Question

Difficulty: HardOS Installation and Upgrade Methods

A systems administrator is preparing a network-based PXE deployment to image 50 new bare-metal desktop computers with Windows 11 Enterprise. The target computers utilize custom NVMe storage controllers that are not natively recognized by standard Windows installation media. Which of the following configuration tasks must the administrator perform prior to capturing and deploying the system image? (Select TWO.)

  1. Inject the custom NVMe storage controller drivers into the boot image (boot.wim) using the DISM command-line utility.Answer
  2. Execute the Sysprep utility with the /generalize and /oobe options on the reference system prior to image capture.Answer
  3. C
    Configure the unattended answer file to perform a direct in-place architecture migration from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows during deployment.
  4. D
    Run sfc /scannow on the reference computer to remove unique Security Identifiers (SIDs) before image capture.

Answer

The administrator must inject the custom NVMe storage controller drivers into the boot image (boot.wim) using DISM and execute the Sysprep tool with /generalize and /oobe options on the reference computer prior to image capture.
Injecting storage drivers into boot.wim via DISM enables WinPE to recognize non-standard NVMe controllers when booting via PXE. Running Sysprep with /generalize and /oobe removes machine-specific SIDs and resets system parameters, which is mandatory before capturing a golden image for multi-system deployment.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Prepare the reference system by removing system-specific information.
Running Sysprep with the generalize parameter strips unique Security Identifiers (SIDs) and resets hardware-specific settings, while the OOBE switch prepares the system for first-boot user setup.
Capturing an un-generalized OS image causes duplicate SIDs and configuration conflicts across networked computers.
2
Service the Windows Boot Image (boot.wim) using Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM).
The custom NVMe storage drivers are integrated directly into the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE).
Without storage controller drivers injected into boot.wim, WinPE will fail to detect the NVMe drives during setup initialization.

Key Concept

Image Generalization (Sysprep) and Offline Driver Servicing (DISM) for Network Deployments
Rate this question