How many hours a year do you spend configtrin~new PCs? How about reconfig¬uring those hosed by malware? The hardware takes no time to assemble, so all of that time is spent on software installs and configu¬ration. My solution? Create a series of hard drive images of good PC configura¬tions and install them on bare metal as needed.

A drive image is an archive-a backup-containing the total contents and structure of a hard drive or other media. It contains all the information needed to create an exact duplicate of the original drive, including, for our purposes, the operating system, applications, data, directory structure, and configuration. Many modern drive-imaging utilities can create a single compressed file containing a drive image, which saves storage space.

The Process Drive imaging notwithstanding, I recommend standardization. Although some drive-imaging utilities support hardwareindependent images, having standard hardware and software configurations is ideal for support. Your standard software configuration will consist of an operating system, productivity applications, a browser, any custom applications or databases you use in your environment, and all of your management and security (HIPS, firewall, anti-malware, encryption, vulnerability assessment, and so on).

Now, take the first PC and install, configure, and tweak the software to your heart's content. And I mean really tweak-remove operating-system and application components users don't need, set up network drive mappings, and set security policy using whichever endpoint security product you've deployed. Apply all current patches to the operating system, applications, and security software. Then emulate typical user activities for a short period of time to test the configuration and verify that it functions properly.

Next, install your drive-imaging software and make a complete image of the standardized PC's hard drive. You can save the image on a network drive, a local drive, or an external hard drive. Whenever you get new hardware, just boot from a recovery disc (each imaging software has its own), point to your image, and re-create it.