A collection of tools and technologies produced by Microsoft designed to help deploy Microsoft Windows operating system images.  WAIK has been renamed to the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) as of Windows 8.

*See also Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK)

A file-based disk image format developed by Microsoft.

Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) is a minimal operating system with limited services, built on the Windows kernel. It is used to prepare a computer for Windows installation, to copy disk images from a network file server, and to initiate Windows Setup.

A GUI utility provided by Microsoft that allows an IT Administrator to create the XML file used to configure a computer during the deployment.

The file created, normally called unattend.xml, is used by the Windows Operating System (Vista and up) to configure varous components of the Operating System. Items such as time zone, language, activation and many more.

The SIM uses the Catalog file included on the Microsoft Operation System ISO to provide the list of settings that can be configured for the selected WIM. If a Catalog file does not exist, SIM can build one off of the selected WIM.

For more information, please visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766347(v=ws.10).aspx