"Anyway, I did follow that guide on the Microsoft web site. I hate to say it, but that guide sucks. It's very vague."
I think the article is quite straight forward, not vague at all.
Like MS said it is the only way to get it right.
No. That guide is horrible. Compare it to any other guide out there. All Microsoft says is "start AIK, k good, use copy profile to true, okay good, run sysprep."
I had NO clue that I had to switch over the component setting in the lower left corner. No clue at all. Thanks to other guides on the web, which correlated their steps with the MS guide but went into more detail, I was able to get further - but still no cigar.
I know it sounds like I'm coming off as a total ass, and I apologize for that, but this is incredibly frustrating. I have a whole closet full of computers that belong to special ed. They need to be set up. XP drivers for these things don't exist and we want to use Windows 7. I need to get these rolling. If I don't, it's only hurting the students. I find it SO tough to swallow that the reason they're still in the closet and not accessible to students is because of Microsoft's lack of logic when setting up default profiles. I'm sorry, but that's just how I feel at the moment.
In XP, you copied and pasted. Bam. Done. Over. Fact. It worked! It just worked.
In 7, download AIK, then fire up WSIM, then copy over the components and adjust the copy profile setting. Then save the XML file and put it in the sysprep directory of the Win 7 machine. Then run sysprep.exe with the generalize option. Oh, and by the way, we forgot to mention this method doesn't work yet - sorry you already spent 8 weeks trying to figure it out.
That's why I'm so frustrated. Everyone here is saying "But just use this method and it will work it's the method Microsoft supports." It. Does. Not. Work. I have tried on three different computers, all brand new Windows 7 installs. It just doesn't work. I get the same error on each one.
Roaming Profiles - Please, please please please, let's not beat a dead horse here. I am not the network administrator = Fact. I am not in control of setting up roaming profiles = Fact. I am in desktop support = Fact. I need to get these systems rolling... asap... I just need to get them to work. It's not that I don't want roaming profiles, it's not my call to make. Sorry. It's just not.
My imaging situation - I use FOG, which is based on Ubuntu. It's free, open source, supports multicasting, network based, has a TON of features in it - it can catalog all of our systems (inventory) in an instant, manage what's where, run anti virus scans on the systems, wipe the disks, etc etc. It's just such an amazing product and it's incredible that it's free.
So anyway, at the end of the day, I'm doing the best I can with what I have to work with. It's not that I'm stubborn and ignoring everybody, I just sincerely don't have the power to do certain things that are being said to me. I simply need... local default profiles... to work. New OS or not, I find it laughable that something this simple (which worked fine in previous releases) isn't working yet.
I said it once, I'll say it again - I just expected better.