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A few years ago I saw this in a company but I don't know how it was built. There was 1 Computer (I don't know if Windows Server or plain Windows 7 -> the server) and 3 other computers (Windows 7 -> the clients). As soon as the Windows 7 clients were started, they all started up the same image (Don't know if the same image file or just the same state) over network and were able to work on the computer. As soon as the machine was shutdown, all the changes made to the system were erased. How could I build a system like this so I have 1 image file which I keep up to date and then feed it to the other machines in my network?

It would look this this basically:

enter image description here

user754730
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  • I suppose you could WDS PXE-boot a thin OS and use Terminal Services to access the server, depends on the local resource. You could also look at thin client deployments and things such as Citrix but I don't know if there anything that deploys a new image o every boot-up. – tombull89 Nov 05 '13 at 14:49

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  1. Are you sure the clients were booting over the network? Various versions of Windows (mostly the "embedded" versions) have an Enhanced Write Filter, which blocks writes to local storage somewhat like what you describe.
  2. This can easily be done with NICs that support iSOE (iSCSI Boot). These NICs aren't cheap, though you can also emulate the ability with gPXE for cards that only support PXE natively. The same could be achieved with Fibre Channel or Infiniband, but those don't run over plain Ethernet switches.
  3. While WinPE can have the Terminal Services client grafted into it, rather easily too, it's definitely not licensed for such usage. Similar systems could be setup with open source software, completely legally, but commonly missing the latest Terminal Services features (TS Gateway support is commonly missing too). The Terminal Server would have to either fake the write filter capabilities (eg Mandatory Profiles and their like) or be a VDI setup. The licensing for TS or VDI is usually cost prohibitive unless you have many highly similar clients.
Chris S
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  • Ok great thanks alot. So I think I will have to try another way. Thanks for this good and long answer! – user754730 Nov 05 '13 at 15:14
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    This could also have been done by a commercial product like DeepFreeze - it doesn't boot a fresh install over the network every time, but it can reset the computer to a defined state every night. – mfinni Nov 05 '13 at 16:48