UDeploy 2000: Deploy Windows 2000

UDeploy 2000 is the only software utility that can upgrade the Evaluation Edition of Windows 2000 to the Retail Edition without forcing you to re-install Windows 2000. It can remove the 120 day evaluation period from Windows 2000. It can also update your Product ID and Product Key. It preserves all of your service packs, hotfixes, device drivers, user preferences, and applications.

Note: Retail or Select CD-ROM and Product Key required.

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Don't get bitten

You have the evaluation CD of Windows 2000. You install it. You demonstrate it to your boss. He says "Looks good, let's deploy Windows 2000 in our organization." Great, so you buy the retail CD and the license.

Oops, you have a problem. You are forced to re-install Windows 2000. That will break your applications and your carefully tuned settings. Your Windows 2000 service pack will be rolled back. Your Office 2000 Service Release will get clobbered. Your security hotfixes will disappear. Many of your device drivers will vanish. Many applications will simply stop working.

The Windows 2000 upgrade procedure rewrites nearly all of your system files. Many applications will stop working because newer versions of DLLs are overwritten with older versions. You might suffer days of downtime while you search for broken applications and re-install them. You may never figure out what happened and have to erase your whole PC.

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Roll Out Multiple Ghost Installations

Use Norton Ghost to roll out a large number of Windows 2000 installations. However each computer will have the same Product ID (PID). This can raise questions later if you are audited for license compliance, or if you call Microsoft for technical support.

Use UDeploy 2000 to set the Product Key and Product ID on each machine, thus maintaining your license compliance.

To assign a new Product Key and Product ID, type the command DEPLOY2K.EXE -NEWPID. This will prompt you for a new Product Key. It decode the Product ID and assign the Product ID to the computer. (To view the Product ID, right-click on My Computer and select Properties.)

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Deploy Windows 2000 Servers

The license for the MSDN developer edition of Windows 2000 Server does not permit use in a production environment. When you are ready to roll out your server application, you can use Norton Ghost to clone a production server. Then use UDeploy 2000 to change the Product Key and Product ID to the Retail or Select edition of Windows 2000 Server.

Retire Windows 2000 Servers

You have a web IIS server running Windows 2000 Server that you want to retire from production use. Your in-house developers need another IIS server for developing and testing web applications. Insert the MSDN Not-for-Resale (NFR) CD-ROM of Windows 2000 Server and use UDeploy 2000 to roll back the Product Key and Product ID to the MSDN developer edition. This lets you keep the old server for in-house testing while freeing up the retail server license for use on another production computer.

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