SLW 23: A brief history of Windows Deployment with Michael Niehaus

Michael Niehaus, an IT and software development veteran with quite
a long history at Microsoft, talks about his career from his early
days as a mainframe system programmer to his deep involvement with
Microsoft products. He describes how he moved from programming in
assembly language to IT roles involving client-server models in the
early days of personal computing in the 1990s. This ultimately led
to his work with Microsoft's Systems Management Server (SMS) and
the Business Desktop Deployment Solution Accelerator, the latter of
which evolved into the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). A
significant focus of this episode is the development and evolution
of deployment tools and the underlying techniques, from Kickstart
to VBScript to PowerShell. Michael recalls encountering PowerShell
and emphasises its potential as a powerful backend for various
Microsoft products in the very early days. As strange as it may
sound today, the release of Vista retrospectively represented a
'giant leap' in terms of new tools, techniques and enhancements,
especially for OS deployment. Michael discusses the introduction of
WIM files, WinPE and AutoUnattend.xml, among other things. He
reflects on the challenges and innovations involved in shifting to
WIM files, and on the effectiveness of Windows PE. He highlights
their significance in Microsoft's operating system deployment
strategies. Turning to contemporary issues, Michael and Thorsten
discuss concerns about Microsoft's Windows Update Service (WSUS)
and the impending discontinuation of related technologies. Finally,
Michael talks about his role at the new company 2Pint, where he
works on products such as DeployR, a successor to MDT.