For those that are into Windows PE (Pre-Installation Environment), the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) has been released in beta format.  And can be downloaded HERE.

I have not been able to download it yet as my satellite Internet has been painfully slow for the last week and barely above that of dial-up.  One of the things that really surprises me with the WAIK beta is the size of the ISO.  The download size is 1.4 GB while the previous version (Vista) is only 803 MB.  That is a pretty big jump from one version to the next.

The previous version was packaged with both 32 and 64 bit versions and I assume the new version is the same.  Maybe they have made some other improvements to the toolset to help the rest of out.  Or more likely they have tried to prevent anyone but OEM’s and large partners from using it.

If you download it let me know what is different.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE