Microsoft70-415: Implementing a Desktop Infrastructure

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.