Yesterday, Microsoft Australia Windows client expert John Pritchard accepted an interview with apcstart.com to explain in detail the new "mirror-based" installation and backup methods of Vista. Windows Vista enthusiasts please pay attention to this article.
The following are the main points of our interviews, click to read the original English text: http://www.apcstart.com/site/dwarne/2006/07/773/inside-vistas-new-image-based-install
installed Vista Beta 2 users have found that, although the new Caozuojitong installation disk capacity of up to about 2.5G, but Vista installation time is not too long scary. This is due to the new "mirror" based installation.
Vista's "image based install" means that the installation file DVD contains an image file of the pre-installed Vista system --install.wim. The new WIM file is a disk image file similar to the ghost file. The difference is that the WIM file is file-based, and unlike the disk-based GHO file, the entire contents of the original disk must be erased during recovery. The Vista system further abstracts the hardware abstraction layer (HAL), which is the main reason why the same image can be deployed on different platform computers - but not between 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Users can use their own ImageX program included in the Windows Automated Installation Kit to create or unlock their own system image -- just like using ghost. This image is not immutable, but can be viewed or modified in a special file browser like a ghost file, and can be used to add drivers and system patches to the system in the image using tools provided by Microsoft. Users can also choose to use the high compression option to further reduce the size of the image file (standard compression is used on the installation DVD).
In a mirror-based installation, an upgrade installation that retains existing system settings will rely on a more powerful File and Configuration Transfer Wizard, and the recovery process will be fully automated. Not only that, but users can also order almost all system components with a more powerful unattend.xml file than before, and specify a series of actions that are automatically performed after the system is installed - just like the popular integrated XP in China. .
The new Windows Automated Installation Kit will not only include ImageX, but also a GUI wizard that generates unattend.xml and 180 megabytes of WinPE 2.0, which will be a simple command-line operating system. Just like XP's Recovery Console, but more powerful. But unfortunately, whether the Windows Automated Installation Kit will be provided free of charge with the installation disk is "still in decision making."
In short, the information provided in the interview is exciting, alteration installation to solve the nightmare encountered long plagued many computer enthusiasts crazy reload, let us together wish the beautiful Vista listed it as soon as possible !