Here is the main tool we used: WAIK. It is hard to use, but a later tool provides a nice simple GUI to create the WAIK commands for you.
Here is one of the WAIK tools showing the OS choices included in the Windows 7 DVD WIM file.
On the first day, we used WAIK to do essential tasks the hard way. We created a bootable WinPE file, but all it gives you is a command prompt. WinPE is a very simple OS in RAM that runs without using the hard disk, so the hard disk can be partitioned and formatted.
Here is part of the deployment customization, specifying how the disk should be partitioned. Notice the stages of the process. There are a lot of settings, but the tool fills them in with defaults so you don't need to adjust many of them.
When you boot from the WinPE this tool creates, it automatically launches this little application which guides you through the deployment.
During deployment, you can choose from several Task Sequences, which specify what OS, drivers, apps, partition settings, etc. to use.
During deployment, you can choose applications to be installed.
The disk is partitioned and formatted as specified in the deployment tool settings.
Windows installation proceeds automatically.
This installation got Windows on there, but the application did not install.
I decided to try again, installing Firefox instead, to see if the problem was just with that particular application.
Here is the second automated deployment: Win 7 Pro with Firefox.
No errors this time!
Firefox installed and it works!
