How do companies like dell preinstall programs like norton on their computers?

[Defunct Lizard]

I am thinking of starting a small computer company and want to have chrome and other free or open source programs pre-installed on the computers. I don't know how to do this before the windows install though. Does anyone know how?

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Probably a specialized custom installer. If you want to do this I'd just make a USB stick with whatever programs and copy them over whenever you build a computer. That's what I do. I have a stick with Chrome, Steam, Afterburner and a few other critical programs

[Defunct Lizard]

1 minute ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Probably a specialized custom installer. If you want to do this I'd just make a USB stick with whatever programs and copy them over whenever you build a computer. That's what I do. I have a stick with Chrome, Steam, Afterburner and a few other critical programs

Same, just when you buy a computer and turn it on, it doesn't go into a login screen, it goes into a setup.

[Tabs]

7 minutes ago, floppy disk mayhem said:

I am thinking of starting a small computer company and want to have chrome and other free or open source programs pre-installed on the computers. I don't know how to do this before the windows install though. Does anyone know how?

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Deployment Image Servicing and Management.

[Lurick]

It's called sysprep or Audit mode, I forget which. You can use this to install drivers and whatnot without creating a password.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Just now, floppy disk mayhem said:

Same, just when you buy a computer and turn it on, it doesn't go into a login screen, it goes into a setup.

Yeah, as I said probably a custom installer that Micro$oft provides for Dell, Acer etc

[JoostinOnline]

Essentially they clone a custom windows image onto the drive.

[Adorable Cat]

I found this guide, https://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/blog/Windows-Enterprise-Desktop/Create-a-Custom-ISO-for-Windows-10-Part-1-of-6 . From what I understood of it, you take a brand new installation of windows (on like a VM or something), install the programs you want to include, then you convert that into an ISO you can burn onto a USB and use that to install windows onto your computers.

 

I think

[Tabs]

1 minute ago, floppy disk mayhem said:

Same, just when you buy a computer and turn it on, it doesn't go into a login screen, it goes into a setup.

The basic steps to generate an image yourself is this - install windows on a machine (doesn't matter which one as long as it supports the version you wish to deploy). When you get to the OOBE (the setup process you mentioned), press shift+control+F3 to enter "Audit mode". This is a clean slate mode where you can install anything you want and it'll be available on the image when someone uses it.

 

Once done, run the Sysprep utility and generalise the image with the /generalize and /oobe parameters.

 

After that, capture the image using WinPE (dism), and then you can create custom deployment scripts in MDT depending on things like hardware, capabilities, versioning, etc. 

 

When the image is deployed, the user will be greeted with the OOBE after turning the machine on, and when they arrive at the desktop everything you installed will be ready and waiting. This applies to files as well as programs; anything you put in the start menu, any configuration changes made to policies, all of that gets migrated over. The only thing that is removed from the image during sysprep/generalize is hardware-specific information (so the image can be used on any machine).

[zalealb]

if you want to do this yourself, you will have to create a sysprep script basically that will bake in your apps. but from a business perspective you can work from cdw/ pcm/ ingram micro and they can drop ship under you name with your custom image straight to your customers doorstep

[Defunct Lizard]

1 hour ago, Tabs said:

The basic steps to generate an image yourself is this - install windows on a machine (doesn't matter which one as long as it supports the version you wish to deploy). When you get to the OOBE (the setup process you mentioned), press shift+control+F3 to enter "Audit mode". This is a clean slate mode where you can install anything you want and it'll be available on the image when someone uses it.

 

Once done, run the Sysprep utility and generalise the image with the /generalize and /oobe parameters.

 

After that, capture the image using WinPE (dism), and then you can create custom deployment scripts in MDT depending on things like hardware, capabilities, versioning, etc. 

 

When the image is deployed, the user will be greeted with the OOBE after turning the machine on, and when they arrive at the desktop everything you installed will be ready and waiting. This applies to files as well as programs; anything you put in the start menu, any configuration changes made to policies, all of that gets migrated over. The only thing that is removed from the image during sysprep/generalize is hardware-specific information (so the image can be used on any machine).

thank you so much oh my freaking goodness this is so useful. I thought it would be so much more complicated.