Vista Deployment - Default Profile

[Lemon Lime]

Hello,

We have been testing out WAIK and deploying an unattended test install of Vista Beta 2. I enabled the copyprofile property in the unattend.xml and ran sysprep with the profile that I wanted to be the default, but when I brought the image down, the profile was not being used as the default. I figured that possibly that feature was not ready in the Beta build. Has anyone been able to set a default profile?

Now, with XP, I used to use the Administrator account as the default profile, but since you cannot login (should not) as Administrator in Vista, I will need to create a local user and use that for the default profile. I would prefer this local user not to be in the image when being deployed. Since you cannot login as administrator to copy the profile to the default user, how would I be able keep the users profile as the default while at the same time, removing the local user from the image? Anybody have a working process for image deployment? Thanks!

[fizban2]

make sure you don't turn off the OOBE setting, (the create user wizards steps and such) this has to be enable in the WAIK and WSIM when you are making your unattend file unless you specifiy an account to create during the unattend.

[Lemon Lime]

Thank you Fizban2 for the suggestion. I checked the autounattend.xml file and it appears that OOBE is enabled. What impact does OOBE have on the default profile?

I would like to configure the image so that new users that log into the Vista imaged computer will all receive the same default profile, with all the same desktop configurations (Classic Start Menu, desktop background, same desktop icons, tool bar configurations for example).

[Stephane_P]

Hello !

I've the same problem Lemon Lime, and it seems a recurrent problem on the technet forum

[Spooky]

You do know that the very first account you create is in the administrators profile don't you? Some say to name this account 'local' and you will have full administrator privilages. Evidently there is an 'Administrator' then there is a kind of super administrator account that is normally hidden and has no UAC. The normal Administrator account can be enable after you log in with the first account you created. The super admin account is hidden, and some say that if you create the very first user upon install and name that account 'local' that account will have the super admin privilages.

[Lemon Lime]

I have an update: I installed Vista, created a user called "Setup" and configured a profile. Ran sysprep /oobe /generalize logged on the the "Setup" user account. Rebooted into PE and captured the image using imagex. Then I created an autounattend.xml file using Windows SIM and included the copyprofiles component (Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup: specialize) and set that to true.

When I brought the image down, I was prompted to create a new account, which I named "Setup2". When I logged in as "Setup2", some of the configurations did carry over from the original "Setup" account (I didn't set to many settings, the classic start menu and the modification to the gadget bar carried over). The desktop background however did not. Maybe there was something I missed in my configuration of the profile and unattend file.

UPDATE: I just realized that after I was prompted to create a user, I was prompted to edit the computer name, with the option to select my desktop background wallpaper. Guess that's where the profile got it's background from.

Edited September 26, 2006 by Lemon Lime

[kennedto]

I would like to start 64 bit Winpe for vista from a Linux based PXE server. I see that there are boot related files in the

Winows\Boot\PXE directory, however, I am not sure which ones I need.

What files are needed to launch a winpe image from PXE sever.

Are there instructions for this somewhere? The Vista docs describes starting your image from

CD and UFS, but not from PXE. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Tom

[maxXPsoft]

Love that Super Admin Account, only account can do anything without the annoying popups. I did check and UAC was enabled BTW but in reality wasn't. I am trying to determine how to grant these right's to an Unattended Admin to run everything I want it to.

Edited October 16, 2006 by maxXPsoft