Microsoft Aims For Faster Windows UpgradesMicrosoft Aims For Faster Windows Upgrades

Microsoft has released new software for customers of its consulting practice that's supposed to speed migrations to the latest versions of Windows and Office.

The vendor's Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment, a package of installation guidelines and Visual Basic scripts to help automate the installation of Windows XP and Office XP, is available free of charge via a download from Microsoft's Web site, at www.microsoft.com/desktopdeployment. But the need to customize the tool means most customers will source it as part of a consulting contract with Microsoft or a systems integrator. EDS. is the first outside firm to offer the software.

The "solution accelerator"--one of about three dozen that Microsoft offers for apps, including systems management and software development--includes technology called "zero touch," developed by Microsoft Consulting Services. It can help install the Windows XP operating system, and apps including Office XP and Office 2003, which is due in October.

Easing migrations to the latest version of Windows is becoming more important for Microsoft's customers since the vendor recently ended technical support of its older Windows 95, 98, and NT 4 desktop products, except by special arrangement. Microsoft says it's sold more than 130 million Windows XP licenses through retailers and PC makers since the product's October 2001 launch, outpacing Windows 2000 and Windows 98 at comparable points in their sales cycles. But Windows XP customers have experienced problems with application compatibility, migrating users' data to the new system, and creating software "images" for installation more quickly, says Alain Meeus, a Windows product manager at Microsoft. "Deployment is way too complex," he says. "We still have a way to go with migrating old desktops."

L.L. Bean Inc. has tested the new Microsoft tool on about 200 PCs and plans to upgrade 3,800 PCs to Windows XP by the end of next month, says Donna Lamberth, a senior IS manager at the $1.1 billion-a-year catalog retailer. The tool helps install a software image on each PC and associate users' accounts with Microsoft's server-side Active Directory. She expects a 50% drop in desktop-related help-desk calls as a result. "If we didn't have this scripting code," she says, "we'd have people with CDs loading the operating system."

Though Microsoft makes the solution accelerator for desktops available free of charge, the code is highly customized, and part of a multimillion-dollar Microsoft consulting contract, Lamberth says. Microsoft says the "vast majority" of customers would gain access to the new tool as part of a consulting contract with Microsoft or another company.