I used Vista Sysprep to Migrate from old chipset to a new one

[Dyltone]

Upgraded my MB/CPU/RAM/VIDEO from Intel 965P, ATI Video, P4 3.0 to Nvidia 680i, Nvidia Video, C2D 2.4

Un-installed my old video drivers and restarted.

Ran Sysprep /generalize /audit /shutdown

I didn't use any answer files of any time.

Put all new equipment in old case and booted up.

Plug and play allowed all chipset drivers to load and the system loaded without major issue.

Installed all the new drivers from the web (video, chipset, sound, etc), no dings in device manager, everything looks good except...

Now, the system tries to logon as Administrator with Blank Password, My admin account has a password so it fails, it lets me click switch user to logon as myself. Once I logon, I'm presented with the sysprep GUI screen. I close that and everything is normal. I figured sysprep needed to complete something so I blanked the admin password, rebooted and let it autologon. That worked fine but the admin logon got the same sysprep GUI. Reboot, no change, still auto logs on to admin and presents sysprep GUI.

I put password back on admin account so now when the auto logon fails I use switch user option and logon as myself and close the sysprep GUI.

I check registry locations for auto logon info, can't find any, used autoruns (sysinternals) and can't find any sysprep entries, used hijack this, same deal, no sysprep entries.

I'm looking for any ideas of what I may have missed and why I'm getting this auto logon behavior.

Edited July 21, 2007 by Dyltone

[fizban2]

by using the /audit switch you effective set the machine to be systprepp'ed stage but then goes into an audit mode to install apps/ review configuration changes that had been made during the sysprep, to get rid of the auto logon you are going to have to sysprep again without the /audit switch

[Dyltone]

by using the /audit switch you effective set the machine to be systprepp'ed stage but then goes into an audit mode to install apps/ review configuration changes that had been made during the sysprep, to get rid of the auto logon you are going to have to sysprep again without the /audit switch

If what you say is true, then what exactly did running Sysprep /generalize /audit /shutdown do? Is it like a "dry run" of Sysprep? Why would anyone want/need the /audit switch? What was the comparible switch from Sysprep 2.0?

I can say that it definately stripped the chipset drivers since these were auto detected (PNP) on next boot in the new computer (which was my goal from the beginning). I did not use the /oobe switch for fear it would have deleted my user profile. If I run sysprep again, from the GUI or command line, with OOBE enabled (only other choice) will it wipe my user profiles? I tried looking for a sysprep /clean type command in the new application but I can't seem to find anything like this.

If running Sysprep again won't do anything except cause me to re-install drivers and activate Windows again, I'll do it, but if there are any issues with losing user configuration or profile information I'll have to find a work around.

I can't believe that this Sysprep autologon is "invisible" and "un-removable". It's got to be somewhere in the registry!

Any info you can provide will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

AJ

Edit: I found this article for removing (undoing) mini-setup from an XP workstation... Any thoughts?

http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=5442

Edited July 22, 2007 by Dyltone

[Dyltone]

Bump

[fizban2]

audit is like a "dry run" of sysprep, allowing you to setup the computer before generalizing it again for the end user, i am not sure where the autologon settings are for sysprep. the only way i know of to get rid of it will be to rerun sysprep with just the /generalize switch to get rid of it. this will though return to computer to a state as if no one had logged onto the PC

[arctirus]

Forgive my ignorance but I thought vista was supposed to perform well with this sort of thing without having to run sysprep at all. For instance I ghosted a vmware machine and restored the ghost to a physical machine with no problems at all. The first boot took a long time to complete while installing new drivers but other than that I there was no evidence that vista wasn't installed on the machine from the original dvd.

[fizban2]

using just ghost will give you 2 copies of the OS but in a domain envirnoment both those machines would be seen as the same, the SID for the machines will still be hte same unless sysprep is run on the machine to have it regenerated, that has not changed.

[Dyltone]

I ended up taking a ghost in current state (for backup) to a new HD then doing an IN PLACE upgrade of Vista Ultimate on the new drive. I had to re-installed the MB/Video/etc drivers, all security patches, and re-activate afterward. No more sysprep screen and no more auto logon screen.

After all this, I'm 99% sure I'm going to just blow the drive away and do a fresh install. I'm finding it hard to trust all the "work-arounds".

But hey, this is how I learn best about what is possible and not just what is supported.

[Dyltone]

Forgive my ignorance but I thought vista was supposed to perform well with this sort of thing without having to run sysprep at all. For instance I ghosted a vmware machine and restored the ghost to a physical machine with no problems at all. The first boot took a long time to complete while installing new drivers but other than that I there was no evidence that vista wasn't installed on the machine from the original dvd.

I'm not sure it's the same thing, but my previous MB chipset and new chipset were too far different for Vista to deal with it without "help". I'm pretty sure M$ wanted Vista to move from chipset to chipset for VM to physical and the other way around, but I doubt they care if joe homeuser can move his existing HD from his old workstation to a new one easily.

[John L. Galt]

I wish I had known about this thread - I had the same problem, replacing a mobo (from a Tyan s2266, VIA based to an MSI Intel 865PE based) and Vista refused to boot - didn't know I could do it through Sysprep and have retained all my apps, but I did it the hard way - reinstalled.

At least next time I will know....

And calling M$ technical help pretty much was no good - after running through checks and stuff they told me to format and reinstall.

I wish there had been a knowledgeable tech there - I would much rather have gone the Sysprep route.

At least they didn't charge me - I was informed that my technical assistance period was over (having purchased Vista in Feb and this occurring early July) but graciously created a ticket and worked with me without charging me since I had never called tech support before.

Edited July 25, 2007 by John L. Galt

[Dyltone]

I wish I had known about this thread - I had the same problem, replacing a mobo (from a Tyan s2266, VIA based to an MSI Intel 865PE based) and Vista refused to boot - didn't know I could do it through Sysprep and have retained all my apps, but I did it the hard way - reinstalled.

At least next time I will know....

And calling M$ technical help pretty much was no good - after running through checks and stuff they told me to format and reinstall.

I wish there had been a knowledgeable tech there - I would much rather have gone the Sysprep route.

At least they didn't charge me - I was informed that my technical assistance period was over (having purchased Vista in Feb and this occurring early July) but graciously created a ticket and worked with me without charging me since I had never called tech support before.

Sorry bro I wish I could have helped earlier,

I also called M$ and specifically asked about "inplace upgrade" and "sysprep" and both were blown off by my Indian technician (Michael). I consider myself an expert with XP having done HAL injection and other things M$ told me was impossible, but I had zero experience with Vista sysprep and apparently they changed everything except the executable name.

Small update on my system, it's is up and running but I'm having one really weird issue that I'll probably end up reinstalling to try to remedy. I can create a new folder on the desktop and type "asdf" as the name of the folder and explorer will hang for a long time (about a minute) before it names the folder. Other apps seem responsive during this time, but the folder is inaccessible until it's named. Then without doing anything to the folder, I click delete and the folder disappears immediately, but file delete progress bar comes up and takes another minute (apporx) just to delete the file.

The new HD I bought is a 10k raptor so I'm 99.9% sure that's not the problem, Vista reports Primary hard disk transfer rate as a 5.9 out of 6.0. Anyone have a clue what could cause this weird situation? I may post this as a new thread since this one doesn't get a lot of "attention" any longer.

[John L. Galt]

Hey, it's not your fault. The Indian tech guy who was helping me (Harish) tried to get me to do things to try to get Vista to boot (namely safe mode, LKG, etc) and did not care that I told him tat I had already done that. But when it would not do anything, he said he wanted to consult with one of the techs - at which point I asked him point blank to bring the tech on the line as well. When he brought David on (American sounding guy) I went right through the steps I had performed and he said "Dude, you've already done more than these folks can help you with - but there isn't much else you can do, short of re-installing your old board and then going from there.

Therein lies the problem - I *could* have done the board back in, but it was too much of a hassle - or so I thought. I bet David was going to suggest something very similar to what you did yourself.

Oh, and my luck with talking to a higher level tech might also have been due to the fact that *I* am Indian too - but if ya talk to me, you'd swear up and down backward that I was Ga born and bred....I've had the same luck with Dell techs as well, I simply tell them point blank that I am a computer tech, and ask what are their procedures for initial testing, and they list them, and if there is one I haven't tried I do it, but if not, then I immediately request level 2 support. Tier I folks just suck in general, cause they take an A+ and then get hired lol. I know - I did tier I for a long time....

OK, getting to your problem - is it only if you name it ASDF, or *any* name, and is it only if you create it on the desktop, or anywhere in your user tree, or anywhere period?

[Dyltone]

OK, getting to your problem - is it only if you name it ASDF, or *any* name, and is it only if you create it on the desktop, or anywhere in your user tree, or anywhere period?

ANY folder name, ANY file name, existing or new, large or small, ANY location on C: , haven't tried one of the other drives (just thought of doing that when I was typing this out). I'll try out another drive when I get home after 7pm EST.

I really don't know what could be causing it, but I'm sure there is some thing like an indexing service that is causing it (waiting for it to update a table or something similar).

Let me know if you have any ideas....

Thanks!

[John L. Galt]

That *is* weird. Have you tried disabling your AV / AntiMalware programs and seeing if they are the culprit (assuming that you have some running as active processes)?

Also, any particular processes that spike when you do this?

[Dyltone]

Windows Defender present and Nod32 for AV, no spikes in processor at all (using Process Explorer to monitor). I may want to try Filemon/Regmon to track down what's going on.