Although the official offerings from Microsoft for the deployment of Windows Vista are superior to what is available for Windows XP, following the release of Service Pack 3, the System Preparation tool (Sysprep.exe) was kicked up a notch, delivering similar functionality. But at the same time, Windows XP SP3 is not the only Windows platform benefiting from the advantages brought by Sysprep.exe. Users of Windows Embedded Standard 2009, the successor of Windows XP Embedded, now in Customer Technology Preview stage, will be able to leverage Sysprep.

"Sysprep is a tool that normally ships as part of an OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK). It is a technology that you can use with other deployment tools to install Microsoft Windows operating systems with minimal intervention by an administrator or technician. Sysprep is typically used during large-scale rollouts when it would be too slow and costly to have administrators or technicians interactively install the operating system on individual computers. This process of creating a master image that can then be customized and deployed to multiple machines is also referred to as cloning," explained Lynda Allen, Microsoft Embedded Program Manager.

Sysprep marks the evolution of Windows XP Embedded into Windows Embedded Standard 2009. But not in the sense that the deployment capabilities are limited to the System Preparation tool. In fact, Windows Embedded Standard 2009 delivers the next step from the embedded cloning technologies included into Windows XP Embedded. As far as Windows XP Embedded is concerned, duplication scenarios had to rely entirely on Fbreseal.exe and Setupcn.exe, Setupcl.exe making up the System Cloning Tool. This is no longer the case with the CTP of Windows Embedded Standard 2009.

"Sysprep in Windows Embedded Standard is not a replacement for the System Cloning Tool, but is included for the primary purpose of enabling another great new feature, the SCCM Operating System Deployment (OSD) functionality that allows Embedded images to be deployed to target machine in an enterprise using SCCM. The 'mini' mode of sysprep is used in this scenario to apply certain settings to the target machines after they have been deployed (such as joining a domain, setting an administrator password etc.)," Allen added.