Datasheet

15
Optimizing Your Deployment Image
You may be aware that Windows 7 has better driver detection routines than
Windows Server 2008 R2. Rather than attempting to locate each separate driver for
a model of computer that you intend to have running Windows Server 2008 R2 and
then adding them to the install image for a specic hardware conguration, you can
do the following:
1. Install a 64-bit version of Windows 7 on the hardware that you will use to host
Windows Server 2008 R2.
2. Allow Windows 7 to connect to the Internet so it can detect and install all the
drivers necessary for this hardware conguration.
3. Once all drivers have been installed, copy the contents of the c:\windows\
system32\driverstore directory to a USB ash drive.
4. Use DISM.exe with the /add-driver and /recurse options to inject all these
drivers into the mounted Windows Server 2008 R2 image.
When you use this modied image to install Windows Server 2008 R2, all neces-
sary drivers for this hardware conguration will be present, and you won’t have to
spend time trying to gure out which unknown hardware device is missing its driver.
ENAbLINg FEATuRES
You can use DISM.exe to enable features such as the DHCP server so you do not have
to manually install the role or feature after installation completes. You can see a list
of features that you can enable by using the command:
dism.exe /image:c:\mount /get-features /format:list
To enable a specic feature, use the /Enable-Feature option. For example, to
ensure that the DNS server role and management tools are installed on a server dur-
ing installation, rather than as a post-installation conguration step, issue the
commands:
Dism.exe /image:c:\mount /Enable-Feature:DNS-Server-Full-Role
Dism.exe /image:c:\mount /Enable-Feature:DNS-Server-Tools
Each feature must be enabled separately. This means that if you want to enable
the Web server role on a server during installation rather than doing it as a part of the
post-installation conguration routine, you need to enable each specic Web server
feature.
Windows
Server 2008 R2
can use the same
drivers as the
64-bit editions of
Windows 7.
886588c01.indd 15 9/13/11 2:53:53 AM