Windows 7: Sysprep, out of box experience

A question, if I were to run this program, would it delete all my stuff and start up brand new without saving anything on my file? I see that my niece has it on her laptop and when I turn it on, it runs says it is preparing the laptop for first time use, every single use. Any help would be of great use.

It leaves whatever you have on the machine data wise, but it removes the SID's, the unique identifiers, and resets the box taking you though a mini-setup, making you agree to licensing terms and making you activate the product.

so it would be safe to use then? should I back anything up first?

why do you want to run sysprep?

Do I understand you correctly? The computer shows this every time when booted:



This dialog means computer has been booted to Audit Mode. When in Audit Mode, every consecutive boot also starts in Audit Mode until user has chosen OOBE boot, and this dialog is shown.

If so, yes it is safe to click OK. When PC is then rebooted, it goes through the first boot routine (Out Of Box Experience or OOBE) and thereafter no longer shows this dialog.

Read more: Understanding Audit Mode

Kari

ok,@ kari.

that dialog pops up everytime afterwards when the laptop that belongs to my niece is turned on. She says it happened after it died during the original recovery or w/e she used to start up her laptop anew.... don't know why she didn't have the charge cord in.

and @ pparks

I want to see if it would speed up my own laptop abit faster as if it were brand new out of the box without having the data I already have on it deleted. My laptop does run quite well as it is, so this is just a curiosity really. I won't go through with it unless I have an expert do it for me.

a sysprep does not remove all of the cruft and garbage and get it back to running well. I was thinking that was what you were trying to do. Using sysprep is not appropriate for what you want to accomplish.

Alright, thank you. I'll not do it at all. Going to stick with cleaning and maintenance as usual.

Listen to Pparks. Do not start experimenting with Sysprep if your only goal is to do some maintenance and cleaning.

Sysprep is used to prepare a Windows installation to be deployed as an image, or in some cases to modify internal Windows environment variables. It is not a cleaning tool, it does not do what you want to achieve.

Kari