Windows 8.1 standard image

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My workplace is only just starting to look at Windows 8.1, by using Surface Pro and Asus tablets both running Windows 8.1 Pro, not attached to a domain.

As I am the only member of the team to have Windows 8.1 at home, and therefore have some experience, I have been tasked to create a Windows 8.1 standard image which can either be ran from a dvd or usb (preferably usb). The image will need to have Windows 8.1 Pro, Office 2013, a local user account created with set tiles. Can anyone point me in the direction to get this started? I do already have a tablet which I could grab the image from but I don't know where to start with this and as to whether it will keep the tiles?

 

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If you are just wanting to create an image then you could use WDS to capture your image, or a third party tool such as acronis or ghost.

If you are wanting to customise the start screen so that all users get the same start screen you will need to be running 8.1 Enterprise as Pro does not support this feature. Customize Windows 8.1 Start Screens by Using Group Policy

One way that I have found to customise the 'All Apps' part of the start screen is to hide the shortcuts in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder. This doesn't seem to work very well for all users though.

I'm currently looking at applying folder redirection and classic shell to redirect the start menu to a local folder and then use the registry to prevent users from making changes.

 

I would probably have a look at MDT rather than WDS, it allows you to do so much more (including the applications).

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - MDT, Free Tool, Windows, Server