Mike Tech Show – Podcast – #54 – 03-11-06

Calendar March 10, 2006 | Posted by Mike

Podcast: [Mirror]

(42 minutes)

Show #54 notes:

Mike Tech Show Sponsor –

Show Links –

Questions –

  • Best way to extract audio in MP3 format in Linux?
  • Is there an open source program that can manage and deploy Windows XP images for several desktops?
  • Tips on installing a new motherboard while keeping existing Windows XP hard drive and not loosing applications and data?
  • What are your favorite Firefox extensions?
  • Email me at mike@miketechshow.com
  • Voice mail: (240) 949-2450

Independent Music –

Category Categories: Blog Post

3 Comments

  1. Steven Murawski says:
    March 10, 2006 at 4:40 pm

    I’m in the process of deploying a bunch of laptops which all have the same image. Thankfully, Microsoft provides some tools to use. Microsoft’s site provides the documentation for this tool called Sysprep (which is on the install disk). You are able to create a customized installation and then run sysprep, which prepares the image for cloning and allows you to use a mini-setup wizard, rather than the full setup wizard. Using Setup Manager (also on the install disk), you can create a sysprep answer file and automate the install, reducing time to install even further. So far this is working rather well. Once you have your image created, a folder on your system drive called sysprep created (see the documentation on MS’s site or html help included on the install CD) and your answer file created, you can use any disk imager to copy the drive (I believe Mike covered some free disk imagers a few shows back). Additionally, you could use a Linux boot CD, dd and netcat, to create an image. I think I have covered the general idea, but if you want more info, email me at steven.murawski at gmail dot com.

  2. Anonymous says:
    March 11, 2006 at 5:59 pm

    Hi Mike,

    I just wanna say thank you for your great Podcast. It’s really informative to listen to your shows.
    Just a short success story: today the tool nLite comes in handy for me. I wasn’t aware of the name, but I remembered you had mentioned a tool to customize a Windows installation not long ago. So I could easy find it and solve the problem. 🙂

    Thanks for your great work! 🙂

    Greetings,
    Martin

  3. Mike says:
    March 13, 2006 at 9:33 pm

    Thank you for the great comments.