Microsoft® Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013

Microsoft® Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 is the next version of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for operating system and application deployment in a Standard Opertaing Environment (SOE)

Being a part of Solution Accelerator, Microsoft has released the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 to cover up the latest release of R2 Series Product like Windows Server 2012 R2, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. It seems that there are no major changes except adding up R2 supports and few bug fixes from previous version of MDT (MDT 2012 Update 1)

Some of the key changes in MDT 2013 are:

• Support for upgrading from previous versions of MDT
• Support for the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows 8.1.
• Support for deployment of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
• Support for System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2.
• Improved support x86-based Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) systems

MDT provides you with the following benefits:

• Unified tools and processes, including a set of guidance, for deploying desktops and servers in a common deployment console.
• Reduced deployment time and standardized desktop and server images.

Important – This release of MDT does not include the following features that existed in previous versions of MDT:

• Deployment of Windows 8.1 Preview
• Deployment of Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview
• ZTI with
  • System Center Configuration Manager 2007
  • System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
  • System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1
  • System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager Preview
• Use of the Windows ADK for Windows 8
• Use of the Windows AIK for Windows 7
• Deployment of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003
• Deployment of Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008
• Out-of-box Group Policy objects (GPOs) from Security Compliance Manager (SCM). Tools and GPOs must be installed with SCM before they can be used in MDT.

MDT Operating System and ADK Support

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2013 is available for download and can directly access from Microsoft Download Center along with MDT 2013  guide and Release Notes.