THIS IS OLD, PLEASE SEE NEW VERSION 2, CLICK HERE
This is a step by step guide on Sysprepping (and yes, I have made sysprepping a verb now) a Windows 7 machine from start to finish. This will guide you through building the unattended XML file, having the administrator profile copy over to default profile, and fixes for what is right now a not 100% working system from Microsoft. This is something I would have easily paid for when first starting this process. I don’t know why Microsoft can’t hand us a 100% working process. There will always be fixes, even with the RTM release.
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
Once you have WAIK installed on a machine your Start Menu should look like the image below:
Windows 7 WAIK Version 1
Go ahead and launch the Windows System Image Manager. Picture of the program is below.
Windows System Image Manager
We now need to open a Windows 7 image. If you have an 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). Back in Windows System Image Manager (WISM) go to the file menu and select “Select Windows Image”. 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.
Selecting CLG File - WSIM
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. 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
These are very important as these are the steps in which the 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.
Download my Windows 7 x86 Sysprep XML File
Download my Windows 7 x64 Sysprep XML File
WSIM Passes
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_neutral
Set 1 for SkipRearm to allow up to 8 rearms
4 Specialize
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX_neutral
SkipAutoActivation: true
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral
Computer Name: * (Randomly generated name, use this to test)
CopyProfile: false (doesn’t quite work, we will do that manually later)
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 Time
5 AuditSystem
Nothing required in my example.
6 AuditUser
Nothing required in my example.
7 OobeSystem
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-International-Core_neutral
InputLocale: en-us
SystemLocale: en-us
UILanguage: en-us
UserLocale: en-us
amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral
RegisteredOrganization: YourCompanyName
RegisteredOwner: YourName
Under amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral component, you will have a subheader for OOBE:
HideEULAPage true
NetworkLocation: Home
ProtectYourPC: 1
Under amd64_Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral component, you will have a subheader for UserAccounts:
You will want to add both an administrator password and another local account with administrator rights and password.
If you have questions, look at my image above to see full layout of components, it should help. Also, you might have additional component headings that I didn’t mention. If you are simply testing first time, just delete them for now. You can add all sorts of components later on, you should do a successful sysprep if this is your first time, better to keep it simple and to the basics.
K, now go ahead and save your answer file. The building of the XML file is now done. That is the worst part. You would think that the sysprep process would get easier as new OS’s come out, but its pretty much the exact opposite.
Prepping your machine
K, now it is time to get your machine that you want to sysprep and capture an image of ready to go. First, you are going enable the administrator account on the computer. To do this on Windows Vista or Windows 7, open up a command prompt (Run as Administrator) and input the following command:
net user administrator /active:yes
Hit enter and you should see “successfully enabled Administrator Account”.
So you should currently have two accounts on your computer. The account you are currently logged into and the Administrator account which you just enabled. You are going to want to customize all of your preferences, favorites, bookmarks, taskbar, etc. under the currently logged in account. Once you have everything just perfect, you are going to reboot the computer and login to the administrator account. This next part is very important. You are going to go to “My Computer” and then to Organize and folder and search options. Go ahead and select “Show hidden files, folders, and drives”. Picture is below.
Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives
No go to “My Computer” and you are going to rename the Default folder to Default.bak (The CopyProfile setting in Sysprep on Windows7 does not seem to work yet). Next, copy your other user account, the one you customized everything in, right click on it and select copy. Then paste within that same window. It is going to come out as USERNAME – COPY. Now rename this copied folder to Default. Now after you sysprep your computer it will create all new accounts from that default profile folder using all your customized options.
The last thing we need to do is disable the WMP sharing service. This is a bug in Windows 7 and hopefully will eventually be fixed. If you don’t disable this before the sysprep your sysprep will simply fail to run. Go to run, msconfig, and then disable the “Windows Media Player Networking Sharing” service.
Now you are ready to sysprep your computer and capture an image of it!! Finally! So, grab that XML file you created earlier and you are going to place it on the machine you built your image on. Copy or move it to : C:windowssystem32sysprep.
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:NAMEOFYOURANSWERFILE.xml
Your computer will now run the sysprep process, removing SID, etc, and then shutdown. You can have it restart, but shutdown is always safer if you have a ton of things going on. You will need to boot to your WinPE Boot environment when your computer starts back up. If you miss the first time upon boot up, you will have to re-input your sysprep commands. So do a shutdown, not a restart.
You can use my BrianLeeJackson WinPE3.0 BootLoader to boot up from USB or CD and capture your image. Once you capture your image, you are all done. You now have a sysprepped Windows 7 image. I have performed this task on over 120 computers so far and it has been flawless. The hard part was getting everything configured correctly. I hope this documentation helps someone out there, I know I would have killed for a tutorial like this when I first started 
Hi,
Im having the same issue as Joe, Andrew Fichera and Ricky,
I have just been building my image about to sysprep and removed my machine from the domain, which prompts for a restart obviously, once restarted get the
“…Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation.”
error.
Does anyone have any clues on what the issues are here or a fix.
Cheers
Hello Greg,
I think your problem is on the Integrated peripherals in CMOS SETUP Utility. In Sata mode change AHCI to Native IDE.
Check it
Re:
“…Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation.”
You may be able to work around this… when you get this error DO NOT click ok or dismiss the message. Instead, press Shift-F10 and then in the command prompt that comes up, type CD\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\OOBE
then type MSOOBE
That should launch the final setup. Complete it and once it’s done, allow the machine to reboot. You should be good now.
Would love to know WHY this happens but as yet, I do not.
I prepare the image for Windows 7 enterprise edition 64 bit.
After I sysprep (sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:win7ent64bit.xml
I had problem saying “Windows could not parse or process unattend answer file [C:\windows\Panther\unattend.xml] for pass [oobesystem]. The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for component [Microsoft - Windows - Shell -Setup] ”
As mentioned here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934308
but the kb link above does not provide a definite solution for this….
I did disable Windows “Media Player Networking Sharing” service from msconfig.
After that it restarted and had the same problem with greg mccarthy and followed what Lee suggested.
After that it gave me just a black screen…. so I turned it off and turn on the machine and the setup completed…
Does anyone have a solution for this?
I need to deply windows 7 Enterprise 64bit….
Hi, I remove the oobe from my unattend.xml and I did not face the same error message again…..
WHat could be the reason behind this????
can anyone tell me? thanks a lot
Lee,
The MSOOBE workaround worked for me, but that ignored my unattend file. Any idea how to prompt it to complete the setup using unattend?
-I sysprepped and pulled an image, then rebooted. The OOBE used the unattend without problems, and I was able to join the domain and do whatever I wanted with the system.
-I then applied the previously created WIM, which is when the error and reboot loop popped up.
Lee, your steps worked when countless others did not. Thank you so much!
Hi
im need to move profileuser windows7 for C:\Users => D:\user
please help me
park,
sometimes windows7 won’t install if you install it on a pc with a previous installation of windows XP ”
Hi. Firstly, thank you for the post it is very very helpful.
So now if I load Windows 7 on a machine by installing from DVD. When I get to the mini-setup screen I press SHIFT+CTRL+F3 to go into audit mode. I add my drivers etc and then when ready I run a sysprep pointing at my unattended.xml file, I generalize and oobe it. When the machine restarts it still prompts me for a computer name even though I have an entry in spelialize – shellsetup_neutral. I have set the computer name to * which apparently sets a random name. I have also tried user %compname%. I have also tried setting it to a fixed name like “ITCOMP”
If I press enter on the computername the rest of the installation is completely automated. I would just like it to stop prompting for the computername.
The computer name is preset as “PC” but appears to be what ever is set in the COMPUTERNAME field in the mini-setup before I hit CTRL-SHIFT+F3 to switch to audit mode.It isn’t a big issue, it just means I need to press enter once on each of the 400 machines but I would like to sort it out to save me running around
I have tried googling this but all I have found is people with the opposite problem where they aren’t prompted to change the computername.
Any ideas?
Have having problems my self I hope this will help others avoid the problems I had.
Windows
7 and Windows Server 2008 and using Sysprep
thanks so much for this tutorial. I’ve been searching the Internet for many many hours trying to figure out exactly what to configure under what area. You’ve saved me days of work i believe.
Thank you greatly
Hi Everyone,
If you’ve been trying to get copyprofile to work for as long as I have, you may be getting to the point where you realize that Microsoft has screwed us over. I believe the reason they don’t want to make a simple Default User which includes all your settings is that they can’t eliminate the possibility that license agreements could be avoided by your multiple users. Even though it is our responsibility to maintain our license compliance, and not Microsoft’s, they are committed to doing everything they can to frustrate this possibility.
In the mean time, does anyone here know if there is a comprehensive list of the functions incorporated in the Windows System Image Manager – Components ?
I have searched and searched, and I can’t seem to find anything. I need to be able to look up a function that I want to include in my sysprep unattend answer file and then know which component to add and which pass to add it to.
Please help if you can,
thanks,
Rob
[...] I see that my question has been migrated. Thanks. I have read the guide that John T provided–then I read the 150+ comments. It seems that this is becoming out of [...]
well, i have troubles installing windows7 on my PC. maybe i need a bios update or something ;-*
while i Sysprep Vista i had the issue of skipping unattended.xml
it was fixed by providing
sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:C:\FULLPATH\win7ent64bit.xml
Thank you very much for this documentation, Lee.
I am getting the prompt to enter a username and password.
Is it possible to skip this prompts?
Thank you.
AGREED WITH DEVIL N7. Just trying to get rid of the computer name request. ANY IDEAS?
When I run sysprep the computer prompts me to create a user account. I would like to bypass this option.
The second thing is that the cscript isn’t working. The unattend.xml files are still on my computer after the sysprep runs. Why?
Thanks,
God Bless.
Hi,
I would like to add all the driver models within the image and adding them with the image so I can have the dvd of it and install it on every model and it will find its driver and install it on that model. I want to do this for windows 7. Everyone is talking about mdt, I used to do this in sysprep.inf previously where I would specify the path for the drivers, is it possible for windows 7?
Can we add the driver paths into unattend.xml file?
in case anyone is wondering, you can also add the driver paths directly into the registry a la sysprep on XP. navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion and on the right pane edit the DevicePath value to include your driver paths, separating each with a semicolon. just be sure to leave in %SystemRoot%\inf
Hey Lee,
your steps also worked for me.
The Shift+F10 hint sent my nightmares away
Big up!
Thanks
Maik
Johnny99,
Use DISM.exe to inject drivers into your .WIM image after capturing. This can be done afterwords.
Mouting and Injecting Drivers for x86 (32-bit)
==============================================
DISM.exe /Mount-Wim /WimFile:E:\ISO\Win7x86\install_dell.wim /index:4 /MountDir:E:\temp
DISM.exe /Image:E:\temp\ /Get-Drivers
DISM.exe /Image:E:\temp\ /Add-Driver:C:\Drivers /recurse
DISM.exe /Image:E:\temp\ /Get-Drivers
DISM.exe /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:E:\temp\ /commit
Unmounting (Discard Changes)
============================
DISM.exe /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:E:\temp\ /discard
Driver Notes
============
Make sure driver packages are stored in C:\Drivers. Extract and save your drivers to C:\Drivers
You may need to “Expand” the driver packages if they fail. Eg. “expand *.* \expand”. This is critical for injecting NVIDIA chipset drivers.
Driver injecting for x64 (64-bit)
================================
DISM.exe /Mount-Wim /WimFile:E:\ISO\Win7x64\Windows7x64.wim /index:1 /MountDir:E:\temp
DISM.exe /Image:E:\temp\ /Add-Driver:E:\Drivers\DELLe6520\E6520-win7-A00-R297534\E6520\win7\x64 /recurse /ForceUnsigned
I enjoyed the article, will enjoy it even more if it works, capturing the image now. I did have a question though I have to configure a bunch of laptops and all of the instructions I see say you need the DVD media for Windows, all the laptops we buy today don’t come with DVD media so how do you get around this?
I have an issue during capture. All the sysprep instructions are basically straight forward for my Windows 7 machine but when i pxe boot to my server and boot to capture my image, my “volume to capture” is showing as D: it seems as if after sysprep my c: drive has changed to my d: and my c: drive is now showing as the hidden system reserved drive. Any ideas????????????
I real delighted to find this web site on bing, just what I was searching for : D too saved to my bookmarks .
THANKKKKKKKKKKK YOU!!! IT WORKSSS PERFECT! I REALLY APRECIATE THIS! DOUBLE A+ my friend! People like you make the Internet Better! Take Care!. M. Batista (MCSA, A+).
Many thanks for the helpful tips. You learn about something each and every day.
[...] I see that my question has been migrated. Thanks. I have read the guide that John T provided–then I read the 150+ comments. It seems that this is becoming out of [...]
I was wondering if you ever considered changing the structure of your website? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
Great Blog . How Can I accomplish this with a Brand New OEM Machine ??? And No win 7 Media
This site has been invaluable to me with my Windows 7 Sysprep and WinPE needs. Thank you!
Glad I could help!