An OS is a complex software foundation, and Windows 7 is no exception.  It’s responsible not only for delivering applications, but also for managing and securing an organization’s data and systems.  The configuration of the OS requires a variety of decisions relating to the inclusion of core applications, group policy objects, file and registry permissions and other settings.

In addition to the ‘base image’ configuration, additional consideration is required for the provision of hardware specific drivers and add-ons.  Windows Vista introduced a modular build system to address the long-standing objective of IT administrators to maintain a single OS image for multiple hardware types that can be modified at deployment time to include specific drivers.

A number of application compatibility issues also may be mitigated by including deprecated components or modifying default settings within the OS configuration.  When planning a Windows 7 migration, it’s helpful to gain an understanding of how many applications in the portfolio have, for example, interactive services, legacy help files or dependencies on legacy language runtimes.  This can allow compatibility remediation to be bundled into the OS build process rather than on a time-consuming, per-application basis.