Monthly Archive: August 2009

Having a USB key that will install multiple versions of Windows is great, but what if you want to add other Windows PE images to it, above and beyond the installers?  For example, what if you wanted to add a recovery environment, like the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT), or a BartPE environment, or any other Windows PE-based environments?  Well, it’s not that hard to do, and I’ll document how to do it with the Microsoft DaRT x86 and x64 recovery ISOs that it creates in this example.

Adding the DaRT files

First, you will need to copy the files from the MS DaRT WinPE ISO image to your “Content” folder that was created when you used MDT 2010 as per my previous post.  The content folder should look something like this:

And the contents of the MS DaRT ISO image, once extracted to the hard disk, will look something like this:

Update: If you want the default VL/KMS activation keys for Windows Vista through Windows Server 2012R2, they can be found here.

To go along with my previous post on deploying Windows via MDT 2010, here is a list of the “default” keys that Windows uses when you choose not to enter a product key during setup.  These keys of course will not activate, but you can enter them into your task sequences when you are prompted for a product key to use.  This will make your setup more unattended.

Here’s the list:

Windows Vista:

• Ultimate  –  VMCB9-FDRV6-6CDQM-RV23K-RP8F7
• Business  –  4D2XH-PRBMM-8Q22B-K8BM3-MRW4W
• Home Premium  –  X9HTF-MKJQQ-XK376-TJ7T4-76PKF
• Home Basic  –  RCG7P-TX42D-HM8FM-TCFCW-3V4VD
• Starter  –  X9PYV-YBQRV-9BXWV-TQDMK-QDWK4

Windows 7:

• Ultimate  –  D4F6K-QK3RD-TMVMJ-BBMRX-3MBMV
• Professional  –  HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487
• Home Premium  –  RHPQ2-RMFJH-74XYM-BH4JX-XM76F
• Home Basic  –  YGFVB-QTFXQ-3H233-PTWTJ-YRYRV
• Starter  –  7Q28W-FT9PC-CMMYT-WHMY2-89M6G