I can

[AndyMutz]

Also realize you can only sysprep an image a maximum of 3 times.

 

there are workarounds for that.. i've been sysprepping the same image over and over, more than 20 times now, and it still works fine.

 

 -andy-

[Gotenks98]

It gets better dude, for Windows 8/8.1 you can create your own recovery image that has the updates, apps and drivers if you want. Just do a search for Recimg.exe and reagentc.exe. Both of these make starting over with Windows 8/8.1 really easy. If you want to get fancy with that image you can export it with the disk /compress:recovery flag and it shrinks down even more. Even more fancy if you can use the Wimboot feature with SSD.

[halomaster]

I was testing sysprep on a virtual machine.  On the VM, I'm running Win8 with a local user profile.

 

I sysprep'd the machine with OOBE and /generalize.  When I saw that in the end, the local user profile was still intact.

 

How do I delete the user profile (so there is no user profile except the built-in admin).??

[Praetor]

I also worked for a small oem shop who was no better than a ms gold partner. They would order oem media from techdata or ingram to install. you can get the same media and sku from New egg.

Of course it is not transferable no one is questioning that. No one said that you can't image that and use the key that is on the side of the computer that you are pushing the image to either.

 

and? not saying it was your case, but i'm seeing alot of bad practices being done today by MS partners because someone in there lacked the knowledge of licensing / other area of expertise; heck a few weeks ago one of the MS commercials was fired from MS because of this same issue (we could have lost a major client because of a false information he passed us for the client; we double check and that info not only was false but it could be very costly for the client as well).

[sc302 Veteran]

before using any other switches use /audit then when you are done in audit mode use /oobe or when you start your customizations don't go through the Windows Welcome wizard to create a user. Instead enter Audit Mode by typing Ctrl-Shift-F3 at the start of the wizard. The system will now reboot into Audit Mode and you are logged on as the built-in Administrator. You can now make the changes to the system and run sysprep when you are finished. Using this procedure you will not create a new user each time you modify a system. You can also delete the users you created earlier from Audit Mode.

[GrayW]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Sysprep :)

[sc302 Veteran]

and? not saying it was your case, but i'm seeing alot of bad practices being done today by MS partners because someone in there lacked the knowledge of licensing / other area of expertise; heck a few weeks ago one of the MS commercials was fired from MS because of this same issue (we could have lost a major client because of a false information he passed us for the client; we double check and that info not only was false but it could be very costly for the client as well).

Licensing should be a course taught because there are so many rules.  Every article posted does not cover every scenario.  People need to pay attention to OEM vs Retail vs Open License articles as they may state stupid things like what you saw above with regards to sysprep (oem stating that sysprep only applies to oem, open license or enterprise sysprep only applying to it).  It gets confusing and frustrating and if you don't know every caveat of every license type you will be misinformed and possibly put out fud because of being misinformed or not totally informed in all scenarios. 

[Praetor]

It gets better dude, for Windows 8/8.1 you can create your own recovery image that has the updates, apps and drivers if you want. Just do a search for Recimg.exe and reagentc.exe. Both of these make starting over with Windows 8/8.1 really easy. If you want to get fancy with that image you can export it with the disk /compress:recovery flag and it shrinks down even more. Even more fancy if you can use the Wimboot feature with SSD.

 

yeah the new tools recimg are great as well. :)

Licensing should be a course taught because there are so many rules.  Every article posted does not cover every scenario.  People need to pay attention to OEM vs Retail vs Open License articles as they may state stupid things like what you saw above with regards to sysprep (oem stating that sysprep only applies to oem, open license or enterprise sysprep only applying to it).  It gets confusing and frustrating and if you don't know every caveat of every license type you will be misinformed and possibly put out fud because of being misinformed or not totally informed in all scenarios. 

 

yeah that is very true but when the MS commercial for the regional licensing gets fired because even he doesn't know all the info then it just shows how bad is the licensing world in Microsoft.

 

btw: i do work with several partners and several companies; Microsoft is one of the few that is a mess in licensing.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Also realize you can only sysprep an image a maximum of 3 times.  So don't keep building on an image and sysprep'ing it or you'll run into this limitation.

Instead when you install all the latest patches, etc you'll want to take the stock image and start with that.

 

What i'm doing now is using 2 SSD's. One for Windows 7 which lives in my HP touch smart computer (with the back off so I can easily swap the ssds .. in 2 seconds) which keeps all the 3rd party software and Windows updates current. Then when I need it I clone it onto my 2nd SSD. Once cloned I put the 2nd SSD in the HP touch smart computer, sys prep that then clone that onto a new hard drive.

 

Gone then is the 3 time limitation :)

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Well now I've only just learnt about Sysprep to so you aren't alone.

[Praetor]

Well now I've only just learnt about Sysprep to so you aren't alone.

 

better late then...oh well.

[T3X4S]

What about deploying to dissimilar hardware?  (different chipsets, etc)

I have known about sysprep for a long time, but never used it... So gonna have to re-install VMWare to play around with it :D
 

[+Warwagon MVC]

What about deploying to dissimilar hardware?  (different chipsets, etc)

 

 

Doesn't matter. Upon first boot it detects and installs all the hardware, just as if it was the 1st boot of a clean install.

[Dashel]

Its been largely hardware agnostic since Vista.

 

I was working with a local shop and they refused to 'image' a failing hard drive to a new one because they thought it violated the OEM license agreement.  We musts reinstall!

 

recimg (y)

[+Warwagon MVC]

Its been largely hardware agnostic since Vista.

 

I was working with a local shop and they refused to 'image' a failing hard drive to a new one because they thought it violated the OEM license agreement.  We musts reinstall!

 

They Probably also never ripped the tag off a mattress.

[whs37]

Here are a couple of excellent tutorials on the subject:

 

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/286053-system-preparation-tool-use-customize-windows.html

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/319903-windows-7-image-customize-audit-mode-sysprep.html

[Praetor]

Its been largely hardware agnostic since Vista.

 

I was working with a local shop and they refused to 'image' a failing hard drive to a new one because they thought it violated the OEM license agreement.  We musts reinstall!

 

recimg (Y)

 

sigh...read the beginning of this thread: Sysprep has a limited legal use.

[Orange Battery]

Great post, I didn't know either.

[sc302 Veteran]

sigh...read the beginning of this thread: Sysprep has a limited legal use.

sigh...no it doesnt....every different licensed version of windows has its own ELUA regarding sysprep.  OEM has its own and Open Manage/Enterprise has its own.  Both say it is limited to its own license agreement not being able to cross over to the other OEM cannot be used on Open Manage/Enterprise and Open Manage/Enterprise cannot be used on OEM. 

 

I linked to the OEM version one, someone else linked to the Enterprise/Open Manage version.  Both specifically state that sysprep can only be used for that licensed version....so not exactly sure what is meant by limited legal use in your meaning, but it is pretty clear in both of the ELUAs what you can and can not use it for.

[Dashel]

sigh...read the beginning of this thread: Sysprep has a limited legal use.

Not sure what you are sighing about.  I wasn't even talking about sysprep, just moving partitions to a new hard drive.  But, like you, since I used the 'buzzword' of 'image', they completely freaked out and played their 'gold partner' card.

[Praetor]

Not sure what you are sighing about.  I wasn't even talking about sysprep, just moving partitions to a new hard drive.  But, like you, since I used the 'buzzword' of 'image', they completely freaked out and played their 'gold partner' card.

 

Well, since you were talking about it when you commented....

 

Its been largely hardware agnostic since Vista.

... i thought the rest of the post was following the same idea.

 

 

sigh...no it doesnt....every different licensed version of windows has its own ELUA regarding sysprep.  OEM has its own and Open Manage/Enterprise has its own.  Both say it is limited to its own license agreement not being able to cross over to the other OEM cannot be used on Open Manage/Enterprise and Open Manage/Enterprise cannot be used on OEM. 

 

I linked to the OEM version one, someone else linked to the Enterprise/Open Manage version.  Both specifically state that sysprep can only be used for that licensed version....so not exactly sure what is meant by limited legal use in your meaning, but it is pretty clear in both of the ELUAs what you can and can not use it for.

 

wat? It's use is legally limited because of the licensing. See post #21 and #24 for more in deep explanation, so i really don't get your post because it was explained how sysprep could be used a page ago.

 

does that stop joe smith to image it's personal computer or a enterprise to mass image with their OEM licenses? legally yes, technically no.

[mstefanik]

They Probably also never ripped the tag off a mattress.

 

Wait, hold on just one minute here ... you mean that we're actually allowed to take the tags off our mattress? Are you certain about this? I've heard horror stories about the Feds hunting down anyone who removes the tags from a mattress, pillow or comforter.

[sc302 Veteran]

Well, since you were talking about it when you commented....

... i thought the rest of the post was following the same idea.

wat? It's use is legally limited because of the licensing. See post #21 and #24 for more in deep explanation, so i really don't get your post because it was explained how sysprep could be used a page ago.

does that stop joe smith to image it's personal computer or a enterprise to mass image with their OEM licenses? legally yes, technically no.

When imaging a oem using sysprep, during the initial process you are prompted to enter a oem key before continuing. If you use the oem key that is physically on the outside of your box you are within your license agreement for the os.

[Praetor]

When imaging a oem using sysprep, during the initial process you are prompted to enter a oem key before continuing. If you use the oem key that is physically on the outside of your box you are within your license agreement for the os.

 

That is false. The only (legal) way to use sysprep is:

1) you must have bought 5 VL products to be entitled to use a VL key for using with sysprep.

2) you have downgrade rights so you can use a VL media with a OEM license (the COA outside of the box).

 

There are some exceptions to this:

a) OEM recovery image, since it's a sysprep image made by the manufacture within the OEM SBL program and OPK toolset, and can be deployed in same hardware (for mass deployment). Does this grant a user to copy the image and transfer into another hardware? No, but grants the user to use this image on the hardware it came from. Also see recimg and reagentc.

b) if you use a Personal License (then again you must use the OEM SBL to be able to use Personal License and that does not grant the same rights as a retail version does).

 

If you said was true imagine the fun it will be for an enterprise to buy cheap hardware with a OEM COA and massive deploy them using n COAs; Microsoft provides the use of a VL key to mass deployments so one can use the tools (sysprep), the software (WDS, KMS) and the benefits (Software Assurance, VL portal, etc.) to make the deployments fast, easy and smooth.

 

for the joe smiths that want to image their computers, they can use other tools (like recimg: another supported method: windows backup and recovery.

 

finally, this link that i provided some pages ago: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828287

 

 

 

• OEM installation image

  Microsoft does not support the use of Sysprep to create a new image of a system that was originally created by using a custom OEM installation image or by using OEM installation media. Microsoft only supports such an image if the image was created by the OEM manufacturer. For more information see the following licensing brief on Reimaging Rights

 

So if you are a OEM manufacture then sure, you can sysprep that (same OEM manufacture) image.

[conna]

I have a computer that has a hard drive partitioned into two: the C drive and the D (backup) drive.  This is in addition to the system partition.

 

Can I bypass diskpart and use sysprep to deploy an image to the C drive only?  I already have important stuff on the D drive, and I don't want to wipe that.

 If you drive is split up into partitions C: and D: it is still one physical disk. Having them in the "D backup drive" is not doing you any good. Depending on your setup you might be causing it to fail faster. If anything a hard drive failure will wipe out all you partitions. I have a feeling you already know this but just in case.