Procedure to re-sysprep a reference pc

[LinusCaldwell]

I have a Windows 7 image to update and would like to know the correct procedure for re-sysprepping a reference pc that's been sysprep'd before.

I'm aware that this is not the preferred method but would still like to know if it's possible and the right way to do it (I'm not using ImageX to capture a WIM file so offline updating is out of the picture).

Currently I:

- Delete the Unattend.xml file from C:\WINDOWS\Panther (this is due to the fact that I go into audit mode and it does an unwanted /generalize if I leave it behind)

- Enable the Administrator account after entering audit mode (not sure if this is neccessary)

When I re-sysprep I get an Unattend error at the specialize pass and the only way I can overcome this is to remove <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile> and sysprep again (this isn't ideal as I want to capture the profile settings into default user.

Upon re-searching this topic I found someone mention that a slmgr /skiprearm is needed? Can anyone confirm whether this is the case?

What I would like to be able to do is image a machine, enter audit mode, install new apps & windows updates, make changes to the user profile and then re-sysprep and re-capture the image.

For the sake of additional information my image is captured using LANDesk's ImageW tool. This is a sector base imaging tool i.e. like Symantec Ghost and stores the image in 2Gb spanned files.

I apologise if there is a topic on the forum that already explains how to do this.

[LinusCaldwell]

I found this article explaining the SkipRearm setting for the Unattend file.

If the Rearm program can run no more than 3 times in a single Windows image then I'm going to need to re-think my image update process...

[IcemanND]

Best method is to capture an image before sys prepping. Or develop your images in a VM and take a snap shot first. Then you cam restore to the image or snapshot and continue. You are limited to 3 re-arms and syspreps.

[LinusCaldwell]

Best method is to capture an image before sys prepping. Or develop your images in a VM and take a snap shot first. Then you cam restore to the image or snapshot and continue. You are limited to 3 re-arms and syspreps.

Good idea, thanks IcemanND!

[LinusCaldwell]

One other issue I had was that Sysprep would fail on the Specialize pass in Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup. The only way to get a machine to build successfully was to remove the <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile> from the unattend.

I did some research and found that when you remove a local account from Windows 7 it leaves behind a profile entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

After removing these orphaned registry keys I was able to add <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile> back to the unattend and successfully build the pc.