Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK)

Installing Windows on several computers, across an entire organization for example, can be a tedious job for the administrators, especially if there is need to customize the installations to meet certain requirements. Fortunately, there are some automation tools that can alleviate this and one of them is Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).

Targeting the latest iteration of Microsoft's proprietary operating system (but providing download links for older iterations as well), this software solution is addressed to IT professionals and original equipment manufacturers. Everyday users would have little to do with such a utility, but some will surely manage to find a use for it, like, for example, when needing to create an USB installable version of Windows.

This package is able to bring a variety of tools and offers the user the possibility to select which of them to install. On the lower side of the main window is an estimation of the required disk space as compared to the existing free bits, quite useful when dealing with drives with limited free space.

Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) includes Application Compatibility Toolkit, which helps checking any system to verify if there may arise any issues between installed apps and the new OS.

Creating custom images, managing them and automating their installation can be done with the programs built-in Deployment Tools, which can also be added through this package. What's more, the well-known Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) is available too and makes more easy the task of getting the PC ready for the installation of the operating system.

Apart from the application required to transfer user data from the older version of Windows to the new one, called User State Migration Tool (USMT), there are several toolkits and tools inside Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).

This software can be a real helper for administrators and professionals who need to make the deployment of Windows more facile across organizations and business environments.