Your company plans to roll out Windows 11 Pro to 150 identical laptops that are currently blank. The IT team has already built a fully patched reference installation, captured it as a .wim file, and placed it on the Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server. They want each technician to power on a laptop, press F12, and have the operating system load from the network with minimal manual steps. Which installation approach meets these requirements?
PXE-boot into WDS and deploy the captured image to each laptop
Perform an in-place upgrade using a bootable USB flash drive
Use Windows Autopilot dynamic provisioning over the internet
Boot from the Windows 11 DVD and run a clean install wizard
Pre-staging a reference .wim on a Windows Deployment Services server and having clients PXE-boot to it is an image deployment solution. When a technician presses F12 the device uses PXE to contact WDS, downloads Windows PE, and receives the captured image, automating the install with little interaction. An in-place upgrade requires an existing OS, which the blank laptops lack. Autopilot can configure devices but still needs a factory image of Windows on the disk and depends on cloud enrollment, not a local .wim. Booting from DVD invokes a manual clean install on every unit and does not leverage the prepared image or network automation. Therefore, PXE deployment from WDS best fulfills the scenario.
Ask Bash
Bash is our AI bot, trained to help you pass your exam. AI Generated Content may display inaccurate information, always double-check anything important.
What is PXE-boot, and how does it work?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
What is a .wim file, and why is it used in image deployment?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
Why is Windows Deployment Services (WDS) the best choice for this situation?