Imaging Best Practices Archives

What is computer imaging?

For IT administrators responsible for managing the lifecycle of dozens or hundreds of endpoints, computer imaging can be a thorny but necessary task. It’s like going to the dentist. It feels like forever when you’re in the chair, but if you want clean, healthy pearly whites, you must soldier on. Thankfully, with more software tools

11 Apr

6 steps to zero-touch, automated computer imaging

Joanne Yip Imaging Best Practices, Tips & How To's

Imagine that you’re part of a small IT support team that manages and maintains 500 computers within the organization. In this scenario, you’re responsible for installing Windows and software, plus configuring your company’s security, domain, and VPN settings on each device. With remote work becoming the norm thanks to the pandemic, you now must figure

7 Apr

Computer imaging best practices: 3 tips & tricks

Joanne Yip Imaging Best Practices

This article is part of the SmartDeploy Whiteboard Series The world of computer imaging is rapidly changing. Gone are the days when you had to reimage devices using only physical reference machines or when you had no other option but to do it manually. Today, with the widespread availability of virtualization software and file-based

17 Sep

Windows 11 release date and requirements

Glenn Bristol Imaging Best Practices, Microsoft Windows

Windows 11 hardware requirements solidified In this summer-ending episode, Brad and Aaron bid each other farewell – Brad is moving on to another position in the Windows app space, and Aaron will be continuing the Enterprise Dish podcast with another host at a time yet to be determined. I never spoke to Brad myself, but

6 Aug

Q&A: Maximizing your school’s COVID relief funds for IT

Heidi Flaig Imaging Best Practices, Microsoft Windows

Using CARES Act funding to manage 1:1 student computers Managing a school’s IT strategy, security, and infrastructure is no walk in the park even in the most pedestrian of times – which makes tackling this through a pandemic something entirely herculean. Tell you something you don’t know, right? To again tell you something you likely

5 Nov

Use Norton Ghost for what it is good at, backup.

Spencer Dunford Competitors, Customers, Imaging Best Practices

Updated November 5, 2020: This blog post was published years ago, but people are still finding and reading it, so we’ll keep it here. Although Norton Ghost is now gone, the main idea holds true for the other disk-cloning systems that replace it—namely, these cloning solutions may be just what you need for backup, but

23 Oct

The difference between file-based and sector-based imaging

Spencer Dunford Imaging Best Practices

Before choosing an imaging and deployment solution, you might want to take a peek under the hood. File-based imaging and sector-based imaging both have their uses. Understanding the differences can help you use the tools most efficiently.

15 May

5 requirements your imaging software needs to efficiently reimage computers

Heidi Flaig Imaging Best Practices

Reimaging computers is a crucial task for IT departments as this process maintains a secure, productive, and updated online environment. Without the right software to reimage computers, IT teams can spend countless hours perfecting their computer imaging strategy to avoid potential security failures and extended user downtime. If a complication arises, it can consume additional

31 Jan

What’s up with the Windows 10 1809 update?

Heidi Flaig Imaging Best Practices, Microsoft Windows, Tips & How To's

One of the most exciting and engaging parts of each of our live webcasts is the Q&A time at the end of each event. Our audience constantly brings great technical questions and we’re always left wishing we had more time to get through them all. Good news! We’ve come up with a way to

27 Jun

ON-DEMAND: Migrating and managing Windows 10

Heidi Flaig Imaging Best Practices, Microsoft Windows

A couple weeks ago, we sponsored a virtual tradeshow with IT Pro Today (formerly Windows IT Pro) where 1,000 techs signed up to attend the show all about “Preparing for Windows 7 End of Life.” Windows 7? Really? Since Windows 10 has been out for a couple years, I tend to find myself thinking that