Last few months I’ve been faced with installing a 2008 R2 server with MDT 2010 several times. Sure, I’m fully aware of the Hydration Kits out there which are awesome… so this is still pretty basic stuff. Anyway, it was pretty boring to look up my notes every time so I decided to write it down here so I could do it as fast as possible, and also to show colleagues how to get started with MDT easily. I’m sure you can automate it even further using scripting, like building your own Hydration Kit.

First you need to install 2008 R2. If you don’t have any MDT 2010 at this site, I guess you have to do it the good old way – manually. Then:

  • Name computer
  • Enable RDP
  • Run Windows Update
  • Join/Create domain
  • Install the WDS Role from PowerShell (Run as Admin):
    Import-Module Servermanager
    Add-WindowsFeature WDS
  • Administrative Tools -> Windows Deployment Services and finish the configuration wizard to start the service. Choose not to add images.

Then go ahead and install the rest… PS. If you go to: it will re-direct you here where you have all the links. DS.

  • Download MDT 2010 Update 1 x64 and install it silently (Run as admin):
    msiexec.exe /i MicrosoftDeploymentToolkit2010_x64.msi /quiet
  • Start Deployment Workbench, go to Information Center –> Components, select WAIK and Download. This will download ~1 GB but you can also pre-download it here: WAIK for Windows, but that version is significantly larger (1,0 GB).
  • Install WAIK.
  • In MDT Deployment Console, right-click Deployment Share and create a new share and follow the wizard.
  • Mount/insert an Windows 7 DVD and right-click Operating System and import and select Full set of source files and name it. I usually add “with SP1” or “RTM” if it’s without SP and at the end I add the “language”.
  • Right-click Task Sequences and choose New. Task Sequence ID and name can be whatever you want. Choose Standard Client Task Sequence. Choose the OS and follow the wizard.
  • In the Properties -> Windows PE x64 (and x86) Settings, de-select “Generate a Lite Touch bootable ISO image” if you don’t really need it.
  • Right-click Deployment Share and choose Update Deployment Share. Select Completely update..
  • Go back to Windows Deployment Services, right-click Boot Images and import the boot images for x86 and x64 which you just generated which were saved to <DRIVE>:\DeploymentShare\Boot.
  • Go back to Windows Deployment Services -> Properties and on the Boot tab, select the default boot images for x86 and x64 which you just generated which were saved to <DRIVE>:\DeploymentShare\Boot.

Now you should be able to boot a computer and install it using MDT.