As operating systems and applications grow in size, so installing and configuring a standard set of software on a newly-purchased computer has become an ever more time-consuming process. PowerQuest DeployCenter is a disk imaging solution that allows all data stored on a template PC to be captured, and then exactly duplicated on a single machine, or even a whole group of systems.

Not only does DeployCenter simplify the process of deploying a large number of new workstations, but it also doubles as a very effective system recovery tool. If a template disk image file is retained after initial commissioning, then this could be used to restore a machine after a hardware or software failure, or if tampering has occurred. The whole process could be as easy as booting from a special floppy disk to retrieve the image over a network connection.

Other features of DeployCenter include TaskBuilder, which allows the creation of customised deployment scripts, and DeltaDeploy, which enables the distribution of incremental software updates. For users of operating systems other than Windows, DeployCenter includes limited support for Linux and Novell NetWare disk partitions, plus 'Partitioning Functionality' to assist with partition manipulation.