Ever want to know how many different images have been deployed in your environment? Ever want to know how long some of those images have been out there? If you were including an image stamp when deploying the image, you would be able to run reports to answer the above questions. This is a very simple and painless way to make sure that you can answer those questions.
During image deployment, I copy down a series of files and then a .cmd script runs to do a variety of misc things to the machine. Inserting image information into the registry is one of them. Because Add/Remove programs is being used to store the data, standard inventory will gather the information and standard reports will display the results. This is also visible to the user if they open up Add/Remove Programs.
I keep the DisplayName the same for every Windows 7 image. I change the DisplayVersion to equal the OS flavor, the date that the image was sealed, and 32 or 64bit. This makes it extremely simple to get counts on the number of various images that have been deployed.
Step1: Copy ImageStamp.reg to the local machine
Step2: Echo the current date into that .reg file
Step3: Import the .reg file
rem this adds today's date to the image stamp hack
echo "Comments"="Deployed on %DATE%" >>c:\temp\ImageStamp.reg
rem this imports the image stamp hack
c:\temp\reg import c:\temp\ImageStamp.reg
Here are the contents of ImageStamp.reg:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ODT_Image]
"DisplayName"="ODT Windows 7 Image"
"NoModify"=dword:00000001
"NoRemove"=dword:00000001
"NoRepair"=dword:00000001
"EstimatedSize"=dword:0000aea8
"Publisher"="Ohio Department of Taxation"
"DisplayVersion"="Win7Ent8-23-12-x86"
"Contact"="ODT Service Desk"
"helptelephone"="614-752-9999"