difference between slipstreaming and recovery disk?

I do some IT work and I have been doing some research on unattended installations. Im still a little confuse, Should I make a slipstream boot usb. Or a recovery usb.


Usually i always reinstall windows OS,it would be nice to have all the updates already done on the same install. But i also want to include a few programs that its impossible to install because they dont have silent switches.

Should I just clone a hard drive image with just the few programs that I want like OS system and shark codex.
Is the possible?


Is one risker than another? Is one faster than another?

With built in drive imaging and many suitable free apps like Macrium - Image your system
or Acronis premium imaging which has a free version for any WD or Seagate HD, there is no need to reinstall once you get a perfect install setup.

To generalize the image so it can startup on any hardware you can SysPrep to move HD to another computer, a boot disk to adjust it like Paragon Adaptive Restore - Overview or the Acronis premium suite.

Someone told me that slipstream is better because u can install it on multiple computers.

A recover disk only works for specific hardware.


Is this ture? I want to use this a multiple computers with all difrent kind of hardware.

Recovery Media which you make from or comes with a new PC from the store reinstalls all of the factory bloatware and duplicate utilities which interfere with better versions built into Win7. Most tech enthusiasts will not run such a ruined install but instead do a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. Everything is in the blue link to get a perfect install.

The way to make your own Recovery media for your completed custom install is to save a backup image externally which can be applied using a boot disk in 20 minutes. As I already said this can be generalized to apply to other hardware by using SysPrep, Paragon Adaptive Restore CD, or Acronis Premium Home Imaging with Universal Restore.

Slipstreaming using a program like 7Lite can add drivers and even your custom programs to a Win7 installer, but you still need to install from scratch which is unnecessary when you can also apply an image of your finished install in 20 minutes.