A good measuring stick for Microsoft's confidence in the development cycle of a pending operating system release is when the company starts updating the tools used to manage deployments of said operating system. With the release of the latest Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) overnight, it appears that the company's confident level is pretty high.
ADK is a set of a tools that give Enterprises options for delivering the operating system throughout the company using standard images, but it also provides for OEM scenarios for delivering a standard build of the OS to computers prior to delivering to the sales channel.
If you've worked with the ADK before, you're probably pretty familiar with these tools already, but Microsoft is including one brand new tool specific to Windows 10 called the Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD). Windows ICD allows you to provision an OS package that can be deployed to devices without reimaging them completely.
Here's what's available in the Windows 10 ADK now:
- Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT)
- Deployment Tools
- Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (Windows ICD)
- User State Migration Tool (USMT)
- Volume Activation Management Tool (VAMT)
- Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT)
- Windows Assessment Toolkit
- Windows Assessment Services
- Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)
You can grab a copy of the bundled tools from here: Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) for Windows 10 Technical Preview
