Best way to maintain Vista images with activation requirement?

[passmaster16]

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned. I tried to do a search but could not find any hits on this exact topic.

Up to this point, with our XP build, we update our images every few months to include the latest patches and application updates. Then we run sysprep and use Ghost to make an image of machine. With XP, we can drop the image, update, sysprep, and push the image back as many times as we want. My concern with Vista is if sysprep /generalize can only be run 3 times, this would seem to prevent us from updating our images on a regular basis. After the third time, I assume it will no longer allow sysprep /generalize to be run. Right now, we probably update our XP images at least 3-4 times a year. So, my question is how does a corporate customer who constantly updates images handle this situation? We really wouldn't want to have to go back and build a fresh image of Vista for the sake of running sysprep /generalize three more times. We will be using Vista Enterprise. We have not decided which kind of activation that we will use yet. Right now, we're more or less being proactive in learning as much about the product as possible as we do not have any immediate plans for rolling out Vista in the near term future.

Another post similar to mine is out on the newsgroups

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.p...8a49db43b014191

Thanks in advance!

[dhoffman_98]

Use SkipRearm before you run SysPrep.

SysPrep information

If you anticipate running Sysprep multiple times on a single computer, you must use the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component to postpone resetting the activation clock. Because you can reset the activation clock only three times, if you run Sysprep multiple times on a computer, you might run out of activation clock resets. Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer.

[fizban2]

use the skipRearm functionality to get your patches intergrated, then generalize the image without it when done. that should get you around the problem

[passmaster16]

use the skipRearm functionality to get your patches intergrated, then generalize the image without it when done. that should get you around the problem

Would this mean I would need two seperate images? One image that is my base image that would be used for modification would have skiprearm enabled while my "gold" production image would not have skiprearm?

[Slinger66]

What if you create a pre-sysprep image and then bring it back down every time you need to add patches. Then you rebuild the pre-syspreped image over itself after you update it, sysprep it and save that as your new image? You have to maintain 2 versions of the same image, but it seems to me that should work.

[wala]

Use SkipRearm before you run SysPrep.

SysPrep information

If you anticipate running Sysprep multiple times on a single computer, you must use the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component to postpone resetting the activation clock. Because you can reset the activation clock only three times, if you run Sysprep multiple times on a computer, you might run out of activation clock resets. Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer.

Hi, I am new to Sysprep, but I into this situation as well. I hope you can assist me of when I should run the sysprep -generalize? Do I prepare the sysprep.inf first? Do I have to enter product key in the sysprep.inf too? Once the sysprep.inf is done, should I start sysprep -generalize command?

Also, can I run this command options with sysprep -generalize,

cd to c:\sysprep

execute the command line "sysprep -reseal -mini -generalize -quiet" without the quotes.

Greatly appreciate for all the help!