Microsoft has made available for download the gold version of its solution accelerator designed to automate the deployment of its latest Windows client and server operating system released. The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 was released to manufacturing over a month following the RTM of Windows 7 itself. MDT 2010 comes to the table with support not just for the deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but also for previous releases of Windows, including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

“MDT provides you with the following benefits: unified tools and processes required for desktop and server deployment in a common deployment console and collection of guidance. Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images, along with improved security and ongoing configuration management. Fully automated Zero Touch Installation deployments by leveraging System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate and Windows deployment tools. For those without a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 infrastructure, MDT leverages Windows deployment tools for Lite Touch Installation deployments,” Keith Combs, Microsoft evangelist, revealed.

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 is designed to take advantage of a package composed of several Windows deployment solutions. Customers will be able to install the solution acclelerator and, after firing up the Deployment Workbench, automatically download and install additional components, including the Windows Automated Installation Kit, the Application Compatibility Toolkit and MSXML 6.0.

“Improvements to the newest version of MDT allow you to: access deployment shares from anywhere on the network and replicate files and settings across organizational boundaries or sites. Organize and manage drivers, operating systems, applications, packages, and task sequences with an improved UI. Automate UI functionality using the Windows PowerShell command line interface,” Combs added.

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 5.0 is available for download here.

The Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here