ADVICE PLEASE: Win7 Network Management

[Davegre]

I have 5 Acer Revo nettops running W7 64bit. We are a Church with an Internet Cafe. All are Wireless but in a homegroup (or will be).

Have found Fab System Roll-back tool (after MS decided NOT to do SteadyState for Win 7!). Comodo Time Machine.

Now need equally Fab (and equally FREE) software that will automatically install the right software on each PC and how to do that from upstairs in the Office on my Windows Vista 32-BIT laptop?

We are a small UK Charity but want to grow to 10 machines. I need to take about 20 individual games off each ACER (they came with them - grrrrrrrrrr!!!!) How do I do a once on one machine set up and copy it to 5 (and soon to be 10) more?

Thanks so much if you can help me?

David G

 

[Darryl Licht]

I have 5 Acer Revo nettops running W7 64bit. We are a Church with an Internet Cafe. All are Wireless but in a homegroup (or will be).

Have found Fab System Roll-back tool (after MS decided NOT to do SteadyState for Win 7!). Comodo Time Machine.

Now need equally Fab (and equally FREE) software that will automatically install the right software on each PC and how to do that from upstairs in the Office on my Windows Vista 32-BIT laptop?

We are a small UK Charity but want to grow to 10 machines. I need to take about 20 individual games off each ACER (they came with them - grrrrrrrrrr!!!!) How do I do a once on one machine set up and copy it to 5 (and soon to be 10) more?

Thanks so much if you can help me?

David G

If I were you, I'd create a base "System Image" on one HDD, then use Clonezilla to copy it over to other lappys... just dont activate the Image before you clone it, or all machines will have same registration key.

However, is it really that big a deal with only 5 machines at present?

 

[Davegre]

Time not Technical

Thanks Daryll,
The trouble is time - not the fact that it is only 5 laptops. I am running the whole Charity on my own in spare time. I maybe get 30 mins a week to admin the PC's along with all the other jobs running a coffee shop for the poor in my community.

So your post was very helpful.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

Does that cloning/images work well for different CPUs?

I thought when an OS is installed it recognizes which instructions the CPU can perform and takes advantage of those. So when the images original installation was done on a PC with SSE3 instructions and then cloned to a PC with SSE4 it won't be able to take advantage of SSE4. That at least is how I thought it works, that during installation the OS gets set up for that PC to use its abilities. Or am I wrong?

the same way it is recommended to do a fresh installation when I upgrade my CPU (especially when I add cores and instructions) or a new motherboard.

Same issue with hardware drivers, unless you keep all your PCs on the very same type of hardware, you still need to manually deal with drivers, right? whne you start with 5 laptops now, I bet anything when one breaks and you need a new one it will have different hardware. Or if you add laptops they will be different.

Or is that all not a problem anymore with W7? W7 technically can get new drivers on its own. Or does that work with the enterprise licenses only?

 

[Darryl Licht]

I have 5 Acer Revo nettops running W7 64bit.

I am assuming according to this quote from OP that they are all the same model laptop...

 

[HerrKaLeun]

I have 5 Acer Revo nettops running W7 64bit.

I am assuming according to this quote from OP that they are all the same model laptop...

I asked that in general... they also want to expand at some time, then sure there will be mixing of PCs and laptops of different makes.

 

[Darryl Licht]

I asked that in general... they also want to expand at some time, then sure there will be mixing of PCs and laptops of different makes.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Acronis True Image can do that with dissimilar HW!