Hi, I am thinking about buying SCCM Essentials for a small business. This business in located in one building but there are three AD forests. There are only about 50 client workstations total and 9 servers. Can SCCM Essentials do operating system deployment (like SCCM 2007?)? I want to be able to capture a Vista or Win7 workstation that is configured with most application, then create an ISO for use of building new machines much easier (compared to next, next, next type of install) Can SCCM Essentails manage clients in a remote forest like by using WINS resolution (instead of AD lookups?)? Any input would be apprecaited... thanks..

Can SCCM Essentials do operating system deployment (like SCCM 2007?)? I want to be able to capture a Vista or Win7 workstation that is configured with most application, then create an ISO for use of building new machines much easier (compared to next, next, next type of install) Can SCCM Essentails manage clients in a remote forest like by using WINS resolution (instead of AD lookups?)? Q1. No OSD feature is not included in System Center Essentials, but you can use MDT 2010 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd407791.aspx Q2. No support for any Essentials components across Active Directory forests without certificate-based authentication. See here : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb422876.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archive/2007/06/22/system-center-essentials-30-500.aspx Bechir Gharbi. MCSA, MCSE M+S, MCITP Server/Enterprise Administrator, MCT, MCTS Configuration Manager/Forefront (Time Zone : GMT+1)

Thank you for the detailed answer with links!