does ltt labs deploy windows manually?

[lazarestas]

Recenlty was working on a homelab/workenv solution to 0 click windows 11 deployment, and started wondering if LTT Labs staff really install each PC for testing? This should be soo time consuming

So the overall question is in the title - does LTT Labs deploy Windows 11 on each testbench manually?

[Shimejii]

For the best and most accurate results it would depend. You can  do an Image save of a known good windows install and deploy that, but it becomes an issue where you have to update that image every few months when updates occur.

 

Like recently they would have to update that image to the latest one to get the AM5 Fixes and some more of those other fixes that changes the results.

 

Clean installs tend to be the way it goes though, especially if something happens. Its fast enough at this point just to reinstall it.

[lazarestas]

8 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

For the best and most accurate results it would depend. You can  do an Image save of a known good windows install and deploy that, but it becomes an issue where you have to update that image every few months when updates occur.

 

Like recently they would have to update that image to the latest one to get the AM5 Fixes and some more of those other fixes that changes the results.

 

Clean installs tend to be the way it goes though, especially if something happens. Its fast enough at this point just to reinstall it.

yes version control is very hard, but there are solutions to centralize os redeployment and application installation

they enable the employees to just plug the system and go to another task for 10-40 minutes

[Follio]

On a frequent cadence we sysprep an installation of Windows (the cleanest instance being a virtual machine) and import it into a workstation with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit installed. We then create a USB installable media to use for the test benches. Our images are fairly light on customization and are comparable to a vanilla install right from Microsoft, minus skipping all the OOBE screens.