Windows 8 Assessment and Deployment Kit

One of the first things you’ll notice is that the Windows Automated Installation Kit 
(Windows AIK) is now part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK).
The   Windows ADK also consolidates deployment tools that were once separate (e.g., User
State Migration Tool). You will use the same tools to customize and automate high-volume
 Windows 8 deployment that you used to deploy Windows 7—only, you get them all from
once place

          The following sections describe the tools in the Windows ADK. You can download the
Windows ADK from  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=232339 .

Deployment and Imaging
The Deployment and Imaging component of the Windows ADK contains the tools that you
need to customize, deploy, and service Windows images. These tools can stand alone but
are recommended for use with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 Update 1 (MDT 2012)
and System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. The tools in the Deployment and Imaging
component of the Windows ADK are required by both.
The Deployment and Imaging component includes:

•    Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM)  DISM is a command-line

tool that mounts and services Windows images before deployment. You can use DISM
image-management commands to mount, and get information about, Windows image
(.wim) files or virtual hard disks (VHD) and to capture, split, and otherwise manage
.wim files. DISM replaces the ImageX tool for image management.

•    System Preparation (Sysprep) tool  Sysprep prepares a computer for delivery by

configuring it to create a new computer security identifier (SID) when the computer is
restarted. In addition, the Sysprep tool removes user-specific and computer-specific
settings and data that must not be copied to a destination computer.

•    Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM)  Windows SIM creates

 unattended Windows Setup answer files. You can create an answer file by using
 information from a .wim file and a catalog (.clg) file. Component settings are added to
appropriate configuration settings in the answer file. You can also add packages to be
installed   during Windows Setup.

•   Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE)  Windows RE is a recovery

 environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems.
The Deployment and Imaging tools include many other command-line tools that assist in
the deployment and imaging of Windows, boot configuration, and Windows Preinstallation
Environment configuration.