The Windows AIK consists of tools, documentation and samples to enable administrators to perform automated deployment of the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 family of operating system platforms. Windows AIK 1.1 can be used to deploy Windows Vista RTM, Windows Vista with SP1, and Windows Server 2008. To use the Windows AIK, you first have to obtain it. Version 1.0 is available from the
Microsoft Download Center; at the time of writing, version 1.1 is still under development and can be obtained from
Microsoft Connect if you’re on the Windows Server 2008 beta program.
To use Windows AIK, you first install it on a
technician computer, which is simply the computer you will use to create answer files, build configuration sets, build custom Windows PE images, and so on. Your technician computer doesn’t have to be running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008—you can use a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 machine instead if you want. Your technician computer does need to have the .NET Framework 2.0 and MSXML 6.0 installed on it however, but you can install these directly from the Windows AIK splash screen before you install the Windows AIK itself (Figure 1):