Windows Vista Migration - My Top 10
Now that Windows Vista is out I wanted to point you to some resources that I've come across that might help you with your migration planning. So what I thought I would do is list the ones I've found so far so you can bookmark this as a handy list. I'll add to this as I find more. So below is my Top 10 list of Windows Vista deployment resources.
- Windows Vista Step by Step Guides - The guides provide a good starting point for deployment and many of the other new features in Vista like User Account Control and Bitlocker Drive Encryption.
- Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment 2007 - BDD 2007 is the best practice tool for deploying Vista and Office 2007.
- Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 (ACT 5.0) - Lifecycle Management Tool to help manage your application portfolio.
- Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Tool - Solution Accelerator that checks machines on your network to see which ones are capable of running Vista.
- Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT) - Tool that allows IT Pro's to centrally manage the volume activation process.
- Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor - Tool you can run on your Windows XP machine that will let you know if it will run Vista and and potential hardware or driver issues.
- Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) - If you are deploying Vista then the WAIK is probably one of the most important tools.
- Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Later - Designed to be used with the volume activation tool.
- Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK 7) - Tool to help with deploying web solutions
- The Definitive Guide to Deploying Vista - Thanks to my Canadian Colleagues there are a couple MVP's in Canada that are releasing an e-book on this topic 1 chapter at a time. So far 3 chapters have been released and it makes for good guidance on the topic. And the fact it comes from our MVP community it's real world information.
If you find any additional resources then please let me know!
Cheers, Jeffa