Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit

Last updated

Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit
Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial release13 February 2007;16 years ago (2007-02-13)
Stable release
for Windows 11, v.22H2 / September 2023;5 months ago (2023-09) [1]
Operating system Windows 8.1 and later
Platform x64 (exclusively)
Size 32 MB ~ 3.48 GB
Available inArabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish
Type Utility software
License Freeware
Website docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK), formerly Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK or WAIK), is a collection of tools and technologies produced by Microsoft designed to help deploy Microsoft Windows operating system images to target computers or to a virtual hard disk image in VHD format. It was first introduced with Windows Vista. WAIK is a required component of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. [2] [3]

Contents

History

Windows AIK Version 1.0 was released with Windows Vista. New or redesigned tools and technologies included Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM), Sysprep, ImageX, and Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) v2.0. [4]

Windows AIK Version 1.1 was released with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. A number of new tools were introduced, including PostReflect and VSP1Cln. WinPE 2.1 could be more customized. [5] Supported operating systems include Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows XP SP2.

Windows AIK Version 2.0 was released with Windows 7 beta. Significantly, a single new tool, DISM, replaced several earlier tools including PEImg and IntlCfg, which were deprecated. User State Migration Tool (USMT) was added to this version of WAIK. [6] Supported operating systems include Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2, Windows Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows AIK version 3.0 is exactly the same as 2.0; the version number has only been updated to correspond with the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. [7] Microsoft has also released a WAIK supplement for Windows 7 SP1. WAIK readme [8] references the WAIK supplement, [9] which optionally adds WinPE v3.1 to a previously installed, compatible WAIK. Sysprep is included with the operating system rather than included in WAIK.

AIK was renamed The Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8, and includes Windows OEM Preinstallation Kit. [10] ImageX was removed from this version, as DISM supports all its features. [11]

Components

Application compatibility tools

This toolset consists of Compatibility Administrator and Standard User Analyzer.

Configuration Designer

DISM

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a command-line tool that can perform a large number of servicing tasks. It can query, configure, install and uninstall Windows features such as locale settings, language packs, optional components, device drivers, UWP apps, or Windows updates. DISM can perform these tasks on the live (running) Windows instance, an offline instance in another partition, or a Windows installation image inside a WIM file. [12] [13] [14] Starting with Windows Server 2012, it can repair damaged or corrupt Windows files by downloading a fresh copy from the Internet. [15]

DISM has been part of Windows since Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. [12] Before Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, DISM had incorporated the majority of ImageX functions but not all; ImageX was still needed to capture the disk image for deployment. [12] However, DISM deprecated ImageX in Windows 8. [11] In addition, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 expose DISM services in PowerShell through 22 cmdlets for object-oriented scripting. [16] This number has reached 62 in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. [17]

Imaging and Configuration Designer

Preinstallation environment

WAIK includes Windows Preinstallation Environment, a lightweight version of Windows that can be booted via PXE, CD-ROM, USB flash drive or external hard disk drive and is used to deploy, troubleshoot or recover Windows environments. It replaces MS-DOS boot disks, Emergency Repair Disk, Recovery Console and Automated System Recovery boot disks. Traditionally used by large corporations and OEMs (to preinstall Windows client operating systems to PCs during manufacturing), WinPE is now available free of charge via WAIK.

User state migration

WAIK for Windows 7 includes User State Migration Tool v4.0, a command-line interface tool for transferring Windows user settings from one installation to another as part of an operating system upgrade or wipe-and-reload recovery, for example, to clean out a rootkit. USMT v4.0 can transfer the settings from Microsoft Windows XP or later to Microsoft Windows Vista and later. [18] Versions of the USMT are included in the Windows ADKs for Windows 10, versions 1511 and 1607. [19]

Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT)

Windows Assessment Toolkit

Described in Microsoft documents. [20]

Windows Performance Toolkit

Described in Microsoft documents. [21]

Former components

ImageX

ImageX is the command-line tool used to create, edit and deploy Windows disk images in the Windows Imaging Format. Starting with Windows Vista, Windows Setup uses the WAIK API to install Windows.

The first distributed prototype of ImageX was build 6.0.4007.0 (main.030212-2037). It allowed Microsoft OEM partners to experiment with the imaging technology and was developed in parallel with Longhorn alpha prototypes. It was first introduced in Milestone 4 into the Longhorn project, and used in later builds of Longhorn. Build 6.0.5384.4 (Beta 2) added significant advantages over previous versions, like read-only and read/write folder mounting capabilities, splitting to multiple image files (SWM), a WIM filter driver and the latest LZX compression algorithms. It has been used since pre-RC (release candidates) of Windows Vista.

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References

  1. ↑ "Download and install the Windows ADK". Windows Hardware Developer. Microsoft. 19 September 2023 – via Microsoft Docs.
  2. ↑ Czechowski, Aaron (17 August 2015). "MDT 2013 Update 1 Now Available". Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Team Blog. Microsoft.
  3. ↑ "Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Update 1 Release Notes" (Office Open XML). microsoft.com. Microsoft. September 2012.
  4. ↑ "Download Details: Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)". Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft Corporation. 13 February 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  5. ↑ "Download Details: Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008". Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft Corporation. 9 April 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  6. ↑ "Download Details: The Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7". Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft Corporation. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  7. ↑ "bink.nu".
  8. ↑ "Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 Readme". TechNet Library . Microsoft. 22 February 2011.
  9. ↑ "Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) Supplement for Windows 7 SP1". Download Center. Microsoft. 21 February 2011.
  10. ↑ "Windows ADK Overview". microsoft.com. Microsoft.
  11. 1 2 "What is DISM?". Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 Technical Library. Microsoft. 18 April 2014.
  12. 1 2 3 Savill, John (29 January 2010). "Q. What's Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)?". Windows IT Pro. Penton.
  13. ↑ "DISM - Deployment Image Servicing and Management Technical Reference for Windows". Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 Technical Library. Microsoft. 29 February 2012. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  14. ↑ "What Is Deployment Image Servicing and Management?". Windows 7 Technical Library. Microsoft. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  15. ↑ "Repair a Windows Image". Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 Technical Library. Microsoft. 10 February 2014.
  16. ↑ "Dism (Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012)". TechNet . Microsoft. 28 July 2016.
  17. ↑ "DISM (Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016)". TechNet . Microsoft. 28 July 2016.
  18. ↑ "Download Details: Windows 7 Walkthrough: User State Migration Tool". Microsoft. 9 January 2009.
  19. ↑ "User State Migration Tool (USMT) Technical Reference (Windows 10) - Windows Deployment". Microsoft Learn. 28 February 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  20. ↑ "Windows Assessment Toolkit". Microsft. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  21. ↑ "Windows Performance Toolkit". Microsoft. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
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