Workshop

Workshop
Q&A
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Q I’ve read terrible things about what happens when Windows NT is duplicated. I’ve heard that
Microsoft will no longer support you if you use disk duplication. What gives?
A Welcome, gentle reader, to the “pragma versus dogma” argument. It’s true that Microsoft will not
support disk duplication done to a workstation after the character mode of Windows NT setup completes.
However, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t work in practice. Microsoft’s concerns are mostly due to two
things:
• A special, unique security ID (SID) is created for each workstation. Straight duplication will
result in each of your workstations having the same SID, which can conceivably cause problems
with your network.
• NT doesn’t have a chance to query your hardware if you don’t run Setup, which can lead to
problems.
You should definitely take the SID issue seriously; fortunately, most duplication software vendors
provide a SID changer that runs either during the duplication process or following the duplication
process, thus getting rid of the first concern. The concern about NT not querying your hardware if you
don’t run Setup is also valid, but if you follow good duplication practices and duplicate only between sets
of identical hardware, you should not have a problem.
Therefore, you’ve got to make a choice between what works and what’s forbidden. It’s your call, of
course, and you should definitely research and pilot-test further if you’re concerned.
The good news is that Microsoft recently announced that future versions of Windows will be designed
with increased support for disk-image copying.
Q I’ve got a special workstation-based Registry setting for a network card that I need to set one
time on a bunch of workstations I’m about to roll out. How do I use the policy editor to do this?
A Unless you want to dive into one of the Microsoft Windows Resource Kits and figure out how to add
your own policy editor templates and custom Registry settings, I’d apply any workstation-based Registry
settings by using the REGEDIT tool right before drive duplication. This will ensure that all your users
get the settings. However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, of course.