SPREAD THE WORD, TOGETHER WE HAVE CONQUERED SYSPREP 
This is version 2 of a step by step guide on Sysprepping a Windows 7 machine from start to finish. I cannot take full credit on this because my first article had so many helpful comments and discussions that this is simply a combination of all the good advice written into a working guide. (I would especially like to thank George for his input on Cscript for auto activation and Nathan for input on Sysprep Audit Mode). This will guide you through the following:
- Audit Mode
- Building the unattend.xml file in WSIM
- copyprofile=true command to copy the default profile (no manual copy)
- Prompt for a computer name
- Enable Administrator account
- Administrator account logs in first time automatically
- Activate windows automatically with Cscript;
- Successfully copy over taskbar icons;
- Delete unattend.xml file automatically upon completion of re-image.
Here is a list of what you will need:
- Latest version of WAIK : KB3AIK_EN.iso Version 1.0
- Windows Vista or Windows 7 Machine to build the XML file on
- ISO or DVD of Windows 7 Installation (x32 or x64)
- WinPE Boot Environment : BrianLeeJackson WinPE 3.0 BootLoader
First we are going to walk through building the unattend.xml file (answer file) and then we will walk through the actual Windows 7 imaging process.
PART 1 – XML FILE CREATION
Step #1
If you have a Windows 7 installation DVD, insert it now. Or if you have an ISO of 7, go ahead and extract it to a folder on your desktop. (I recommend 7-zip).
Step #2
Launch Windows System Image Manager. Your start menu should look like the image below:
Windows 7 WAIK Version 1
Step #3
Under the “Windows Image” header, right click and select new image.
Windows System Image Manager
Step #4
You will now want to browse to the .CLG file in your Windows 7 installation (I am using Windows 7 Enterprise x64 in my example). It is located in the sources folder. See Image below. You can select either the .clg file or the install.wim. Both will have the same result.
Selecting CLG File - WSIM
Step #5
Now we need to create a new answer file. Go to the file menu and select “Create New Answer File.” Right after creating one, go ahead and simply go to file menu and select “Save Answer File.” This will give your XML file a name and save location. I chose to name mine unattend.xml. Now you see we have two category folders, Components and Packages. Under the Components folder you see that we have 7 options:
-1 windowsPE
-2 offlineServicing
-3 generalize
-4 specialize
-5 auditSystem
-6 auditUser
-7 oobeSystem
Step #6
These are very important as these are the steps in which the unattend.xml file is sequenced.
The next part is a little confusing. You are going to add components, from under the “Windows Image” section on the bottom left hand side to the passes on your Answer File. To add a component, you can right click on them and select “add to # pass”. There are many different options you can add, but they have to be done in a certain order and pass otherwise your sysprep might fail. I am simply going to use the one I created as the example.
Answer File - Unattend.xml
Here is more information about adding options under the passes:
1 windowsPE
Nothing required in my example.
2 offlineServicing
Nothing required in my example.
3 generalize
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP_6.1.7600.16385_neutral
Set 1 for SkipRearm to allow up to 8 rearms
4 specialize
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Deployment_6.1.7600.16385_neutral
Order: 1
path: net user administrator /active:yes
WillReboot: NeverRunSynchronousCommand[Order="1"]
RunSynchronous
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX_6.1.7600.16385_neutral
SkipAutoActivation: true
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.1.7600.16385_neutral
Computer Name: Leave blank (we will deal with this at the end)
CopyProfile: true
Registered Organization: Microsoft (you must leave this in this section)
Registered Owner: AutoBVT (you must leave this in this section)
ShowWindowsLive: false
TimeZone: Pacific Standard TimeYou can delete other sub-header components if you don’t need them.
5 auditSystem
Nothing required in my example.
6 auditUser
Nothing required in my example.
7 oobeSystem
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-International-Core_6.1.7600.16385_neutral
InputLocale: en-us
SystemLocale: en-us
UILanguage: en-us
UserLocale: en-usamd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_6.1.7600.16385_neutral
RegisteredOrganization: Your Company Name
RegisteredOwner: Your NameAutoLogon
Password: Administrator Password
Enabled: true
LogonCount: 5
Username: administratorFirstLogonCommands
CommandLine: cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (windows 7 license key)
Order 1
RequiresUserInput: falseCommandLine: cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato
Order 2
RequiresUserInput: falseSynchronousCommand[Order="1"]
SynchronousCommand[Order="2"]
OOBE HideEULAPage: true
NetworkLocation: Home
ProtectYourPC: 1UserAccounts
Password: Administrator Password
Action: AddListItem
Description: Local Administrator
DisplayName: Administrator
Group: Administrators
Name: AdministratorLocalAccount[Name="Administrator"]
AdministratorPassword: Administrator Password
LocalAccounts
If you have questions, look at my image above to see full layout of components, it should help.
Step #7
K, now go ahead and save your answer file as unattend.xml.
Step #8
If you want the sysprep to prompt for a computer name you need to remove a line from your XML file. Open up your XML file you saved with notepad and remove the following line:
Unattend.xml Computer Name
PART 2 – IMAGING PROCESS / RUNNING SYSPREP
Step #9
Install Windows 7 (Enterprise) from CD or USB flash drive, when you arrive at the welcome screen and it asks you to create a username, hit ctrl+shift+f3.
This will reboot your machine and put your windows build in ‘audit’ mode.
Step #10
On reboot, you’ll automatically be logged in under the built-in Administrator account. A sysprep GUI box will appear, but you can close it and NOW begin to customize your profile.
Step #11
Install any software/drivers, make any profile customizations, etc.
If you need to reboot, the computer will boot you back into the Administrator account. You will be stuck in this audit mode until you run sysprep with the /oobe parameter. After doing so, sysprep will delete/clean up the Administrator account, but if you have copyprofile=true in your unattended answer file, it will copy the customized Admin account to the default profile before deleting it.
Step #12
On the PC you are going to be running sysprep on, you need to create a folder called scripts in this directory: %WINDIR%\Setup\. Now you are going to create a CMD file within the %WINDIR%\Setup\Scripts directory. Right click and make a new text file called SetupComplete.txt. Remove the .txt extension and replace that with .cmd. You now have a SetupComplete.cmd file which windows will read the first time it boots up from the sysprep. We need to place a script inside the CMD file. Edit the cmd file with notepad and insert this line: del /Q /F c:\windows\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml. This script will delete your unattend.xml file after it has been used. The unattend.xml file is also copied to the C:\Windows\Panther directory, so you will want to add a second line to the CMD file, del /Q /F c:\windows\panther\unattend.xml. If you have passwords or cd keys stored in that xml file you don’t have to worry about it being left on the computer.
UPDATE AS OF JUNE 16TH: Read my Taskbar Icons Tutorial before continuing.
Step #13
Once you have everything configured correctly, Copy or move your unattend.xml file to : C:\windows\system32\sysprep. Now to run sysprep, navigate to that sysprep folder, hold SHIFT and right click and select “Open New Command Windows Here”. Next, input the following commands:
sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml
Step #14
Turn the computer back on and boot to WinPE 3.0 environment (USB stick or CD/DVD). You can use my BrianLeeJackson WinPE3.0 BootLoader to boot up from USB or CD and capture your image. Capture image and save image to network location.
A Dell 960 or GX755 is a good standard for capturing when you want a generic image for use with multiple systems. Might require injecting additional drivers for 3rd party brands, HP, etc. Most should work though right out of the box.
Step #15
On reboot, Windows will run out of the box, as the /oobe is intended. As long as you put your cd key into the unattend.xml file, windows will be activated automatically in the background, you will be automatically logged into the administrator account, and the unattend.xml file is deleted. You are now ready to use the computer or join it to the domain. Enjoy!
Tags: Software, sysprep, unattend, unattend.xml, Windows 7, WinPE 3.0
Question: What would the correct procedure be to have a Windows 7 clone auto-join an AD domain? I can’t get that to work no matter what I try …
[...] Default user method I have found.. You guys might want to give this a try.. It works great.. Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine ? Start to Finish V2 – Blog.BrianLeeJackson.com Thanks, [...]
Brian or Jonathon,
I’m trying to follow Jonathon’s instruction on getting PSCred, what is joindomain.key? is this something I need to create or does it hold my id and password?
thanks!
Dharm
Hi Brian, this was a great help preparing the Win 7 roll out here in campus. Have almost everything ready, except for a few details.
I’m deploying with Ghost, grabbing an image after the sysprep /generalize /oobe(…) step.
First try, machine joined domain, but user input was required for computer and user names, my error on sysprep.xml.
This last run, machine didn’t ask for user or computer name, but at the same time, didn’t join domain.
I mostly run deploy tasks from my desk during night, with no access to class rooms, so I’m looking at fully automated deployment with no logins involved, so I don’t miss rebooting a machine with administrator logged in. I’ve got this working perfectly with XP, but can’t get it done with 7.
Any pointers you, or anyone else, can give me? Thank you in advance.
I have completed all the steps and had no errors while runing the sysprep command, but for some reason the copy profile method did not work…Does any one add any problems with the copy profile?
@ Rafael Rocha
I have been having issues with ghost following the steps above and trying to capture the image after the sysprep /generalize /oobe… step.
If you wouldn’t mind, could you tell me the steps you made to successfully capture the image with ghost at this point?
Thanks
Note that the 1 setting for ProtectYourPC means Windows/Microsoft Update is set to automatically install anything Microsoft pushes out, like Microsofts assorted genuine “advantages” (although Windows Genuine Advantage became mandatory with Vista anyway) and drivers that sometimes do not work as well as Microsoft thinks they do. You may or may not want that, the setting to decide after sysprep runs is 3.
Of course Microsoft conveniently forgot to include a setting for “no” or “download but do not install”, so you’ll have to do that manually.
Just wanted to chime in and say we got a working test base image. It was a bit quirky with our Novell environment but its functioning well enough for now.
We use Zenworks Imaging for uploading/downloading images, so WinPE doesn’t apply to us. Zenworks just grabs all partitions no matter what, but there was a bug in our version that was “touching” the BSD and corrupting it. We applied a hotfix from Novell and imaging works now.
The Novell Client had to be installed after sysprep is run because Autologin doesn’t know how to bypass it, so we installed it AFTER the Administrator Autologin.
I have successfully got this method working using Windows 7 x64 Ent but now I am working on creating a Windows 7 x32 Ent Image. I am running into a problem durring the sysprep process where I get an error about “sysprep failed at [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup]“. Any Ideas?
Need some help. I have been able to get the steps to work on both x86 and x64 computers but when it comes to the windows activation on the x86 it does not work activate windows for me. I looks like it runs and the sysprep file gets removed but there is no activation. Has anyone had this issue?
Solved my own problem. The problem was because there was an old profile that was directly delete out of C:\Users\* without being removed from the registry. Navigated to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and deleted the rouge account.
I got to work!!! When I made the answer file the first time I must have fat fingered a command in the 7 oobe System under FirstLogon Commands. Thanks Brian for all your help and your great blog.
I was wondering if anyone else was having issues where the Default User profiles are not copying over. Also has anyone had any luck getting Sysprep to join a domain?
@ Dave – Boot to Ghost and dump a full disk image, that should be enough.
@ Roger – My deployment is joining domain, I had the machine join the domain while in audit mode, but just to be sure, included the unattended join part in sysprep.xml.
Not sure about the one that is making it work as I blew my pre-sysprep backup before I could test both settings separately.
Hello Everyone,
I was so careless and I posted at the previous version of this great guide.
First, so many thanks for this good stuff for Brian and the other folks.
Otherwise, we used different customization method, so we had a ‘prepared’ system on which we wanted to use the sysprep.
This is very useful stuff and guide for me and my colleague, because right now we are preparing a huge amount PC at our workplace with Win7 system. We had no enough time to create our ‘perfect’ answer file, that is why firstly we tried Brian’s example. We got the error message that said: ‘the system could not finish configuring the system’. I found a possible solution for that at the previous version of this guide (WAIK removing after sysprep). Alas we had no enough time to try this method, hopefully it is working
I just wanted to say thank you and talk about that we prepared our W7 system with one partition.
At the other topic (v1) I read that there is a problem with creating the W7 image, because generally W7 uses two partitions.
So how is that possible to avoid using of 100MB system partition for W7?
The solution looks so simple but it needs some work to beat W7. Before you start the installation you need to prepare the HDD, create some fake partitions on it with a 3rd party software (at my workplace we are using multiple operating systems on the PCs so that is why we had to find this solution to use the HDD with different OSs). Generally you can use 4 primary partitions OR 3 primary + 1 extended partition (inside the extended partition you can create many logical drive) on the HDD. Before W7 installation we used this conception by way of creating 3 Linux typed (ext3) primary partition and leaving the desired free space for the W7 at the desired disk location (It is very important to create 3 primary partition!). The FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS partitions are wrong choices for these ‘fake’ partitions because the W7 can recognize them and it does not matter if they are hidden or not, W7 can use them and can put its neccessary boot files on these kind of partitions, that is why it is recommended to use such partitions which are not know by W7. Maybe you know the very popular Hiren’s boot CD, on it you can find many partition tools and you can create your fake partitions before the W7 installation. After creating the partitions, you can start the W7 install. Because W7 is clever enough (thanks for Microsoft
) it sees that there are other 3 primary partition on the disk so it will use the remained space and one partition (by skipping the creation of 100MB system partition) and installs itself to one primary partition. After the full installation of W7 you can remove the dummy partitions, and you can create your data partitions for further use, they can be NTFS or FAT32 (if it is needed) type.
Well, we used this method, now we are using 3 different OS on one PC in the labs, and also we have extended partitions for the other datas (for Linux and W7 with different data partitions).
Greetings,
Vic
UPDATE: I have successfully created an answer file and everything is working the way I’d like except for one small thing.
Brian or anyone else,
My problem: I followed step 3 from Brian’s post on January 23, at 6:07pm. But now I’m missing the Dell diagnostic partition. How can I solve this problem. Thanks in advance.
I followed everything and it works fine unless i’m using wds (windows deployment server) to do it. If I sysprep a machine (to test it) it reboots and syspreps fine… when I do a sysprep and image it up to the WDS server, I try to download the image to a new machine, it totally ignores the Unattend xml file. It asks for a local account name, time zone, license and such.. what am I doing wrong? it joins the domain without even asking me. I have a call to MS about WDS but so far, it’s been a week and no one has called me. Please email me at my email address if you have any answers. thanks.
I followed the instructions but there is an issue I keep running into. I’m using WDS to image my machine. If I sysprep the machine and let it reboot to test the sysprep, the unattend xml file works. If I sysprep the machine and image it with WDS, it dumps the image to a new pc but when the sysprep runs, it ignores the xml file. what am i doing wrong?
Great guide! The question i have is how can I incorporate this process into a capture with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP2?
[...] used a mixture of this guide (upto step #12): Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine ? Start to Finish V2 – Blog.BrianLeeJackson.com And this guide: Windows 7 Sysprep – Tips & tricks TXT (dot) bitprocessor (dot) be [...]
Brian, Thanks for this tutorial, everything is working except for one thing. We cannot seem to get it to join our domain and when it does, it will not create the object in our AD.
Any suggestions for automation in adding machines to the domain? Thank you.
This was EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you so much. BUT I have a problem. After I restore the captured image to a different PC, I get get the missing bootmgr message. I used DISKPART to setup the disk, then format, then IMAGEX/Apply, then had been using BCDEDIT to “fix” the messed up boot entried on a previous Win7 image. But with this image, the BCDEDIT fails, stating “the boot configuration data store could not be opened” So the image gets applied, but will not boot.
So what do these script’s do? And where can I get a copy of them?
CommandLine: cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (windows 7 license key)
Order 1
RequiresUserInput: false
SynchronousCommand[Order="2"]
CommandLine: cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato
You are the man. After wrestling with answer files for Windows 7 for quite some time (and getting “pinned” most of the time) your guide painlessly took me through from start to finish and even solved the default profile issue, entering a volume license key and getting auto-activation to work. It was exactly what I needed to make happen in one fell swoop. Thanks much!!!
Great walkthrough. However, in my experience on a Windows 7 Professional system, sysprep won’t find the XML file when it is in Windows\system32\sysprep, I had to put the file in the system32 directory for it to find the answers file.
Thanks!
-Sean
Joey,
I have the same problem as you. Have you found a solution?
Thanks for this brilliant article Brian and all.
Took me a while to undertstand all the functions and why certain steps have to be done, but it has worked brilliantly.
My only issue is this, I’ve done one succesfull image but my second one is coming in at about 4.5GB. I’m unable to copy this image to my bootable UFD as the brilliant FAT32 only supports up to 4Gb file sizes, which probably isn’t breaking news to most, but it took me a while to figure out as to why it wasn’t allowing to copy the file over. Is there a way around this? I can’t do a smaller image because that will be of no use to me, so any help would be great.
Thanks again for sharing your hard work. Cheers
Microsoft will be releasing a patch later this month that will fix some activation holes. Does anyone one think this will influence this process for activation? Thanks!
great guide. i’ve returned to check out “v2″ and have one major issue with trying to get sysprep to work… “Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer’s hardware”.
Here’s my steps when trying to install Win 7 on a Lenovo R400 or Lenovo T60P
1.) install win 7 pro x86 manually (dvd this time – no unattended install)
2.) when i get to the login screen to set up the first user, I enter audit mode (CTRL + ALT + F3)
3.) reboot
4.) install my apps (office, windows updates, java, flash, etc)
5.) purposely not install any drivers
6.) image this system up while still in audit mode to have my tech-only master image
7.) boot the system back up, sysprep manually (sysprep /oobe /generalize /reboot)
8.) when system reboots (still the same system just to make sure sysprep works properly), it starts services, installs hardware, then during “setup is applying system settings” screen… i receive the error “Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer’s hardware”
any ideas?
Hi Brian + others interested
I’ve messed around with all this stuff the last two days and have found your guide to be a very big help, kudos all the way from Denmark and thanks for all the sharing of knowledge!
Regarding step 12, I think I’ve found a rather serious bug in the way it’s done..
I’ve noticed from this TechNet article..
How Configuration Passes Work
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744341%28WS.10%29.aspx
(See section called “To run the Sysprep /generalize /shutdown command on page 5 (if printed)
..that Panther (The Windows 2008/7/R2 setup engine) copies the unattend.xml file you point to with the /unattend:nameofunattendedfile.xml(and renames it) to the C:\Windows\Panther\unattend.xml location and KEEPS it there for subsequent configuration passes! (Yes that’s plural!)
Because of the otherwise smart way that Windows 7 is registered and afterwards activated using (SLmgr.vbs) the product key used to register and activate is just sitting there in plain text!
This file contains the secret product code here:
(SynchronousCommand wcm:action=”add”)
(Order)1(/Order)
(RequiresUserInput)false(/RequiresUserInput)
(CommandLine)cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk 12345-12345-12345-12345-12345(/CommandLine)
(/SynchronousCommand)
While the different passes are being ran through Panther adds this string wasPassProcessed=”true”)
to the (settings pass=”name”) bit, like so (settings pass=”oobeSystem” wasPassProcessed=”true”)
This removes sensitive data such as passwords – and probably also removes the (productkey)12345-12345-12345-12345-12345(/productkey) content if it was provided in this way.
Don’t know if this is just on my machine or this in fact IS a bug in the whole method, but just in case, please do check the c:\windows\panther directory on your already deployed machines for an unattend.xml file and see what it includes (if there).
Two solutions come to mind..
1. Add the product key in the specialize pass like so (the normal way of doing it)
(productkey)12345-12345-12345-12345-12345(/productkey)
And delete the first FirstLogonCommands-)SynchronousCommand command (the one that puts in the code) from the oobeSystem pass in the .xml file.
2. Add the following line to SetupComplete.cmd.
;Deletes Sysprep.xml when Windows 7 boots up
del /Q /F c:\windows\system32\sysprep\*.xml
;Deletes Unattend.xml in the Panther dir
del /Q /F c:\windows\panther\unattend.xml
Let me know what you think
And thanks again for a(some) great guide(s)…
A question – what more than BitLocker is the 100 MB partition used for? Does it “hurt” the Windows 7 installation to set the different bcdboot/bcdedit commands on the Windows install Volume?
-Jonas Mellquist
PS: Had to replace some with ( and ) to post the comment, hope this isn’t too confusing
UPDATE (aka RESOLUTION TO THE ISSUE): After installing Windows 7 Pro and then putting it into audit mode, I decided to sysprep it as described below and it worked. This led me to believe that some software, not hardware, was causing the issue. I kept adding software (one app at a time) and sysprepping it each time until about the 15th package I installed which was IBM iSeries Acess. This app (or it’s related service pack) was causing the issue. I have started over completely, left this app out of my install, and all is working perfectly.
i will work with our IBM AS400 rep to see what they can come up with. NOTE: The app works fine to the end-user, however something with it is causing issues with sysprep under Windows 7.
Brian -
Great guide, we’re using it now for some test 7 images.
Question is – once we have our image, say we want to make ONE minor change to it, in terms of the default profile.
Do we have to start from square one again, or is there some way to restart the process after loading the base image and making the change? Recreating the image without having to rebuild from scratch and remember all of the settings in our image would be huge!
Hello Brian,
Just wondering if you we’re able to see my previous question regarding the Apply Image step.
I’m not able to apply the image that I uploaded on WDS:
ERROR: D:\autoexec.bat [err=1812]
ERROR: Error applying WIM
Error: The specified image file did not contain a resource section
Any help would be greatly appreciated…
Thanks!
Hello Brian,
Great guide, but I followed this version, but got the same issue Andrew did who commented on the 1st version.
Without reapeating, I’m just going to copy/paste his issue:
—-
Hi Brian,
You article is fantastic and easy to follow but I am having an issue that I cannot seem to figure out. When I get into audit mode and I begin my tasks to configure my admin account, I reboot a few times sometimes 1 or 3 times, number doesn’t seem to matter but after one of the reboots that I am trying to do, I get an error message that it cannot load my files or it fails. The specific error says “Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation.” How can I fix the problem, specifically what is causing it, I cannot seem to figure out what thing that I am doing is causing it. I do not think it has anything to do with adding a computer to the domain but that is one task that I preform that allows me to push some altiris jobs and streamline it a little more. Any input is greatly appreciated, but it does not always happen after doing any specific install or job.
Andrew
Left a huge comment two days ago – still saying “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
Because of included code strings or?
-Jonas Mellquist
Just an update: I think I found out what may be causing the problem, but still no solution.
In Audit Mode, if you join a domain, then restart, you get this problem.
It is a problem for us because we need to join a domain to do some of the installation and configuration of the software required in our SOP.
Any advice or solution on this would be greatly appeciated.
I seem to be having a problem where after applying the image and rebooting, I’m getting the following :
BOOTMGR is missing
Press CLT-ALT-DEL to restart
I’m able to fix the problem by inserting my Win7 CD and doing a repair. But the problem is that its not efficient when doing alot of these at once to have to have the CD with me and insert it into each and every machine.
What can I do to correct this problem when applying the image?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
what you’ll notice is that the countdown timer still is running on your “audit mode” image unless you use the “generalize” switch.
Hey Brian,
If we are using a KMS key shouldn’t we take out the SkipRearm from your xml?
Thanks,
You rock for this comment. This has ended my 2 week battle with sysprep. If i knew where you were i would shake your hand.
@ Brad
February 9, 2010 at 11:24 am
Solved my own problem. The problem was because there was an old profile that was directly delete out of C:\Users\* without being removed from the registry. Navigated to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and deleted the rouge account.
Thanks, these instructions have made my life much easier. They have made the deployment process as complicated as humanly possible now, but you have simplified the process for us all. Thanks again.
This is really good, thanks but i have a question
how can you change the default windows 7 background to you own using the windows system image manager. Once I boot the computer with the usb and a windows 7 dvd none of the changes that I have made are there please help?
[...] hab das nur einmal gemacht mit dem howto http://blog.brianleejackson.com/sysp…t-to-finish-v2 Ich hab das unter virtualbox [...]
Love this guide, I had used the other iteration a few times successfully but this V2 has a few quirks I can’t figure out. My profile is copying over with the desktop icons, favorites, and what I’ve put into the pics/docs directory. However, desktop background and “quick launch” bar icons are not copying over.
I can only imagine it’s from using the actual CopyProfile command whereas with the old guide I was just manually copying the profile over.
Anyone know of a way around this? It’s odd that some aspects of CopyProfile seem to be working while others are not.
Can you take a machine that already has Windows installed, MS Office and run Sysprep /Audit to get the default account set up? Or does Sysprep /Audit only work during the intial install?
Thanks, this is very helpful.
Just wondering, were getting machines from Dell with Pre-Activated Windows 7 , I used to Use the Reseal command in Windows XP sysprep to preserve the activation. When running this sys prep with the generalize switch, does that preserve the activation. Or do i need to do something special?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Helder
I’m not too familiar with GXImage or creating images and using them in general.
However, when trying to put the image on the computer (GX755) with my captured image(captured through GXImagE), it starts working and then hangs at the one of the windows 7 startup windows. I was using “Apply” tab under GXImage to get the image to work on the computer.
My main question is that, can you be more specific about what to do after capturing the image and how to deploy it?
Thanks
Copyprofile is not working for me. I have deployed a dozen or so 7 and xp disks in the past using a manual method, but do not want to deal with its inherent issues anymore. But I have followed, to a tee, your directions and yet am left with the ugly default user configuration everytime. I see others have this problem as well. Is there ANYTHING that you know of that would cause this? I havent seen anythihng in the logs to answer it. Driving me crazy. Thanks
Hi
i’m trying to deploy win7 with sccm osc.
i followed your steps but i’ve some problems.
If i use my image stand alone everything is ok, but if i use osd the administrator user is disabled, the setup requires the regional options and network configuration. can you help me? Tell me if you nedd more info.
Thanks a lot
To answer Steve, I have been able to run a Sysprep /Audit after the computer was installed and it worked.
I’m also fighting with this CopyProfile thing and it doesn’t really work for me…. I don’t know why.
I agree with “Administrate windows networks from a mac”, I don’t understand why MS made this Sysprep creation so complicated when it was working very well in Windows XP…. They must think that it’s an option to the administrators like us to sysprep a computer.