While Windows 7 remains the prominent Operating System in use within the NHS, it was starting to feel somewhat neglected by Microsoft. Since its release in 2009 Microsoft have obviously provided full support and reliably produced any required updates, however, there had been no Service Pack since 2011.
The lack of new Service Pack meant that the sheer number of updates was becoming problematic. Not only do all of those updates take a long time to apply to our images, it had reached the point where there were too many updates for the Update Client to handle causing it to crash.
Microsoft have now released a convenience rollup pack for Windows 7. This pack contains all of the updates available as of April 2015. This update can be applied directly to the source Operating System Install.wim file with Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), and significantly reduce the build and capture time for Windows 7 images.
The convenience rollup is available from the Microsoft Update Catalogue. To add the update directly to your source image, you must have the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit or the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK/ADK) installed to mount the Install.wim to a temporary directory and using the Add-Package switch to deliver the bulk update. Once committed, the unmounted ‘wim file’ already contains the vast majority of available Windows 7 updates.
For more details of the DISM commands you can visit MSDN, or contact BDS Solutions for this and other optimisation options for your client management strategies.
Post by Dean Lockwood, Solutions Architect