Actually it's possible with a URL parameter ?active_tab=$id.

How to find the right tab id

Find the responsible tab container class. This is a child class of Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Tabs, in my case, Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Catalog_Product_Attribute_Edit_Tabs.

You'll find calls to $this-&gt;addTab(), usually in the methods _beforeToHtml(), or _construct(). The first parameter of addTab() is the tab id:

$this-&gt;addTab('labels', array(
    'label'     =&gt; Mage::helper('catalog')-&gt;__('Manage Label / Options'),
    'title'     =&gt; Mage::helper('catalog')-&gt;__('Manage Label / Options'),
    'content'   =&gt; $this-&gt;getLayout()-&gt;createBlock('adminhtml/catalog_product_attribute_edit_tab_options')-&gt;toHtml(),
));


So, the URL is /admin/catalog_product_attribute/edit/attribute_id/123/?active_tab=labels, generated with this code (within an adminhtml block):

$this-&gt;getUrl('adminhtml/catalog_product_attribute/edit',
    array('attribute_id' =&gt; 123, '_query' =&gt; array('active_tab' =&gt; 'labels'));




How it works

Let's have a look at the responsible code:

Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Widget_Tabs::_beforeToHtml()

Sets the active tab based on URL parameter or session value. If setActiveTab() is not called, the _activeTab property defaults to the first added tab:

    if ($activeTab = $this-&gt;getRequest()-&gt;getParam('active_tab')) {
        $this-&gt;setActiveTab($activeTab);
    } elseif ($activeTabId = Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')-&gt;getActiveTabId()) {
        $this-&gt;_setActiveTab($activeTabId);
    }


app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/widget/tabs.phtml

Here, the result of getActiveTabId() is passed to the varienTabs instantiation in JavaScript:

&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;
    &lt;?php echo $this-&gt;getJsObjectName() ?&gt; = new varienTabs(
        '&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;getId() ?&gt;',
        '&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;getDestElementId() ?&gt;',
        '&lt;?php echo $this-&gt;getActiveTabId() ?&gt;',
        &lt;?php echo $this-&gt;getAllShadowTabs()?&gt;);
&lt;/script&gt;


The varienTabs constructor takes the active tab id as parameter and shows it. For the curious, the code is in js/mage/adminhtml/tabs.js

Link directly to a tab in adminhtml tab widget
Is it possible to install ONLY software using MDT via USB? I don't want to deploy OS as don't want to lose the licence. I would like to achieve this scenario: 

Laptop with installed Windows 8.1
USB stick with MDT on it is plugged in
I run silent deployment of software using the wizard.

Other bits to clarify: 


I don't want to run MDT connected to network
I don't want to install OS from scratches 

