Great to be here

mikey — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 12:23:00 GMT

Hi everybody! Just wanted to take a quick timeslice to thank Robert McLaws for the introduction, and for putting together a great site like this one! It's a beautiful site, Robert, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

As Robert said, my name is Mike Kolitz, and I'm an MVP for Windows Setup and Deployment.
So why am I excited to see Longhorn unveiled at PDC? Well, for one thing, I'm anxious to see how the setup routine may have changed - Paul Thurrott has reported that Longhorn's setup is now image-based, and takes significantly less time to install. Here's what Paul had to say:

“Longhorn's new modular architecture will have sweeping ramifications for how Longhorn is created, installed by end users, deployed in corporate settings, and updated over time with service packs and hot-fixes (QFEs). Interestingly, Microsoft actually went the distance with the componentization approach and created a bootable image of the Longhorn base OS. This bootable image will allow users to install Longhorn much more quickly than was possible in the past, as it eliminates a lot of the time-consuming file copy and Registry population phases that were present in previous Windows versions. In Longhorn, the first phase of setup simply copies this single image file--referred to as the WinPE (Windows pre-installation environment)--to the hard drive, and then reboots the system. Then your system boots into WinPE, which is basically a miniature operating system consisting of the core Longhorn features, it boots immediately, because the image ships already "installed." Then, the mini-OS runs a totally rewritten PnP routine that quickly identifies your exact hardware configuration, installs the correct drivers, and ... that's it. You're up and running. Myers says the goal is for an unattended setup of Longhorn to take less than 15 minutes from start to finish. Compared to the 45- to 60-minute install time for Windows XP, that's amazing.”

Sounds great, if that's how it turns out. At this point, though, only time will tell...
See you at the PDC!

Confessions of a Longhorn User : Setup and Deployment

Great to be here