x64 WAIK , MDT, SYSPREP, VLITE ETC is taking the mick

[solar]

Hello there...

Right... past 3 weeks have been a killer.. then again I feel like I have about hit every unlucky error possible.

With x64 on a laptop with no hardware virtualization support, this has been one hell of a mick of a ride.

But anyway.. I have finally had progress , finding the most innocent commands and services to start and restart , etc to solve soem problems.

Right.

I use vLite to strip my vista ultimate x64 and remove some components I do not like. (I know do NOTHING of application addition, driver injections or hotfixes inclusion anywhere but MDT or maybe I will go to WAIK again if I sort out things).

I create my image and load it up in WAIK and create the autounattend.xml.

Nice.. I install vista.. try out all the stuff with WAIK over time, sysprep fails... FATALLY.. every timeeeee.

(just found a fix today , simply had to run two commands in cmd LOOOLOLOOOL, even if almmost no sites had it mentioned). For those who have this problem and almost giving up:

search microsoft knowledge base (I lost the link) for sysprep error in vista.

You have ot check a registry entry if it is set to 7. It was in my case. so in cmd (admin rights )

I did: msdtc -uninstall then msdtc -install (no success reports or anything)

and sysprep fricking worked... IT HAS DRIVEN ME DOWN UMPTH number of different methods and I just wanna cry sometimes considering how much I have been banging my head over this :/

Right. Before sysprep was solved.. I tried MDT... great stuff.. only 8 MB extra and it is the best interface for deployment I have come across so far (in a non-server environment)....

Now... MDT of course crashed , this time due to MMS service dying when I tried to edi tmy bootstrap.ini (this i havent solved yet but I think even if MDT is sooo nice, I will now that sysprep works.. run WAIK/ImageX).

So my question is this:

I want to do these things , NOT for massive deployment but purely as creating a customized , restorable image to my specific laptop. (Sure, I prolly should of gone for ghost and been done 3 weeks ago but hey.. microsoft just love making everything a bull).

Ok so let me list the reasons for using the various things:

vLite.. I get rid of things like natural language, search indexer, language pack support, speech (although I tried it out the other day.. kinda funky although dysfunctional in it's interpretation of my English.. like Manuel from Fawlty towers kinda ,)

WAIK: to adjust autounattend during install first time around AND to MOVE USER FOLDERS (without p***in abt with unsupported registry tricks) AND wondering if I should use copyprofile true first time around before sysprep?

i.e. I want to also create a customised default userprofile , AGAIN without p***in abt with registry hacks.. (And this is why I think I should use sysprep even if I am not deploying to more than one laptop.

OK , THOUGHTS: when it comes to the sysprep , perfect for copyprofile BUT I do NOT want to lose my SID every time I would reinstall my OS with the image... hence.. I want to do the sysprep.. but then load the machine up again .. so it loads up... creates all the SID etc.. and HOPEFULLY now the default is customised yes? Also.. I wonder... if I NOW reboot into ppxe and capture the image.. will it be not generalized anymore.. so that whe I reinstall my os, I will always have the same SID (which I want) but also athe custom default user (which I also want)?

So then comes Question 2. If I do it this way... I wonder... if I wish to actually retain specifics to my image.. (like computer name, key, users, etc, userinfo , etc) which file should I use and where to retain this?

SHOULD I COPY autounattend and just add copyprofile=true (or can I just leave that in as true in autounattend as well?) and pass it to sysprep /unattend:unattend.xml or should this unattend.xml file have certain values only which will be parsed for sysprep (since it is generalizing?)

Please... About every thing I try , things go wrong.. and I have 1 hour installations, after1 hour builds , then 3 hours reading for 3 weeks , this cycle repeating evry spare moment I got...

I really would appreciate anyone who knows what I am looking for or missing and could give me some friendly and concise advice or pointers ot solve this issue. (PS. Am off to now that sysprep works.. run a different install AGAIN right now... to troubleshoot why my bootstrap.ini call fails on this build in MDT/MMS :/)

Back in a few hours ;p

Solara

[maxXPsoft]

everything or rather most can be put in the xml file, you can place that on the root of dvd or either on a floppy/usb and setup will find it. I went through all what you're saying for Vista and now I'm doing it with Windows 7 Beta

[solar]

Doh.. ye I know.. but I had other questions more specific.

Ok.. let's be more specific... If I run the autounattend.. do I have to specify going into sysprep /audit then to do my customisations...

else if I do not... will it be too late after going into oobe state.. to call sysprep /audit?

Again.. why? because I want to customise vista with apps , reg choices , AND copy them to the default user. resealing it afterwards with generalize I guess (however.. Q is if I do generalize... to get rid of unneeded files).. but then boot up again into the OS and populate it with a new user (me.. this is for my private laptop , to replace the GO*****amn filthy adware full OEM discs) and not to image onto other computers.

If I do that, and personalize all settings like computer name , user, etc.. will the default user profile be updated, will I be able to do these things and then catch the image?

When I would reinstall down the road... would the image then be all specific AND having the default user updated as customised? (plus I move users folder by the way).

And to your reply.. my question was where and WHEN (or WHICH) of the autounattend(install) and/or unattend(sysprep) would I put the various parameters. :/

And lol @ Microsoft... How hard is it to realise it is better to use relative paths to moving such folders , than hardlinking them to partition letters.

eg. instead of D:\Users... it should of been options like : Disk id | partition id | relative path (i.e. of the root so \users in this case) .

As I suspected, even if my partitions on the disk are chronological.. when I specified D:\users... the id*** OS changed my 'F' drive into the D drive (partition 4) and wham, my users ended up there.. how useless and unpredictable coding.

I must say however..since I am European , I am more impressed with microdollars now that they make more such programs readily available in Vista. It is a way of opening up more I guess lol (but of course making things a nightmare to use lol). It is just their way to make people spend more time on their product. It takes a good programmer like no time to always come up with better solutions to their releases sigh.

Edited February 4, 2009 by solar