A deployment system allows an administrator to convert virtual deployments to physical deployments so that an administrator can easily move between the virtual and physical world. The deployment system allows an administrator to directly deploy an operating system image in the form of a VHD file to the hard disks of a physical machine as a directly bootable and natively installed operating system. Thus, the deployment system relieves administrators from separately managing physical and virtual deployment images. Instead, administrators can manage only virtual deployment images and convert virtual images to physical deployments as needed.