winoutreach5

When you apply the image to the other machines are you using a USB to Ethernet dongle with those deployments also? Is the USB port on the Panasonic a USB3 port by chance? Also, according to the article I linked previously, you should remove the AppX package for the user that is going to run sysprep first and then remove the provisioning to ensure the configuration is correct. From your most recent response, it is clear that you are removing the provisioned apps but it appears that you may not be removing them for the admin user first. Again, in the article I linked above, under the “resolution” section, it states “The correct way of removing the package is to remove the package for the user running sysprep and also remove the provisioning. This can be done using the following Powershell cmdlets: Import-Module Appx Import-Module Dism Get-AppxPackage -AllUser | Where PublisherId -eq 8wekyb3d8bbwe | Format-List -Property PackageFullName,PackageUserInformation Notes: From the output of the above command, check the users for whom the package is showing up as Installed. Delete these user accounts from the reference machine, or log in to the machine using these user accounts and run Step 4 to remove the Appx Package. The above command lists all packages that were published by Microsoft and installed by any user of that reference machine. Since the machine is to be sysprepped, we assume that these user profiles no longer need the package. If you have manually provisioned apps belonging to other publishers, then use the command below to list them: Get-AppxPackage -AllUser | Format-List -Property PackageFullName,PackageUserInformation Remove-AppxPackage -Package <packagefullname> Remove the Provisioning using the following cmdlet: Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackageName <packagefullname>”If you do not remove the packages properly as outlined above it can affect sysprep and imaging settings for Windows 8.1 specifically for certain hardware. My suspicion is either the USB to Ethernet dongle driver, the USB port itself or the AppX package configuration is the culprit in this scenario. Please keep me posted! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro The Springboard Series on TechNet

Just a thought after re-reading this – are you editing the Windows 8.1 image by chance? Are you updating apps or removing certain apps prior to your sysprep / capture? The reason I ask is because of this Microsoft support knowledge base article which provides 3 possible scenarios and offers a potential resolution. Another thought I had came after I read that you were using a USB to Ethernet dongle which brings a concern of a driver issue into play. From within MDT, you might try to create bootable USB media and use that to deploy your image to the Panasonic. If that works then you might take a look at your USB dongle and drivers for said dongle. This TechNet forums thread will provide insight on how to use MDT to make a bootable USB stick. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro The Springboard Series on TechNet

You’re welcome. Again, I would strongly suggest checking out the logs for any indication into why the deployment might be failing. If there is an existing recovery partition on the hard drive you might want to clear that out in case the RE partition is causing the deployment of the image to fail. Another thought is if there is a driver that is interfering. Can you try to deploy the image without any drivers and see if the ToughPad accepts the driver-free image? Presuming that the issue does lie within the driver store there are a few things you will also want to check; there are three steps in the driver injection process and each one needs to be verified: · Were the needed drivers copied locally by ZTIDrivers.wsf? · Did SETUP inject the drivers into the driver store? · Did PNP install the drivers from the driver store? The log files to review for the driver store are ZTIDrivers.log, setupact.log, cbs.log and setupapi.dev.log Also, while looking for a solution to your problem I came across this thread from the TechNet forums in which Johan helped a poster with a similar issue to your own by checking the driver store; it might be worth it to check the thread out and see if any of Johan’s tips assist you. Keep me posted! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro The Springboard Series on TechNet

Depending on where your deployment is failing we might be able to check the logs for insight into why. Since it appears that your deployment is failing during the specialize phase of Setup, you will want to check the setuperr.log file which is typically found in the %windir%\panther\ directory. More information on where log files are located can be found on in the TechNet library articles, ‘Deployment Troubleshooting and Log Files’ and ‘Windows Setup Log Files and Event Logs’. In the second article, we can see that the %windir%\panther\ location typically contains log information the correlates to the setup actions after disk configuration. With that in mind, it might be helpful to check the disk partitions of the Panasonic FZ-G1 Tough Pad; in some situations, we have seen Sysprep failures be the direct result of a recovery partition by the manufacturer. Hopefully after you check the log files we will be able to take a look at why it may be failing further. Keep me posted. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro The Springboard Series on TechNet

Dogway, When looking at some of the logs and error messages you are receiving I have to wonder what you are trying to accomplish by using 3rd party tools for your deployment that you wouldn’t be able to from the available Microsoft tools. You might want to check out the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). First, it’s free and it can handle all your deployments including Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008 and Windows 2008R2. Using MDT, you can easily add both applications and drivers, manage Windows updates, create task sequences, join a domain, add a KMS or MAK product key, create an administrator account, specify time zone, etc. You can also import all user data into the new environment using the User State Migration Tool (also free). To become familiar with the process of using MDT, you might want to check out these videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet: • Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012 • Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced Since you are attempting to deploy Windows XP, you will need the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) which will include tools such as the Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) that can help you. You can even tie MDT into Windows Deployment Services if you wish to help streamline the deployment process. Finally, anytime someone is attempting to do a capture process and deployment I always recommend the following videos: • Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT • Deploy Windows 7 The Easy Way: Using WDS, MDT and AIK – Step-By-Step It is also important to note that Windows XP End of Support is coming up on as of April 8th, 2014 and it would probably be a good idea to begin planning your migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8. 800 Days until Windows XP End of Support is a great, albeit older, blog post written by Stephen Rose that I strongly recommend reading. As is also stated in the blog post, there are several resources available to assist with this process on either the Windows 7 Springboard Series page or the Windows 8 Springboard Series page. Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

When using MDT you will find that there is not a need for slipstreaming as you can create task sequences to handle any post installation task such as applications or Windows Updates. To start, you can create a Sysprep and Capture Task Sequence which will do exactly what it says in the title -- it will sysprep your image and then proceed to capture it for use with deployment. Next, you can create a new standard client task sequence for the newly captured image of your reference machine and you can add all your necessary settings such as domainjoin, systemlocale, time zone, etc. Then you can then add all necessary drivers specific to each hardware configuration as a post installation task and any applications you need as well. If applicable, you can also edit the unattend.xml file of each task sequence. After you have modified each task sequence with all settings and drivers you need, you could then tie MDT into Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and push the image out via PXE boot. You can also create bootable media directly from MDT if you did not want to go the PXE boot method. Upon booting into the LiteTouchPE environment, you can select the image you wish to deploy and which task sequence you wish to use. To become more familiar with MDT you might want to check out the following videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet: • Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012 • Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced • Deployment Day Session 3: Deployment using WDS Another great video that I always recommend is Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT. Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

You might want to consider building this image with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) rather than manually because with MDT your drivers can be managed automatically which will in turn remove all the guesswork from the task. There are some drivers which do not play as well with DISM as others, particularly those with dependencies beyond the .inf files. First, aside from being free, MDT acts as a common console and can handle all of your deployments and it allows you to create various task sequences to accomplish your imaging and deployment goals / needs. To start, you can create a Sysprep and Capture Task Sequence which will do exactly what it says in the title -- it will sysprep your image and then proceed to capture it for use with deployment. Next, you can create a new standard client task sequence for the newly captured image of your reference machine and you can add all your necessary settings such as domainjoin, systemlocale, time zone, etc. Then you can then add all necessary drivers specific to each hardware configuration as a post installation task and any applications you need as well. If applicable, you can also edit the unattend.xml file of each task sequence. After you have modified each task sequence with all settings and drivers you need, you could then tie MDT into Windows Deployment Services (WDS) and push the image out via PXE boot. You can also create bootable media directly from MDT if you did not want to go the PXE boot method. Upon booting into the LiteTouchPE environment, you can select the image you wish to deploy and which task sequence you wish to use. To become more familiar with MDT you might want to check out the following videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet: • Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012 • Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced • Deployment Day Session 3: Deployment using WDS Another great video that I always recommend is Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT. Hope this helps and keep us updated on your progress! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

In the event that you do want to block certain applications, or require certain restrictions for apps from the app store, another option is to take a look at AppLocker because it was updated for Windows 8 and you can use it to deploy an application control policy. In the above library article you will note that the first bullet point is, “Help prevent malicious software (malware) and unsupported applications from affecting computers in your environment” which may help you to feel as though you have more control over the apps in your environment. As you will see in the in this Microsoft KB article, by design, all Windows Store apps are blocked if an AppLocker policy is applied. More on AppLocker can be found on the Managing Client Access to the Windows Store page of the Springboard Series on TechNet. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

If you’re interested, you might want to check out the Windows 8 Page on the Springboard Series site on TechNet as there is a free 90-day evaluation trial for Windows 8. This way, you can test out Windows 8 for yourself and see how it works on your current hardware and with your current applications. Let us know how it goes! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

You might want to check out the troubleshooting section of the Basic Windows Deployment Step-by-Step Guide from TechNet. About a fourth of the way down the page you will find the instructions for how to disable driver signature enforcement. You also might want to check out the Deliver and Deploy Windows 8 page from the Springboard Series on TechNet for the above resource as well as several more that will help you push out Windows 8. Hope this helps! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

Unfortunately, it is not entirely clear what you are trying to accomplish here. If you want to manage roles and features for computers running Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008R2 from your Windows 7 or Windows 7 SP1 machine then you will want to install RSAT which is available for download here. You also mentioned that you had already installed AD LDS for Windows 7. I first would recommend reading the AD LDS Getting Started Step-by-Step Guide and then the Installing or Removing Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7. Additionally, you might want to check out the Manage and Operate Windows 7 page from the Springboard Series page on TechNet for additional resources, walk-throughs and videos. Hope this helps! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

The first step would be to ensure you are using the latest driver for the hardware and operating system. According to this page on the Areca Support and Downloads page for Windows, the latest Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 drivers were released on December 21, 2012 for 32-bit and 64-bit architecture. I realize you are deploying Windows 2008R2 but as noted in the latest Windows PE Overview Windows PE 4.0 was built on the Windows 8 kernel. With that said, it may be experiencing compatibility issues with a driver that was written for Windows 7. The next step would be to remove the driver in an effort to determine if the deployment is able to successfully complete without that driver in place. How are you launching Windows PE for deployment? Just to be safe, you might want to check out the Walkthrough: Install Windows PE to CD, USB Flash Drive, or USB Hard Drive library article on TechNet to ensure that a step wasn’t missed when creating the bootable Windows PE media. You will also want to ensure that you have created a new answer file using Windows SIM included in the Windows Automated Deployment Kit. This will ensure the new answer file is referencing the proper Windows PE version. Finally, I always like to recommend the Deliver and Deploy page from the Springboard Series on TechNet as it offers several walkthrough videos, library articles and more that may provide additional insight into your current issue. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

The questions Tripedacus asked are important so that we know your current setup and hardware. Typically speaking, if your SSD is empty, you will just want to leave the space on you SSD unallocated and allow Windows 8 to format it and create the necessary partitions for you. If you could respond to Trip’s questions as well as include the model of a computer you are installing Windows 8 on, that would be very helpful. Additionally, you might want to check out the Windows 8 page on the Springboard Series for additional resources and guidance in regards to Windows 8. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

Cluberti makes an excellent recommendation. For the kind of scenario you are describing, you will really want to consider the use of deployment and imaging tools. MDT, or the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, is free and can handle all your deployments including Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008 and Windows 2008R2. Using MDT, you can easily add both applications and drivers, create task sequences, join a domain, add a KMS or MAK product key, create an administrator account, specify time zone, etc. You can also import all user data into the new environment using the User State Migration Tool (also free). To become familiar with the process of using MDT, you might want to check out these videos from the Springboard Series page on TechNet: • Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012 • Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced You can even tie MDT into Windows Deployment Services if you wish to help streamline the deployment process. In addition to MDT, you might also want to look into Sysprep and capture utilities like ImageX. Some videos, also from the Springboard Series on Technet, to help get you started are: • Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT • Deploy Windows 7 The Easy Way: Using WDS, MDT and AIK – Step-By-Step • Preparing an Image using Sysprep and ImageX Hope this helps! Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

So happy to hear you were able to work it all out! Jessica Windows Outreach Team -- IT Pro

You can use an autounattend.xml file to run a program after setup just as MrJinje suggested but as he also stated there are other ways to install an application during deployment. First off, I did find this TechNet forums thread when looking for a solution to your issue. In this case, Jorno123, was able to fix his by breaking up the command into several ordered commands. Perhaps this will add some insight. It also would be helpful to know what happens when you try to use your current XML file and if you have validated the file using the Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM). You also might be interested in using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) as it acts as a common console that combines all deployment tasks into an easy to use interface. MDT even allows you to create “universal images” by allowing you to easily add and remove drivers as well as applications to and from the deployment images. You might want to watch the following videos to become more familiar with MDT and deploying Windows 7. Deployment Day Session 1: Introduction to MDT 2012 Deployment Day Session 2: MDT 2012 Advanced Should you decide that you also do want to use WDS which is a part of Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008R2, you might find the Deployment Day Session 3: Deployment using WDS video beneficial as well. Finally, I always recommend the following two videos for anyone who is starting Windows 7 deployment as the first video outlines how simple it is to not only manage your deployments but also greatly minimize the time it takes while the second video walks you through, step-by step, the process of doing so with all the aforementioned tools. Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT Deploy Windows 7 The Easy Way: Using WDS, MDT and AIK – Step-By-Step Video I know this is a lot of information but hopefully it will give you a few options to get you pointed in the right direction. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

Atchoum, First off, Maxxpsoft provides a link to a great resource – the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). WAIK offers many great tools, one of which is the Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM). Windows SIM is perhaps the most beneficial tool you will need. Windows SIM is the official tool to create answer files, or XML files, with ease. This video from TechNet will walk you through the process of creating an answer file using WSIM. Beneath the video itself are 4 additional videos for the 4 additional steps involved with the deployment process. In addition to the video, there are additional sample unattend files here. Another resource you may find helpful is the Walkthrough: Build a Simple Answer File from the Microsoft TechNet site. This library article will help explain some of the basic components necessary to successfully build a basic answer file. In order to customize the default profile in both Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will need to make your customizations in Audit Mode, and then run Sysprep with an answer file that has the copyprofile setting enabled. In addition to creating an answer file for use with Windows Deployment Server and Windows 7 deployment images, you might also be interested in learning about the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) as it acts as a common console that combines all deployment tasks into an easy to use interface. MDT even allows you to create “universal images” by allowing you to easily add and remove drivers and applications to and from the deployment images. Finally, I always recommend the following two videos for anyone who is starting Windows 7 deployment as the first video outlines how simple it is to not only manage your deployments but also greatly minimize the time it takes while the second video walks you through, step-by step, the process of doing so with all the aforementioned tools. Alphabet Soup Deployment: Understanding MDT, WDS, MAP, ACT, SCCM, and USMT Deploy Windows 7 The Easy Way: Using WDS, MDT and AIK – Step-By-Step Video I know this is a lot of information but ideally it will help point you in the right direction. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

As MagicAndre1981 mentioned, you could use Audit Mode to customize the system accordingly. By allowing you to log into the system as Administrator, Audit Mode can significantly simplify the customization process. In order to customize the default profile in both Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will need to make your customizations in Audit Mode, and then run Sysprep with an answer file that has the copyprofile setting enabled. For example, you could install the applications you mentioned like Microsoft Security Essentials, DirectX, and any other applicable applications and then proceed with creating an image of the machine. In imaging and deployments, this is typically referred to as a referenced image. There are a few different tools you could use for unattended installations. One method you might want to consider is the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT). MDT allows you to create “universal images” as it allows you to easily add and / or remove drivers and applications to and from the deployment images. It is also compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 so you would only have to learn one utility to learn ALL of your deployments. Should you need, MDT also offers you the ability to quickly and easily create bootable media (this will create a bootable disk into the Windows PE environment.) To create new bootable media that includes the wim files, drivers, applications and task sequences you would open your deployment share, go to Advanced Configuration, right click on the media folder and select ‘create media’ or ‘new media.’ Everything you select will then be packaged into an ISO. And, if you already have a USB device that is bootable, just take everything inside the “Content” folder and put it on the USB drive. I hope this gets you pointed in the right direction. Feel free to ask if you have any additional questions on audit mode and unattended installations with included applications. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

Tripredacus poses a great and important question, what are you using for / with your Windows PE installation. Depending on your configuration, the solution may differ. However, one point that did come to mind when reading your post is that as I understand it, you are using a Windows image you captured from an HP machine and you are now trying to deploy that on to entirely different hardware and that can cause the error you are receiving. As Tripredacus also said though, it can be several things. For the type of installation you are attempting to do you may want to consider using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) as it acts as a common console that combines all deployment tasks into an easy to use interface. MDT allows you to create “universal images” as it allows you to easily add and / or remove drivers and applications to and from the deployment images. It is also compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2 so you would only have to learn one utility to learn ALL of your deployments. You can even use the Format and Partition Disk in MDT to add formatted volumes contingent upon the percentage of remaining free space or a specific size. From within MDT you would select a task sequence, right click and select properties. Next, you would select the Task Sequence tab and proceed to click add, hover over “disks” and then select “format and partition disk”. Next, you would select the yellow star for “add” at the bottom of the right hand side above the volume area of the properties window. From there you could name the partition, choose the partition type and opt to use a percentage of remaining free space based on size in percent format or a predetermined size allocation. This would eliminate the need to use diskpart as the deployment process would be fully automated. Again, the more information you can provide on your deployment, the more assistance we can offer to help assist you further. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

Yes I have already noticed your registration email address, confirming your legitimate representation of Microsoft. Thank you! Just because I also promised in my introduction post, for those interested in the members of our team, here is the page I mentioned at the end of my post.

When creating a unattend.xml file, Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) is usually the first recommendation. WSIM creates and manages unattended Windows Setup answer files in a graphical user interface (GUI). WSIM is a component of the Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 (Windows AIK). The download link is included in the provided resource. Also, you can find sample unattend files here. To address your concerns specifically, FirstLogon commands specifies the commands to run the first time a user logs on to the computer which means these commands are run only once. The following is an XML example of how to set first logon commands: <FirstLogonCommands> <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add"> <CommandLine>c:synccommands\command1.exe</CommandLine> <Description>Description_of_command1</Description> <Order>1</Order> </SynchronousCommand> <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add"> <CommandLine>c:synccommands\command2.exe</CommandLine> <Description>Description_of_command2</Description> <Order>2</Order> </SynchronousCommand> </FirstLogonCommands> LogonCommands specifies commands to run asynchronously when the user logs on. Both of these commands are added to the oobeSystem pass of an XML file. And finally, scripts. First off, it is important to know that by nature the sysprep /generalize command removes unique information from your Windows installation such as system-specific data, including the computer security identifier (SID). To have the sysprep folder removed you might want to follow the steps outlined by jsnyder in this TechNet forums thread. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

The first question that comes to mind when I read your configuration and your process is: • Are you joining the machine to the domain you are intending to sysprep? • And then subsequently unjoining the machine from the domain prior to sysprep therefore creating domain accounts that elicit removal? As stated in this TechNet article, you should only need to remove the user accounts through the control panel and not in the registry itself. Sub-step #2 under Step 1: Configure the default user profile says: “Open the User Accounts control panel, and remove all added user accounts except for the one Administrator-level user account that you used to log on to Windows.” To be clear, it is from my experience that when one sysprep’s a machine that is currently / formerly connected to a domain one may experience unforeseen issues. As for the administrator account being disabled, each time you run the sysprep / generalize command, the built-in Administrator account will be disabled the next time the computer starts. You could use the net user administrator /active:yes command or you could enable the built-in administrator account in the XML file as outlined in this TechNet library resource. And finally, in answer to your question about the MachineObjectOU, it is said that you should not create an empty value for the string. However, the MachineObjectOU is an optional setting. More information on this can be found on TechNet here. Jessica Windows Outreach Team –IT Pro

You may be able to use Group Policy to restrict access to Control Panel. In this TechNet library resource you will see that table 7.3 lists some of the Group Policy settings that affect Control Panel. For example, if you wanted to restrict access to all Control Panel programs you would find the settings to disable control panel in the following location: Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Start Menu & Taskbar. Depending on what exactly you want to restrict in My Computer you may find this TechNet forums thread helpful if you intend to prevent access to the drives listed in My Computer. This wouldn’t “remove” these components from the system as they are a part of Windows but it would restrict access to each component’s features based on a user’s associated group. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

One thing about the proposed solution jvennes posted is that the netdom command is a command line tool that is built into Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. It is unclear as to whether or not Crowe80 is using Windows Server 2008 or if he is using a workstation to do this deployment. Another thing I did notice when playing with Crowe80’s provided XML file was that the name of the account is being set to “administrator” which is an account that already exists and is just disabled. I was able to successfully use the XML script within a test deployment and have my test local account: “Admin Test” add just fine. My machine also connected to the domain without error. As it stands at the moment, I used an “*” to populate a random computer name as I have not yet tested the VB script. Again, the only changes I made to Crowe80’s XML file was the name of the computer, the name of the local account and I updated the domain settings with my own. I also changed CopyProfile to false because I did not have any settings from the administrator account to copy to the default user profile. It may be wise to consider recreating your image as the image you are currently using has many registry edits as it stands now. The test deployment I did was from a standard install.wim file pulled directly off of a Windows 7 installation DVD and again the local admin account was created and the machine was successfully joined to the domain. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro

The first thing I notice when I attempt to validate your answer file inWindows System Image Manger (WSIM - a part of Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)) is that your LocalAccount name is long and therefore receives an error that the name is deemed invalid. I realize that the name of the Local Account may have been changed for privacy purposes but please be sure to check the length of the name and first validate your answer file using WSIM. You might also want to use WSIM to create your unattended file and use it to help you add the appropriate settings for automating the domain joining. Sample unattend files can be found here. Also, when looking for a solution the problem you described and came across this thread from the TechNet forums in which Mike_EEC from Microsoft provides a sample VBScript and specifies the change necessary for the specialize pass in your XML file. According to the thread, this work around was proven successful. There could be an issue with way the user profiles were created and subsequently removed. As you can see in this TechNet Article it is recommend to first use Audit mode to clean up the image and then remove the temporary user account’s profile and the account itself from the control panel ->User Accounts-> Manage User Accounts utility. Audit mode is used to make changes to the default user profile which you can then use CopyProfile to set a customized profile. Finally, it is always helpful to have as much information about the process you are going through as possible. It would be beneficial for us to be aware of what utilities you are using such as WDS (Windows Deployment Services) and whether that is 2003 or 2008, MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit) and whether that is 2008, 2010, or 2012. For the record, MDT provides a common console and is perhaps the most recommended process and toolset for automated deployments. The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 is now available here. Jessica Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro P.S There is a Webcast coming up on May 15th and May 17th entitled "Everything You Wanted to Know and Ask about Windows Deployment" (Part 1&2). To register, click here.