For those tasked with creating corporate standard images for deploying Microsoft Surface devices, Microsoft has developed a special Deployment Accelerator. You might be familiar with “accelerators” already as this is where the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) originally evolved from. Accelerators are a set of tools to help solve specific problems. In this case, this accelerator helps IT automate the creation of PC images designated for deploying across the organization to Surface devices (Surface Pro series and Surface Book).
The tools included with this accelerator:
- Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK)
- Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)
- Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
The tasks accomplished using this accelerator:
- Uses an image installation task sequence to create and install a reference Windows image with the latest Microsoft Surface drivers, updates, and applications.
- Uses this new reference image to re-capture your own custom Windows (WIM) images.
The Surface Deployment Accelerator is part of the Surface Tools for IT, and also includes a Cisco EAP Supplicant Installer, Surface Data Eraser utility, and a diagnostic tool for Surface devices. It supports Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.
