Windows ADK Release Candidate available

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While there is no official release date yet, for those of you needing to ramp on Windows 10 deployments the latest build has just been released, and it's the release candidate which you can grab here.

Download the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) RC for Windows 10 to install tools and documentation for OEMs and ODMs to customize Windows 10 images, assess the quality and performance of systems or components, and to deploy Windows operating systems to new computers. The Windows ADK includes Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD), the Windows Assessment Toolkit, the Windows Performance Toolkit, and several new and improved deployment tools that can help you automate a large-scale deployment of Windows 10.

What’s new in the Windows ADK

The Windows ADK now includes Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer, the Windows Assessment Toolkit, the Windows Performance Toolkit, and several new and improved deployment tools that can help you automate a large-scale deployment of Windows 10.

 Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD)

  • Quickly create a provisioning package that you can use to customize devices without re-imaging.
  • Build a customized Windows image for specific market segments and regions.

See Getting started with Windows ICD for more information.

Push-button reset incorporates system updates by default

Users can now refresh or restore their PCs to the updated version of the system files, instead of having to reinstall each update individually.

Partial language packs now available

Want to add more languages for users when they turn on their device? Instead of adding full language packs, save space by adding just the base user interface files for a language. Later, if your user needs handwriting or voice recognition capabilities, Windows can download them as needed.

For more information, see Language Packs (lp.cab) and Windows Deployment.

New package type: Capabilities

This new Windows package type lets you request services like Microsoft .NET or languages without specifying the version. Use the DISM tool to search multiple sources like Windows Update or your corporate servers to find and install the latest version.

Save space by running Windows from compressed OS files

You can now run Windows directly from compressed files. This is similar to WIMBoot, introduced in Windows 8.1 Update 1. This new process uses individual files instead of a static WIM file. When updating system files, Windows now replaces the old files instead of keeping both copies.

Windows Performance Analyzer Sharing and Collaboration

Developers can package and share their trace in a zip file along with their trace session, annotations, and (optionally) loaded symbols with Windows Performance Analyzer.

See What's New in the Windows Performance Toolkit for more information.

Windows Performance Recorder Query Providers

Windows Performance Recorder now supports querying providers. ProcessExeFilter is an optional attribute, allows providers to filter specific processes by their corresponding executable name.

See What's New in the Windows Performance Toolkit for more information.

Rather than performing the online setup, I prefer to do a local download first so that I can then install it on multiple PCs quickly without having to download everything again.