CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

3.9. Updating Installation Files

A number of organizations copy the contents of a Windows CD to a folder on a server and then install Windows from that folder by calling the winnt.exe or the winnt32.exe setup programs. This folder is called a distribution point because it is used to distribute the OS to the client systems.

Eventually, Microsoft will release Service Packs that you will apply to the OS on each computer, but you will also want to update the distribution point so that it contains the Service Pack updates for any new systems that install from the folder. The benefit is that after the folder has been updated with the Service Pack, when new systems install the OS over the network, it will already include the updated Service Packs. Updating the source files of an OS at a distribution point to include Service Pack files is slipstreaming.

NOTE

Slipstreaming is the term used when you update your Windows source files with Service Pack files. The benefit is that any new installation of Windows from the updated source files will already have the Service Pack installed.

To slipstream a distribution point, follow these steps:

1. Create a distribution point on a server by creating a folder.

   For example, assume that the K: drive is the network drive that will contain the Windows 2000 source files. You might create a folder called K:\win2000\i386.

2. Copy the contents of the i386 folder from the Windows 2000 CD to K:\win2000\i386.

3. Download the proper Service Pack.

   Assume that you want to ...