We are looking to start creating images of our workstations to use when deploying workstations or to speed up restorations of existing workstations. I've been doing some research into this and the information available is a bit overwhelming so I'm trying to piece it together. Here are the questions I have so far that I haven't been able to find a concise answer to:
Sysprep: Do I need to use audit mode and do anything special before installing all my applications on the machine to be cloned or can I just set up the machine as usual then run sysprep right before I make the image of the drive? I am not planning on doing any fancy unattended deployments or anything like that and I plan to use Clonezilla to make the image.
Windows license type: Several questions about that: We don't have any volume licenses for Windows 7. We buy Dells with just a standard license. I am correct in assuming that if the product keys that came with the machines do not have OEM in them, then they are not OEM copies, right? If I buy one volume license copy of Windows7, can I use that on the machine that I will make the master image of, then use the standard product keys that came with the machines on all the clones? Do I need any volume licenses for XP or Vista if I plan to make images of those as well?
