Big Bang Universal Imaging Utility

The task of installing new PCs can be mindlessly repetitive; even if you are only installing a handful of them, it can take up enormous amounts of time.

Disk-imaging tools help, but you need to create separate images to cope with PCs from different vendors or even simple changes of adapter. The Universal Imaging Utility (UIU) solves this by creating a hardware-independent image that can be deployed regardless of who makes the PC, its hardware options or even whether it’s a desktop or laptop.

The UIU supports Windows XP and Vista and, despite the name, doesn’t have imaging functionality – it’s designed to be used in conjunction with other disk-imaging tools from companies such as Acronis and Symantec. Windows Tablet PCs can also be handled, the only prerequisite being V3.5 of the .Net Framework and an internet connection for the latest updates.

Begin by building the PC you want to clone, complete with any applications, desktop and network settings that apply to your organisation. Once this ‘model’ system has been created, it is recommended you capture an image in case things go wrong.

After doing that you install and run the UIU software to turn it into a ready-to-install copy of Windows complete with drivers for all the different hardware options you’re likely to need. A database of some 26,000-plus drivers is provided by the developers, Big Bang, with new ones added and updated regularly.

A wizard guides you through the various processes involved, starting with a best practices scan of the model PC, which is referred to as a Master Image Machine Integrity Check (Mimic), just in case you’ve forgotten anything.

On the XP Professional machine we used for testing, UIU needed to be pointed at a copy of Sysprep to create an answer file for use with that utility. Support for the XML equivalent is also available if deploying Vista.

Once the wizard has finished, you will have a ready-to-install implementation of Windows on the model PC. Boot normally and it will simply reinstall itself, so instead, you have to boot using Dos or WinPE then capture a hard disk image using your preferred imaging or backup program.

Copy that image to another PC and when it’s booted the OS will be installed. As part of the process, the UIU database searched for drivers for use on the platform involved. Unfortunately, the database is quite large, but it’s a fairly quick process with enhancements in the latest 4.0 release to make it both faster and more accurate.

Plus there’s a new UIU discovery tool to identify potential hardware setups in advance and only copy the drivers really needed to the model PC image.

We found the UIU easy to use, but it’s clearly aimed at IT professionals and has little in the way of help for those new to the processes involved, especially when it comes to the new discovery tool.

You will also need to bear in mind the need for volume licensing and that to really benefit you have to be installing Windows on a regular basis across a spectrum of different hardware.

That said, the UIU works well and, for companies needing to deploy Windows on a variety of PCs,
it could save time and money.