Owner's manual

Note: The deployment of images in organizations with Volume Licensing agreements for Windows 8.1 Professional is

governed by the Reimaging Rights conferred with that Volume Licensing agreement. This agreement enables reimaging

from volume license media to devices with preinstalled versions of the same product. For example, an organization with

a pre-existing Windows 8.1 Professional image created from volume license media can deploy that image to the Surface

Pro 3 licensed for Windows 8.1 Professional using the license for Windows 8.1 Professional (OEM) included with the

system. These rights apply only to the same edition and version of Windows. For example, a Windows 8.1 Enterprise

image cannot be used with a Windows 8.1 Professional license. It is recommended to use Volume License Media for

deployment to Surface Pro 3.

Active Directory-Based Activation (ADBA)

Beginning with Windows 8, a new activation method was introduced that allows activation through an Active Directory

domain. This method enables central activation and management of licensing without requiring the infrastructure

necessary for KMS. Active Directory-Based Activation is managed through the Volume License Activation and

Management Tool (VAMT), a component of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) covered in

the Microsoft Tools section later in this chapter.

Deployment Types

A deployment can be categorized by the amount of interaction required of a user during the deployment process. The

three types of deployment are:

 High-Touch Installation

 Lite-Touch Installation

 Zero-Touch Installation

It is possible to deploy using more than one deployment type. For example, to deploy to a new computer which is not

configured for a management solution or internal network, some level of interaction is required to cause the system to

initiate the deployment process, though the process of deployment could be entirely automated as a zero-touch

deployment. Each deployment type is discussed in the following sections.

High-Touch Installation

High-touch deployments are characterized by a large degree of user interaction during deployment. A typical high-touch

deployment requires the user to perform each separate task manually, often from the command-line. Usually drivers,

applications, and customization are all performed manually by the user as well, often on each deployed system. High-

touch deployments are rarely used in scenarios with multiple computers due to the inefficiency and time involved.

Note: A sub-category of high-touch deployment is full-touch installation, a term that is usually used to describe

installation from the original installation media and manual installation of applications and drivers.

Lite-Touch Installation

Lite-touch installation (LTI) is a deployment strategy that requires a user to manage and monitor the deployment

process, but eliminates many of the repetitive steps and processes, which increases the efficiency of the deployment.

The user is often required to boot to the deployment media and to answer basic questions such as the name of the

computer and to join a workgroup or domain, but the environment is pre-configured with applications and drivers