A quad-core CPU (Intel Core i5/i7, or AMD Phenom series) will work for starters. I love my MacBook Pro, but it isn’t meant for making Windows images. Laptops are great for testing, but a desktop PC is optimal. Try to avoid using a laptop as a VM build station. Nothing extravagant like an Alienware, or Falcon Northwest gaming rig, but above average. The build workstation has to have some power to it. I haven’t used Virtual Box very much outside of general curiosity. Virtual Box, now owned by Oracle, is a freebie.
The build computer’s CPU must support hardware assisted virtualization for Windows to install the Hyper-V role.
Many shops do not operate that way, and have some level of interaction required during the imaging process. This is offered by Microsoft System Center (SCCM) along with the Deployment Toolkit (MDT). The ideal target being what Microsoft calls “zero-touch” deployments that require no interaction on the target computer whatsoever. From a few PCs, to hundreds, the requirements were the same, to deploy the same configuration with as little, repetitive work as possible.
8.x?), desired apps for the image (Office, PDF viewer, web browsers, plugins), virtual machine software (VMware Workstation, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Oracle Virtual Box), and image creation and deployment software (ImageX.exe, MDT, SCCM).Īlmost every place I have ever worked, IT had or needed a method to clone and deploy a specific Windows configuration and application set. Requirements: Windows install media (7 or 10.