epoch

Hi - thanks for your help. Several valuable pieces of information in there for me to take on board. Very much appreciated.

Hi - thanks for your reply. Ok, well I think I'm totally confused about what I need to do here then! Here's what I'm doing, and what I'm trying to acheive (I'm working on VMs at the moment, until I get this right!). I need to create a standard desktop for an external customer. They won't be part of our MS volume licensing agreement, and so will be using OEM instead of KMS/MAK keys. All I want is for the end user (actually the install technician) to be asked to provide the computer name and to enter the OEM key during first start up. This should then get to the local admin logon, from where they can do some other tasks as required. I'm installing Win7 & Office 2010 using a configuration set and an autounattend.xml (attached). This gets me into audit mode. In audit mode I install any necessary apps and perform customisations that will be applied to the default user. We need to rename the local administrator account (to fit in with our organisation's support standards) so I do this as per this page. I create a new unattend.xml and save it in a temporary folder C:\unattend (deleted as part of setupcomplete.cmd). I've attached that xml too. I then run sysprep /oobe /generalize /shutdown /unattend:c:\unattend\unattend.xml The machine does its sysprep, restarts, and does indeed ask only for PC name and license key, then gets me to the (renamed) admin logon. Assuming what I've done here is ok, I'll capture this as my install.wim. However - I still think I've done something wrong. Whilst everything seems ok, what's worrying me is the presence of a load of files in c:\windows\panther. I don't know exactly what the files are, but they look as if they're not finished doing something! I've attached a .jpg of the leftover files. I guess what I'm after is either some reassurance that I've nothing to worry about, or a slap in the face and some advice on where I'm going wrong!! I'm sure there's some unecessary duplication in the xml files. Once I get this sorted I can get started on ImageX and creating the recovery image etc! Any advice is very gratefully received. Thanks in advance. AutoUnattend.txt unattend.txt

Hi all I'm struggling with understanding exactly when the specialize pass runs. I have an autounattend.xml that I'm using to install the 'base' OS. It does the unattended install exactly as I require, and then boots into audit mode. I then perform any necessary customisations and app installs, then do a sysprep /generalize /oobe / shutdown My understanding is that after generalize, the specialize pass runs at first startup (prior to oobe). Is that correct? What's confusing me is that in the unattend.xml in c:\windows\panther - which seems to be a copy of my autounattend.xml, there's the following 'flag': <settings pass="specialize" wasPassProcessed="true"> If the specialize pass was already processed when the system was building from autounattend.xml, does it actually run again after generalize? Also - in order to get into Audit Mode my autounattend has the Reseal mode set to Audit. So, same question again really - if OOBE pass has been already processed (to get me into Audit mode) does it run again after sysprep /oobe /generalize. Or do I need two answer files? One to get the base OS onto the reference machine, and then another to perform final customisations. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Given that the image I'm working on is targetted to a unique hardware model (they're all identical) I've tried the PersistAllDeviceInstalls option in the PnpSysprep component (generalize pass). That seems to be keeping all the drivers etc, although I haven't fully tested yet. I'll take a look at injecting & staging drivers later, but if this setting does what I need - in this instance - then that should do for now. It does seem the more I delve into this the more questions arise! Renaming and keeping local admin account enabled is my next task. Enjoying the learning curve. It's a far cry from XP!

Watching vids now. Thanks for the tips Ricktendo64.

Ok, so ... I got the test machine looking lovely in audit mode. The drivers were all installed correctly (manually). Other apps too. Got the user profile set up as required too (wallpaper, colour scheme etc etc). I added an unattend.xml with the CopyProfile command. I then ran sysprep /oobe /generalize /shutdown /unattend:<path to xml> Sysprep did its thing and shut down. Upon restarting, the machine went through the OOBE welcome as expected. However, upon logging in as the new user it was not as expected! Several drivers (e.g. display) were not installed (screen was 800x600). Other ones did seem to be there, such as sound, smartcard reader etc. The default user customisation did work though, which was good. So I guess I need to read up on other methods of getting drivers into the build. Most of the Lenovo drivers are .exe based. Everything I'd previously read said installing apps and drivers in audit mode was the way to do it (unless they were inf based). Thoroughly confused, but keen to learn!

Thanks for the further info Tripredacus. Much appreciated.

just tested and yes, you're right. Thanks! Lol I hope not, or what's the point of audit mode? Will test and see. Thanks for the prompt reply.

Hey all I have what I hope are a couple of easy questions to answer. When creating my image, I'm booting into Audit Mode so that I can install exe/msi drivers etc. Most will require a restart, and obviously I've like to verify all have installed correctly before generalizing the image. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm assuming that restarting in audit mode will cause the machine to enter OOBE. So, first question is: if I need to restart in audit mode (several times if necessary) do I simply need to do a sysprep /audit /reboot each time? Secondly, on the RunSynchronous commands in WSIM there's the WillReboot option. Similar to my first question, does this restart back into audit mode, so that subsequent installs can complete correctly? Probably really stupid questions (I did spend time searching before asking), but I'd really appreciate advice from you guys. Thanks in advance.