B
Base Image
Used in this report to indicate a starting point for a hard disk image that may be used as is or further modified to meet agency user needs with users placed in as large a group as possible based on commonality of requirements. All secretaries may have one base image and all programmers, another. The image is a copy of the configured operating system and software on the desktop, notebook or other device. Microsoft provides instructions for establishing, compressing and distributing such images: "Some organizations deploy a complete user system at one time, including Microsoft® Windows® software, device drivers, Microsoft Office 2003 applications, and custom settings. In this scenario, you install the entire system onto a test computer, and then you create an image of the hard disk to copy to users' computers. Installing Office with a complete user system is almost as fast as installing Office by itself. It is a particularly efficient way to configure new computers or to restore a computer to its original state. When you distribute the hard disk image to users, everything on the computer is replaced by your custom configuration, so users must back up any documents or other files they want to keep".