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Automating Labor-Intensive Management Tasks with WinINSTALL
PC Refresh
When replacing or refreshing PC hardware, IT organizations must plan to transition
all applications, patches, and data from the old PC to the new PC. They must also
transition the PC "personality," which can include shortcuts, bookmarks, printer
settings, drive mappings, and more. Because the new PC might have a different operating
system, and will definitely have different hardware, simply imaging the old PC and
applying it to the new one is not a viable option. Furthermore, imaging runs the
risk of transferring "malware" or other vulnerabilities from the old PC. To avoid
this pitfall many organizations veer to the other extreme, and end up dealing with
a very manual and inefficient process.
WinINSTALL can help you streamline the task and eliminate the risk. IT administrators
can use WinINSTALL to:
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Remotely power on the machine over the network |
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Automatically boot the new PC to the network with the only DOS-FREE PXE solution |
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Remotely install the operating system via a real unattended installation and then
slipstream all the latest patches to the PC before it enters the network. (This
enhances security and ensures a more reliable, up-to-date OS installation.) |
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Join the machine to the domain and add it to Active Directory or other directory service |
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Centrally distribute and install applications |
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Dynamically restore the PC's personality settings and locally saved data |
With WinINSTALL, you can replace hardware without touching the machine and make
sure end users don't waste time trying to replicate the look and feel of their previous
setup.
OS Migration
Convoluted processes with multiple utilities and customized scripts often result
in operating-system migrations that are over budget and behind schedule. Whether
you are migrating to Microsoft Windows XP today or planning to migrate to Microsoft
Vista in the future, WinINSTALL can help. With eight ways to deploy, it provides
more flexibility than any other product available and requires zero IT intervention.
Unlike imaging products, WinINSTALL uses a unique client reset template to automate
the entire operating-system migration. That way, you don't have to create, update,
or keep track of images. The WinINSTALL client reset template can be either dragged
and dropped onto a machine or scheduled to run on many PCs at specific times.
PC Recovery
With WinINSTALL, IT organizations don't spend hours troubleshooting a PC failure,
then manually installing or imaging an operating system, then distributing and re-installing
applications. Nor do they spend additional hours manually recovering all of the
user settings, data, and documents. WinINSTALL automatically recovers the user's
PC by installing a patched operating system, deploying the necessary applications,
and restoring the user's configurations. The result is that both IT and end users
attain higher productivity levels. Furthermore, WinINSTALL provides automated disaster
recovery. It can execute a "bare metal restore," which (unlike imaging) reduces
the chance that the same problem will happen again.
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