If you have ever had the joy of reinstalling Windows on your pc, to then have to download all the drivers on another PC to get it online, then have to spend hours on Windows Update installing updates, rebooting, installing more updates, more rebooting etc, then this is the guide for you.
I reinstall Windows quite regularly as part of my job, so anything that will make this process less painful is welcome. I have created a Windows CD that answers all the setup questions for me, and has all the latest Windows updates pre installed, which makes installing Windows an almost completely unattended process. This allows me to turn machines around and get them back out to the classrooms much faster than doing it the normal way.
So I decided to throw together a little guide on how to make one of these CDs. You can use this guide as a basis and change bits and piece to suit your own needs. For instance if you are only making the disc for one PC, you can slipstream in all the drivers for your computer, saving having to look for them after a reinstall. I prefer to leave drivers out as they are updated quite regularly and I like to run the latest versions (with the exception of LAN or network card drivers, as having these in the CD means you can get online instantly after install to download the rest of your drivers). Read the rest of this entry »
