System Center roles and client images in a Hyper-V environment.

Explore ways to view this course, build a hands-on lab infrastructure, and drill into the technology by applying and deploying it. Begin with a planning session for deployment infrastructure.

Outline a 50,000-foot overview of desktop upgrade strategies and virtualization options. Explain OS deployment planning, automated discovery, and activation approaches with Microsoft and third-party context.

Plan a Windows 8 upgrade by evaluating application compatibility and hardware upgrade needs within three-year to five-year migration cycles. Use pilot tests to validate data and settings before production rollout.

Assess migration resources and support, decide whether IT or departments handle deployments, plan post deployment support and training, and determine need for consulting help for Windows 7 and 8 machines.

Plan a desktop upgrade by inventorying assets, evaluating four-year-old machines for replacement, and using Microsoft tools to forecast needs and design base or high-end images.

Anticipate potential difficulties and gotchas in a desktop upgrade strategy, and leverage automation to cut delivery time from 90 days to 10–30 days for 10,000 users across remote locations.

Plan OS deployment by evaluating replacement, upgrade, and side-by-side migrations, with centralized storage considerations for 10,000 users, and build a forecast and inventory for training and rollout.

Explore virtualization solutions to deliver applications without relying on old hardware, leveraging Microsoft and other vendors to scale servers with powerful processors, memory, storage, and io connectivity.

Explore how virtualization consolidates servers and saves energy and real estate, enabling legacy apps on older operating systems via desktop or session-based access, enabling cross-platform support and centralized management.

Learn how physical servers and storage host multiple virtual machines via a hypervisor, enabling centralized management with System Center and Virtual Machine Manager, and virtualized storage and networks.

Explore how virtualization moved from installing an OS and applications on virtual machines to hypervisor level one architecture, as direct hardware interaction reduces the need for a middle layer OS.

Trace virtualization from mainframes to modern hypervisors like VMware and Hyper-V. See server, desktop, and application virtualization integrated with System Center and cloud computing.

Explore server virtualization types by comparing Hyper-V, VMware, and ESX, and learn how a hypervisor enables multiple operating systems on one physical host with centralized management using Virtual Machine Manager.

Explore desktop virtualization types, including VDI, session/presentation virtualization, and app and user virtualization, to deliver centralized management and location-agnostic desktops from data centers with simplified deployment and fewer hardware dependencies.

Explore user experience virtualization as part of mdop, which virtualizes desktop and application settings per application based on registry and file system, replacing roaming profiles with finer granularity.

Explore public, private, and hosted private clouds and the range from IaaS to SaaS, and examine server and desktop virtualization in hosted data centers.

Perform a discovery to assess current assets and map them to future OS and app goals using asset intelligence and Microsoft tools.

Plan, build, verify, and deploy a Windows desktop image to known hardware using automated, zero-touch deployment methods, while managing user data and applications before and after OS deployment.

Explore deployment toolsets for Windows 8, including the map toolkit for hardware and software inventory, ACT 6.0 for application compatibility, and Configuration Manager for zero-touch deployment and asset management.

Open the configuration manager console, review client settings, and enable hardware inventory to pull asset data from managed devices; explore the Microsoft assessment and planning toolkit for broad inventory.

Demonstrates using Microsoft assessment and planning tool kit to inventory Windows computers and collect data, generating readiness and upgrade reports for executives using Active Directory, IP address ranges, and credentials.

Demonstrate generating MAP toolkit assessments and proposals for Windows 8 enterprise readiness, analyze hardware requirements, upgrades, and network details, and present executive-ready reports.

Learn to manage volume activation with the volume activation service and the volume activation management tool (VMT) for large environments, covering volume licensing, retail and OEM keys, and AD-based activation.

Learn volume activation options for desktop infrastructure, including MAK keys for many devices and Active Directory-based activation for Windows 8 and Server 2012. Older operating systems may require mixed activation.

This lecture demonstrates activating Windows on a domain controller using rearm and slmgr, then installing and configuring the volume activation service for a hybrid network with Active Directory based activation.

activate volume activation using Active Directory-based activation and deploy kms servers to activate thousands of clients via a simple script, with clients renewing every 180 days.

Identify key pieces of network infrastructure, including storage and SAN and fiber channel concepts, virtualization via SDN, and server roles like Hyper-V and Storage Spaces in 2012.

Explore virtualization options, conduct discovery, and weigh hardware and software changes to deploy our upgrade and a desktop infrastructure in Windows Server 2012 while preserving end-user experience.

Design a desktop image strategy by examining boot and install image types, deployment options (standalone or via System Center Virtual Machine Manager), and practical design examples.

Explore the Windows image file format, from sector-based to file-based images, and how thick, thin, and hybrid core images are customized and amalgamated for different departments.

Explore how pre-installation boot files wake a machine, capture and discovery images, and deploy the core WIM-based installation image with single instancing, offline servicing, and hardware independence.

Capture a Windows image as a wim file, then deploy it over the network from a repository, reapplying user settings with an answer file to deliver a ready OS.

Explore image deployment components using Windows Deployment Services for network-based boot, image delivery, drivers, and configurations on the deployment server, and pursue zero-touch automation in large environments.

Explore image tools like imagex and dimsum to modify, slipstream drivers, and apply updates to deployment images, whether online or offline, including mounting, capturing, and preparing for deployment.

Navigate a dism demonstration by mounting a Windows Server 2012 ISO, exploring boot and sources folders, and locating the install file, with a dimsum command prompt.

Demonstrate how to use the deployment and imaging tools in the Windows assessment and deployment kit, focusing on DISM to enumerate, mount, and service Windows images.

Demonstrate unmounting and discarding a mounted image with dism, and preview ImageX basics, highlighting deprecation and limitations like Wim-only formats and OS-image scope.

Master command line and PowerShell skills, and learn about file-based imaging, boot and install images, the WIM format, and deploying and updating images in desktop infrastructure.

Design an update strategy for Windows Server 2012 desktop infrastructure, covering image updates, WSUS and Windows Intune processes, System Center integration, and the Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012.

Learn how wsus centralizes patching for servers and desktops, manages updates for Windows 7/8 and Office 2010/2013, and organizes them by containers in System Center with virtualization considerations.

Unify updates with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to centrally manage, approve, and deploy updates for physical hosts and virtual machines across downstream servers, with reporting and System Center integration.

Explore updating machines with System Center tools, including the virtual machine servicing tool 2012 and VMM, updating hosts while moving VMs to another host.

Explore Windows Intune, a cloud-based service for updating, reporting, inventory, and deployment across desktops and mobile devices, with enrollment, certificates, and cloud console control.

Discover how Windows Intune enables cloud-based device management for Windows desktops and mobile devices with BYOD support, unified security, updates, and integration with Active Directory.

Explore how intune can be used in your organization as you begin deploying phones, tablets, and other BYOB devices.

Assess available updates to determine what your organization needs. Identify updates that apply to your operating system and applications, then evaluate them with pilot groups and test machines before deploying widely.

Execute phased deployment of patches by testing with end users, rolling out in smaller groups, and setting update windows to balance reporting needs and global deployment.

Explore WSUS server components, including minimum hardware specs, web server requirements, and database options (Windows Internal Database vs full) with reporting tools for scalable multi-location deployments.

Explore updates management using WSUS, server manager, and PowerShell to control which updates are delivered, enable automatic delivery with a pre-approval process, push critical updates, and schedule deployments by groups.

System Center integrates with WSUS to provide higher level management, enabling deployment, monitoring, and enhanced reporting, while tying in Configuration Manager, Operations Manager, NAP health checks, and an updates publisher.

Set a baseline for cluster aware updating within the update strategy, enabling self and remote updates across clustered machines via the virtual machine servicing tool 2012 and its maintenance host.

The Virtual Machine Servicing Tool 2012 part 2 loads updates from VM library into a maintenance host, runs a servicing job, and restores updates to the library for high-availability deployment.

Explore updating WSUS and SCCM in a hands-on demo, focusing on installing the update role in SCCM and configuring updates and approvals.

Learn how to use Configuration Manager 2012 to manage WSUS updates by configuring a software update point and site system role, with a custom web site and scheduled synchronization.

Configure wsus and sccm 2012 to manage Windows updates and deploy software updates in phased groups. Generate compliance reports and monitor deployment with deployment packages and deployment evaluation.

Learn how WSUS 3.0 update server integrates with SCCM and Virtual Machine Manager, and how a cloud-based Intune fits between the operating system and application layers.

Explore how WSUS update server, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and System Center Configuration Manager relate across OS and application levels, with a cloud-based Intune option.

Describe where user profiles reside and their role in the infrastructure, and discuss local and roaming profiles.

Identify what makes each user’s experience unique and capture those specifics for a scalable desktop deployment. Assess past approaches and plan future options for preserving user profiles in Server 2012.

Explore local and roaming profile challenges and solutions in a mobile-first world, examine folder redirection and roaming profile behaviors, and review offline files with practical demonstrations.

Explain what a profile is, combining user specific settings and data to customize the desktop experience, and contrast local versus roaming profiles for repeatable user environments.

Explore how user profile settings and experience sit within the operating system, contrasting offline files, folder redirection, VDI, and user experience virtualization, and introduce application virtualization.

Identify where local and roaming profiles reside and what they’re for within a desktop infrastructure. Compare the roles of local and roaming profiles and how they fit into the infrastructure.

Explore local and roaming profiles in Windows: default and public locals, mandatory and temporary profiles, special and super mandatory options, and roaming profiles with system shares and security considerations.

Investigate profile loading issues, including temporary and corrupted profiles, and multiple profile instances across logins. Learn to manage local, domain, and roaming profiles with permissions and synchronization, Windows Server 2012.

Deliver a consistent user experience across desktop, laptop, and terminal server sessions by using folder redirection, roaming profiles, and offline files to preserve personal data and settings like color schemes.

Implement folder redirection and primary computer strategies in Windows Server 2012 to centralize user data on network share. Improve security and faster logon by limiting local data, reducing profile load.

Explore roaming profile strategies, weighing network share storage against latency and connectivity risks, and learn practical limits, backup concerns, and troubleshooting notes for large deployments.

Set up roaming profiles to centralize user settings by syncing registry data and desktop preferences from a network share, ensuring consistent icons, backgrounds, and screen savers across logins.

Set up a data share, grant authenticated users read-write access, and apply a group policy to redirect documents to that location on the domain.

Demonstrates roaming profile setup by accessing the server’s shared user data, creating and saving a Word document in the user’s documents library, and verifying library locations on the server.

Explore configuring roaming profiles and folder redirection by setting the primary computer in group policy, then enabling roaming profiles on the primary computer to manage user data across devices.

Learn how roaming profiles are set up with ease, troubleshoot common issues, and enable end users to travel and access their desktops in minutes.

Access your redirected files offline by storing an encrypted local cache on your laptop and choosing from online, automatic offline, manual offline, or slow-network synchronization modes.

Configures offline files and caching via group policy to auto-cache shared folders for authenticated users, enabling slow-link optimization and file synchronization across the enterprise.

Explore how offline files and roaming profiles shape user experience, and how folder redirection plus profile simplification repeat the desktop across devices, with a new approach in Server 2012.

Explore migrating user settings in a large enterprise with USMT 5.0, designing a deployment strategy for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8/7, and balancing local and online storage.

Maintain the user state across OS migrations by migrating user data, preferences, and appearance-related settings—from documents and corporate drives to local PC configurations and domain or local accounts.

Identify where users store files and settings by establishing baselines, inspecting a c drive, and configuring local, redirected, and roaming folders to keep data in a consistent corporate location.

Explore why offloading user settings to the network, via Microsoft's user experience virtualization, reduces local load and leverages enterprise backups for restorable user data.

Plan a migration strategy by choosing between a new PC or upgrading the existing one, then move user state via side-by-side migration or wipe and load over a gigabit LAN.

Explore migration strategies for desktop infrastructure, including offloading data to removable media or a new machine, and using hardlink to preserve settings, with caveats and practical demos.

Explore how Windows Easy Transfer and the Fast File and Settings Transfer Wizard use an external drive to migrate settings and apps during upgrades, preserving most settings.

Explore advanced options in Windows easy transfer, detailing various application and file types and transfer methods from direct wire to LAN and removable media.

Demonstrates Windows easy transfer, guiding users to pick a transfer option on the transfer button and uncover advanced functionality.

Demonstrate Windows Easy Transfer in Windows 8, showing how to transfer documents, music, pictures, e-mail, and videos with a wizard and customizable options.

Learn how Windows Easy Transfer simplifies moving data between machines or offloading it, using a desktop file and transferring later via DVD or USB to another computer.

Explore the usmt tool version 5 for Windows 8 and Server 2012, a command-line utility that captures, stores, and loads user data via scanstate and loadstate, with customizable sml files.

Execute hardlink migration with the user state migration tool by defragmenting and scanning for viruses first, then restore the operating system and applications before migrating user settings, including offline migration.

Usmt 5.0 adds early corruption detection, warnings and logging, and improved profile scalability for migrations, while expanding handling of known folder ids and supporting compression, encryption, and validation.

Explore how USMT performs a basic scan and load, and see how the process operates.

Demonstrates scanning a Windows 7 source and loading to Windows 8 using USMT, with customized ex-MIL and XML files to migrate user data.

Learn how to perform hardlink migration by prepping data with antivirus scans and defragmentation, consolidating files, restoring apps before settings, and offline migration during Windows 7 to Windows 8 upgrades.

Perform hardlink migration to upgrade a Windows 7 machine to Windows 8, walk through creating users, testing documents, and running a custom install from a DVD setup.

perform hard-link migration with USMT 5.0 using scanstate and loadstate to move user data and local accounts. preserve the exact same hardware across upgrades on a Windows 7/8 client.

Learn how hardlink migration works, including linking drives and Microsoft syntax, and what it migrates across files and settings, plus items it may not transfer like mapped drives and permissions.

Review how to migrate user settings using USMT 5.0, validate integrity to troubleshoot corruption, and restore files and configurations on new desktops at scale while handling a few exceptions.

Explore user experience virtualization in Windows Server 2012, virtualizing user settings to address roaming profiles deployment pain points, with a practical demo and deployment steps.

Explore how user state includes documents, data, and settings stored in the current user's registry, and how roaming profiles and UE-V manage boot-time loading and syncing.

Centralize the user state across devices with offline files and folder redirection, using UE-V to deliver a unified profile and apply application settings from the network.

Understand the boot process from bios to post, using a lightweight operating system to fetch a Windows image from a server, enabling installation, cloning, and recovery tasks.

Apply ue-v process to capture and replicate unique user preferences across devices, noting cross-platform versus platform-specific features, and enable cloud or lan synchronization for seamless retrieval.

The UE-V agent, available in 32-bit and 64-bit, monitors registered apps like Excel and Outlook, tracks changes, and synchronizes settings between a local store and a network file share.

ue-v components part 2 details how an agent monitors and applies per-application settings, syncing local registry data and user data to create individualized profiles for excel and other apps.

Set up UE-V by creating the template and GPO, building on roaming profiles, offline files, and folder redirection, and walk through a quick demo on the lab machine.

Deploy the Microsoft user experience virtualization agent via group policy by configuring 32-bit and 64-bit packages, sharing the UE-V folder, and assigning the software installation to all machines.

Learn how to virtualize the user state by integrating local and roaming profiles, add extra components, and streamline management beyond the old roaming profile approach, with a focus on deployment.

Harness WADK, WDS, and MDT 2012 for imaging and deployment. Explore pre-installation, WAPT toolkit, Windows SIM, and deployment share customization.

Master image management using tools to capture, modify, deliver, and store images, with WAPT (formerly WAICA), Windows SIM, WDS, and the reference image in the deployment share.

Explore the Windows assessment and deployment toolkit (WADK) for deployment and assessment, including the application compatibility toolkit, the Windows performance toolkit, and Windows system image manager for unattended answer files.

Understand the Windows pre installation environment as a lightweight boot system. It boots from CD/DVD, USB, or a Pixie server to enable installation, recovery, cloning, and troubleshooting.

Explore the basics of the Windows PC boot disk and a hands-on demo of the WADK installation Part 1, covering downloading, installing, toolkit considerations, and setup steps.

Install the Windows assessment and deployment kit, run setup as administrator, accept the licensing terms, and review the deployment and performance toolkits like the Application Compatibility Toolkit and USMT.

Learn to create a custom Windows PE environment by mounting and editing boot.wim, adding drivers to the image, committing changes, and generating an ISO using deployment and imaging tools.

Automate Windows sim and sysprep, providing answers during setup, and configuring drivers and imaging as the machine boots.

Create answer file with SIM to customize Windows installations, manage language packs and packages, use sysprep to generalize, audit, and test with out-of-box experience, referencing SID and Mark Russinovich.

Use System Image Manager (SIM) to create an answer file and apply sysprep to generalize Windows images, while covering dependencies from Windows setup to image capture with an imaging tool.

Create an answer file with Windows System Image Manager to automate deploying a reference image on a domain controller, configure unattend settings, and save to a floppy disk.

Learn to create and customize an answer file with SIM Part2, configuring language, time zone, OEM info, EULA, and admin and local accounts for the out-of-box experience.

Create and validate a Windows 8 image by building an answer file with SIM Part 3, enabling Hyper-V tools and dependencies, then deploy the desktop image using the reference file.

Explore preparing a Windows image for deployment by configuring copy profile and its answer file, enabling audit mode, and shaping the out of box experience with the prep tool.

Prepare a Windows 8 reference system using sysprep generalize, pin Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to the taskbar and start menu, delete the admin account, and ready the image for deployment.

Demonstrates creating and sharing an image folder, mapping drives, booting into Windows PE, and capturing a Windows 8 image to a WIM file using the deployment image servicing management tool.

Learn the basics of prep and CIMB for sysprep generalized imaging, understand the core concepts, and recognize the tools you'll regularly use in deploying operating systems.

Learn how to store and service a captured image with Windows deployment services (WDS), set up a repository, add drivers, and administer the deployment, ending with a practical demo.

Learn how Windows Deployment Services enables network-based deployment of Windows and server OSes by hosting boot and install images from a central repository, supporting multicast, DHCP, and AD integration.

Configure the Windows deployment services (WDS) server role on a domain controller, create boot and installation images, and prepare an unattended answer file for PXE-enabled deployments.

Demonstrate configuring Windows Deployment Services, adding Windows images, and enabling unattended install with an image group, multicast deployment, and Active Directory integration to respond to all clients.

Learn to configure Windows deployment services with auto cast image transmission, manage boot and install images, and provision driver packages and groups for a complete desktop infrastructure deployment.

Build a capture image from a boot image in Windows deployment services, provisioning Intel drivers, then boot from the NIC to install the captured boot image and the install image.

Review Windows deployment services on the server, how images are stored and deployed, and how answer files with Windows SIM and WTS create an image for single or multiple deployments.

Master light touch deployment with MDT 2012 to build a desktop infrastructure on server 2012, setting up deployment shares, task sequences, and an LTI demo with WADK and WDS.

Clarify differences between light touch deployment and minimal admin interaction. Explain how deployment infrastructure, repositories, deployment shares, automation, and toolkits enable installations in growing environments, with System Center previewed next.

Automate desktop deployments with MDT 2012, designed for medium-size organizations, providing a light touch by initiating tasks for thousands of users before the process runs automatically.

Outlines the MDT deployment files customsettings.ini and bootstrap.ini, their 200 properties and fallback settings, and toolkit references that detail properties and skipping the Windows welcome screen.

Plan an MDT light-touch deployment by defining image size, operating systems, architecture, and when to deliver apps, then set up prerequisites, a deployment share, and task sequences.

Explore task sequences, a structured set of steps with actions and conditions executed in order, using built-in and custom actions and if this then that logic, with PowerShell or VBScript.

Understand the MDT task sequence template and its eight steps, including image capture and prep, standard client and server test sequences, LTE OEM, post install, and HDD client deployment.

Explore the MDT setup for a desktop deployment, install MDT 2012, install prerequisites, create a deployment share, configure drivers and a task sequence, and touch on capture and deploy workflows.

Install and configure Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 (MDT) 64-bit, including prerequisites, EULA acceptance, custom install path on the E drive, and set execution remote signed scope to current user.

Build and manage Windows deployments with MDT and LTI Part 3, creating deployment shares, importing operating system files from an ISO, and using the updated LTI wizard.

Explore adding out of the box Hyper-V drivers to a deployment folder, using the wizard to pull multiple drivers, and noting that some drivers are not supported on 32-bit systems.

Set up MDT with LTI, create and configure a task sequence, build a deployment share with OS files, drivers, a boot image, and monitoring, and prepare to capture reference images.

Demonstrate light-touch deployment with the Microsoft deployment toolkit to image a reference PC with Windows 8, including boot strap settings, time zone, and live monitoring during OS deployment.

Import a custom Windows 8 enterprise image into the deployment share and create a new MDT task sequence to deploy and capture a reference computer.

Install and configure Windows deployment services with MDT deployment share, add boot image, enable multicast, and deploy a Windows 8 client from a reference image via MDT and WDS.

Explore how MDT enables light-touch, automated deployment for thousands of machines, including planning, deployment share creation, and test sequences, as a path to zero-touch deployment with System Center.