NAL and XP

[spi200]

Hi Guys

We have been using the NAL 2.0 for distributing the icons to the desktops on our NT4.0 workstations.
We are about to start a staged upgrade of our NT4.0 Domain controllers to Win2003 and Active Directory and XP on the desktops being stage 1 and Stage 2 being replacement of the Novell file and print. Is there another Microsoft product which we can use to push out the icon's to the desktop similar to the NAL ? XP is not supported on NAL 2.0 so an upgrade would be required and would not be favorable seeing that the Novell will be shut down in 12 Months.
Any thoughts


Thanks

David

 

[Provogeek]

Windows 2000 comes with RIS (Remote Installation Service), I have not looked, but 2003 should have the same. There are also a few other third part products that will do it, I'm not sure of the names (and a quick google search didn't produce anything). Looked on Novell's site and found this link

http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0210bgnetr.html

Should give you an idea of what else is out there.

ZFD4 will run on a Windows server. Along with DirXML, you can replicate AD info with NDS that is still needed (that can also run on a Windows server). It all comes in a single suite being marketed as ZEN6 (includes all ZEN products, including the DirXML drivers for AD).

If you like the functionality of NAL 2.0, you will love ZFD4. Many more features for application deployment, and it does work with XP. One of the big features new with ZFD4 is clientless. You do not need a Novell client for it to work, you only need an agent.

So with two Windows servers, one Backend the second Midtier. You can go with a pure Win2003 network, but still take advantage of ZENWorks.