This will be much easier to deploy once Windows 2008 is more widespread, and don't confuse Windows Deployment Services (WDS) with Windows Desktop Search (WDS), because they are not the same thing. Unfortunately the buzzword bingo namespace has a collision with these two technologies.
Windows Desktop Search is famous the past few days for the unfortunate
WSUS incident.
WDS, in deployment terms, is the updated/revamped/retooled RIS of Windows 2000. Wait, don't run away screaming yet, because WDS actually scales well and is an image based deployment technology. If you have installed Vista, you have used WDS without even knowing it.
With Server 2008 around the corner, WDS gains multicast support, which is very handy for blasting out images across a network to any properly configured client that is listening. I know, Ghost and other programs have had this for a long time, but it is nice to see this as a built-in feature. I am hoping that this catches on in a big way and finally retires most of the network switches and routers out there that fall over once multicast packets hit the wire. I've seen way too many no-name/OEM network infrastructure components lock up in the past with multicast traffic.
You can use WDS today with Windows 2003 SP1/SP2 and start migrating off your RIS infrastructure, if you have one. There is a very nice step-by-step guide from the Server Core team
here that shows you how to get it up and running today.
Want to get a head start on Microsoft Deployment (the renamed BDD), Windows 2008, and the chosen deployment method for Compute Cluster 2003 SP1? Learn WDS inside and out. It seems to be getting used in more and more products as time goes on.
