The OEM Preinstallation Kit (OPK) for Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (Windows EBS 2008) provides instructions and information about how to preinstall Windows EBS 2008 on original equipment manufacturer (OEM) systems.

The OPK is the same version as on the Windows OEM Preinstallation Kit 1.1 DVD, which is used to preinstall the Windows Server 2008 operating system, the Windows Small Business Server 2008 operating system, and the Windows Vista operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1).

• You can use the same tools to deploy Windows Vista, Windows Vista with SP1, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Small Business Server 2008, which includes Windows EBS 2008. Additionally, this version of the OPK enables you to preinstall all versions of the Windows Server 2003 operating system with SP1 or later, and the Windows XP operating system with SP2 or later.
• It helps save valuable time during preinstallation.
• It enables many customization opportunities, including System Properties branding, adding tasks to the Windows EBS Console Getting Started list, and adding custom-defined alerts to reports.

• If you already installed the OPK Tools to use with either Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista with SP1, you do not need to reinstall the OPK Tools for Windows EBS 2008. But you should follow the Windows EBS preinstallation steps as described in the Windows EBS 2008 OPK documentation.
• If you already installed the OPK Tools from any previous version of Windows Server, you must uninstall the previous version and then install the Windows EBS 2008 OPK Tools.
• You can use this new version of the OPK Tools to preinstall all versions of Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 with SP1 or later, and Windows XP with SP2 or later.

Where to Find Documentation for the Windows Essential Business Server OEM Preinstallation Kit To properly preinstall Windows EBS 2008, you must follow the Windows EBS preinstallation steps, as described in the Windows EBS OPK documentation. To access it, on the OPK DVD, in the root folder, browse to the EBSOPK folder. The documentation also outlines specific requirements and customization options that you must comply with as an OEM or system builder.

This section helps you learn about the features of Windows Essential Business Server and prepare for deployment.

This section includes the following topics:

• Windows Essential Business Server Release Notes
• Product Overview of Windows Essential Business Server
• Getting Started with Windows Essential Business Server

Visit the TechNet Web site to view Getting Started with Windows Essential Business Server 2008.

For the technical resources and documentation, see the TechNet Web site.

OEM Preinstallation Kits are available for many Microsoft technologies, including:

• Operating systems
• Servers
• Windows Services
• Other Microsoft products

For additional information, see Microsoft OEM Preinstallation Kits.