14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has reached the Beta 2 stage with the development of its solution accelerator for the Windows operating system and application deployment. With the release of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2010 Beta 2, the Redmond company is allowing customers to start testing installation scenarios involving the next iteration of the Windows client and server platforms. The official launch of Windows 7 is planned for October 22, 2009, concomitantly with the General Availability of Windows Server 2008 R2. The two operating systems will be released to manufacturing by the end of July 2009.
“MDT 2010 is the next version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, a Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment. New features such as flexible driver management, optimized user interface workflow, and Windows PowerShell can simplify deployment and make your job easier. MDT 2010 will support deployment of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in addition to deployment of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP,” a member of the MDT team reveals.
With the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta 2, customers will be able to leverage automated desktop and server deployment processes, streamlined by a collection of unified tools, with the monitoring of standardized OS images installation centralized into a single console. MDT is the Redmond company's solution for performing what the software giant referred to as fully automated zero touch installation deployments. Zero touch deployments require a little more than just MDT, namely System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 Beta and Windows deployment tools.
MDT 2010 Beta 2 comes to the table with a range of improvements including “deployment Workbench enhancements; new Powershell capabilities – anything done from within the Deployment Workbench can be scripted through Powershell; Task Sequence and Script enhancements; and Configuration Manager Enhancements,” the MDT team representative adds.
The final version of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 will be made available following the launch of Windows 7 on October 22, within 60 days. MDT 2010 Beta 2 is available for download via Microsoft Connect.