So started a new part time gig with a local company and with WIndows 7 EOL around the corner they are trying to get ready for the mass deployment of client machines. I have been tasked with getting WDS with all the different style client images ready to deploy across a lot of machines. I have researched as much as I can and basically have come to the conclusion that WDS is setup for Volume Licensing from Windows and not OEM images that have had different applications and settings changed to deploy to well obviously save time.
My confusion is in deploying an image to an OEM and it accepting the Dell Key in EFI and basically trying to stay within the legal terms of image use of such since it will be a lot of machines across very many clients.
If anyone has a working solution or insight of what i need to read or try please let me know.
Specs of machine for some more insight of what i am working with:
Dell Poweredge T320
e5-1410
8gb RAM(i know i am working with them to increase)
ESXI 6.0
VM of Windows Server 2012 With WDS installed
I’m not an expert on this topic, I just wanted to try and help you clarify your problem as it seems to be a little unclear from your post. This may help someone more knowledgeable assist you. For some of my answers, you will have to refer to your current situation and reflect on what the right course of action is - remember though, if you have a supervisor in most work places they should be happy to assist you with any major questions you have as a result.
Congratulations!
First things, first. What is your actual task? Set up and prepare a server for remotely installing Windows 10? or Collecting images? or Both?
How many machines? How many “types”? How do they differ? How many “different” images are you expecting to manage?
Next
Given you mentioned EOL of Windows 7, it seems to me you are looking at deploying Windows 10. If so you will be needing to utilise the Windows Deployment Toolkit, not WDS as this is the new version 
I would encourage you to read the documentation on Microsoft’s site. You will notice that your particular case may be dealt with within this documentation.
I think you are slightly mistaken here. The only issue you have is ensuring that each machine has a license for Windows 10. Depending on the size of the company, it may be more economical to have Windows 10 via Volume License Management, but that’s likely an issue for someone higher up. Assuming each computer can accept Windows 10, you shouldn’t need to obtain the OEM Windows image, as this will be based on whatever came with the system (likely Windows 7 from your description). All you need to do is prepare a base windows image, and have different sub-images depending on the hardware which will include all the necessary drivers.
Again, as there is no direct free path for Windows 10 upgrades, your main concern here is the licensing.
I hope that this helps!
Appreciate the feedback. Very helpful.
My task is the setup of the server and I will also be main one utilizing the server to deploy the image to a very large amount of what should be mostly Dell laptops and desktops.
There is possibly gonna be around 30-40 different images possibly. I have not looked at the whole managed client list.
Basically have an image with all the apps and settings the way a cleint wants it ready to go.
So I guess no worries about the keys since they will all be new Dell laptops/desktops.
Windows Deployment Toolkit will be what I research now that I know it is the latest version. Thank you for point in the right direction. Any gotchas from someone who has had to deal with this before?
Since you mentioned Dell as a specific OEM, a potentially good piece of software is KACE Systems Deployment Appliance K2000.
Another alternative is PDQDeploy, I don’t have experience with this so I am not able to give my experiences with it.
If you hunt around the internet, there is a Window 8 tool that reads the MSDM table in UEFI to extract the software key and you can feed that into a script to auto activate a machine. This tool will work easily for Windows 10 as well.
So I will have to pull the keys before loading images onto it correct?
That’s gonna slow the process down a bit.
We had ok luck instructing the user to find the key on their PC, photo it with their phone and key it in. It’s easy to fix after the fact from lazy users. Lack of activation is not fatal.
That said, Ms frowns upon this hard core. The actual recommendation from Ms is the pay for win10 Enterprise license. But they also opted not to pursue it when a lawyer for a very very large company told them to sit and spin on the free win10 upgrade license
No, not really. Use a KMS activation key which you can find in MS online documentation. Then use the script to read the key already hard-coded into the machine.
As @wendell have said, MS does look down on this.
The machines from this era don’t have a real key just the OEM key. Current activation servers require the key from the sticker. Win8 and later keys are machine specific and this works as you describe no sticker key needed tho
Hmmm would that work for us deploying to multiple different companies with there own domains and such. I mean I assume it’s feasible. I am going to sit down tonight or tomorrow and try and start writing some documentation and start building this in my homelab to test. I think at the moment the key situation is gonna be the fun part. Not quite sure how far my company is willing to go to be on the correct side or legal side of doing this. Only been there a month but they seem to try and stay on the right side of the coin.
How many machines can I expect for it to image at once? I assume the hard drive array throughput will be my greatest bottleneck. Anything other advice you guys got?