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Windows 7 on a stick.

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Hello folks,

Since Windows 7 Beta 1 became available i have been slowly upgrading all my machines.  It started with my test box A Dell Latitude D830, followed by my production machine a Dell Latitude E4300.  I thought to myself, WOW this rocks!!!  so i went one step further and upgraded my Media Center PC.  Boom, done working perfectly, no driver issues, simply flawless….

Hmmm… which one do I do next? The only two machines left are the family PC in the kitchen, or my wife’s laptop.  That decision was very simple.  My wife does not respond well to technological change. and i do not want to change anything on her setup these days since she is in the middle of a very important project at work that cannot be late.

Ok my decision was taken, DVD in hand i make my way to the kitchen…. Turn the machine on, hit the DVD button. It will not open!?!…  hit the button again….  Still nothing. Logon to Vista, open explorer and right click the drive select “eject”…. Again, nothing.  At that point my daughter walks by and says “oh yeah! That stopped working weeks ago”. After further investigation and interrogation it turns out when you forcibly shove the drive door shut when the PC is turned off, bad things can happen.

Anyway back to the topic at hand. What to do now. Hmm. The machine is fairly recent, it should be able to boot from a USB device. GOT IT! Build a image on a USB key to install Windows 7.

It turns out it was very easy to accomplish. let me show you.

 

Here you have it.  Windows 7 on a stick.

go forth and deploy!

Cheers.

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Pierre Roman, MCSE, ITIL| Microsoft Canada Co. | IT Pro Advisor | pierre.roman@microsoft.comphone: 613-212-2370 |   mobile: 613-715-2311

 

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    At least it's just $30 to get a replaced DVD drive. :-)

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    Pierre! THANKS! THAT ROCKS!  Who would have thought it would be that easy? Question.  How can we extend that to say a custom WIM file from MDT?  Just build image and replace the original from the Windows Vista or 7 disk?

  • Anonymous
    February 16, 2009
    Hey Sean, That's my next thing...  i just finished setting up my MDT 2010 lab that supports Windows 7. The USB deployment of custom images is the next thing I’m looking at. And this goes for everyone who reads this.  let me know what operational scenarios you would like me to look into.  I’m always looking for ways to help. Thanks Pierre

  • Anonymous
    February 18, 2009
    Of course you've got all the home workstations locked down with Group Policy to tie the kids down to 5 mins a day on Facebook right? :)