Local accounts and custom profile

F5ing said:

Apparently you've gotten some good advice there. Maybe the following can help you as well:

New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode

The generalize option of Sysprep does not remove the additional drivers installed in Audit mode. Right?

Is true that some drivers have difficulty to be installed and to work in Audit mode?

If I wanted download and install all updates of Windows 7 from Windows Update in Audit mode, when I should run its activation?

Thanks

Bye

balubeto said:

F5ing said:

Apparently you've gotten some good advice there. Maybe the following can help you as well:

New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode

The generalize option of Sysprep does not remove the additional drivers installed in Audit mode. Right?

WRONG! The generalize option removes all hardware drivers replacing them with general hardware independent windows drivers!

balubeto said:

Is true that some drivers have difficulty to be installed and to work in Audit mode?

No.

balubeto said:

If I wanted download and install all updates of Windows 7 from Windows Update in Audit mode, when I should run its activation?

Audit Mode is to customize your Windows installation for further deployment. Activation should be done first after finalizing the setup, after first OOBE boot. Never when in Audit Mode.

Kari

Kari said:

balubeto said:

F5ing said:

Apparently you've gotten some good advice there. Maybe the following can help you as well:

New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode

The generalize option of Sysprep does not remove the additional drivers installed in Audit mode. Right?

WRONG! The generalize option removes all hardware drivers replacing them with general hardware independent windows drivers!

So, how do I remove the Administrator account, all system-specific information, any system restore points and the event logs and reset the SIDs without using the generalize option?

Thanks

Bye

You can use the same Answer File which specifies to copy the default profile from administrator to specify to keep all device drivers intact through the generalize command, but you will have to generalize the machine in order to run OOBE which is required to use the unattend file and to remove the system from Audit Mode. Details on the PersistAllDevices setting can be found under the Sysprep Process section of the TechNet article How Sysprep Works under the header Persisting Plug and Play Device Drivers During Generalize.

In response to your question regarding your procedure, it is definitely correct; you have a good handle on things. Just beware that the answer file can be called during the setup procedure of Windows once the environment boots after Sysprep has been run. As such, if your USB stick is removed, your image may fail. The easiest way to avoid this is to place the Sysprep file in the image itself, on the C: drive, so that it is copied to each system as part of the image and is always accessible.

So, if I change my CopyProfile.xml file in:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="Error" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
        </component>
       <component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
          <PersistAllDeviceInstalls>true</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>
       </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="Error" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</Unattend>

the c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /reboot /generalize /unattend:c:\CopyProfile.xml command, run in Audit mode, not remove the additional drivers installed in OOBE and Audit mode. True?

Thanks

Bye

Running Sysprep with those settings in the answer file will cause the Administrator profile which had been configured in Audit Mode to be copied to the default profile and all drivers to be preserved. The environment will boot to the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) or Windows Welcome where you will be prompted for computer name, user name, etc.

Bear in mind your linked answer file is for a 32 bit environment. It also will not reset the activation information as specified with SkipRearm.

WinOutreach2 said:

Running Sysprep with those settings in the answer file will cause the Administrator profile which had been configured in Audit Mode to be copied to the default profile and all drivers to be preserved. The environment will boot to the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) or Windows Welcome where you will be prompted for computer name, user name, etc.

Bear in mind your linked answer file is for a 32 bit environment. It also will not reset the activation information as specified with SkipRearm.

Why the SkipRearm=1 statement does not reset the activation?

Thanks

Bye

The purpose of the SkipRearm setting is to control whether activation is reset or not. A setting of 1 skips the activation reset, a setting of 0 allows the /generalize command to reset activation information in preparation for receiving new licensing. The details can be found here on TechNet.

Before executing the sysprep /generalize /oobe /reboot /unattend:c:\CopyProfile.xml command, I have to run the "disk cleanup" utility of Windows to delete any unnecessary files or the generalize option already performs ​​this work?

If I copy the CopyProfile.xml file to the c:\windows\panther directory and I renamed it in Unattend.xml, I could remove the unattend option from the sysprep command?

Thanks

Bye