Dependent VHDs (Upgrade To Windows 7)

You can also create dependent VHDs—multiple VHDs that depend on a parent VHD. Why would this be useful? Suppose you have 10 employees, but they basically use three configurations:
• Office admin configuration
• Graphics configuration
• Developer configuration
With a dependent VHD approach, you could create one parent VHD (the common company configuration, which might have your company-standard email/web software, antivirus software, network configuration, user accounts, and so forth). Then you could create the three dependent VHDs, one for each configuration:
• Office admin VHD, containing finance software
• Graphics VHD, containing graphic editing software
• Developer VHD, containing a complete programming environment
You could then distribute these VHDs to company employees as appropriate, standardizing software usage across your company with no trouble.
To create dependent VHDs, you’ll need to follow the steps outlined in the section “Creating a VHD” earlier in this topic, but add one additional parameter when you create the VHD. In step 6, add the parameter
parent=”c:\Windows7base.vhd”
Then complete the rest of the steps as described.