FBRESEAL.EXE dissapears after first reboot

[Ben Harris]

Is it normal behaviour for FBRESEAL.EXE to delete itself after XPe's been
rebooted for the first time (a normal reboot, without re-sealing)? I've
found that this happens with both the original System Cloning Tool included
with SP1, and the latest HotFix version (Q810144).

I need to be able to document to our customers how they can customise our
standard image, and then re-seal it and clone it (if they buy the licenses,
obviously!), but this behaviour seems a little odd. Would there be any harm
in simply re-copying the FBRESEAL.EXE file back onto XPe and running it
(this would be the first time it's been run, after XPe has fully booted).
I've read about the problems with running FBRESEAL.EXE multiple times, and
IIS getting upset, but as this would be the first time it's been run, I
wouldn't think that would be a problem, would it?


--
Ben Harris
Design Engineer

Arcom,
Clifton Road,
Cambridge CB1 7EA
United Kingdom

E-Mail: bharris "at" arcom "dot" com
Web: http://www.arcom.com

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Ben,

You should really find a cause that delete fbreseal.exe
This is not default behavior if you or FBA did not called it at least once.

Regards,
Slobodan

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[Ben Harris]

Hi Ben,

You should really find a cause that delete fbreseal.exe
This is not default behavior if you or FBA did not called it at least once.

Regards,
Slobodan

Hi Slobodan,

By scanning through the registry I've discovered that there is a key which
is being set on the first boot into XPe, and causing FBRESEAL.EXE to be
deleted:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager
Key: PendingFileRenameOperations
Value: \\??\C:\WINDOWS\system32\fbreseal.exe

Aparently, it's a registry entry which tells Windows to rename a file next
time it starts up, for files which can't be renamed because they're in use
at the time. It's supposed to have a pair of values, one for the original
name, and one for the new name. However, this only has one value, which I
assume is why it deletes the file.


Can I just check that I'm understanding this correctly:

Am I right in thinking that the machine has been resealed once, as during
it's initial boot (with a new image from Target Designer), we get the
"Resealed - Please Reboot" type of message, which is the point at which we'd
normally clone the image to give it to our customers. Should this delete the
FBRESEAL.EXE file, or should it remain there to give us (or our customers)
another chance of resealing the machine once it's booted into Windows?

From what I'd read on this newsgroup, I was under the impression that in
order to be able to reseal the machine, you need the System Cloning Tool to
be included in the image. You would then be able to boot into XPe, make
changes, and then re-seal and clone. Have I misunderstood something here,
and the first "Resealing" message during boot is the only chance you get?

Many thanks for you help!

Ben.

 

[Guest]

Hi Ben,

Do you have the CMIResealPhase option in the advanced
settings on the System Cloning Tool component in TD set to
zero? If not it is automatically resealing the drive
after FBA. You have to set CMIResealPhase to a value of
zero in order to be able to reseal the drive manually.

Robert

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Ben,

I understand what you did you set reseal phase to some value, and this is
not required in your case.

You should set reseal phase to 0. (manual reseal).

After you prepare image you should call fbreseal mannualy and shutdown
device.
Copy your image from this point to manny devices.
Now when you or your customer start device, reseal will do the job. and
that's it, every machine will be unique.
There is no need for additional reseals made by yuor customer, also this
could make some problems as well.

Regards,
Slobodan

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[Ben Harris]

Hi Ben,

I understand what you did you set reseal phase to some value, and this is
not required in your case.

You should set reseal phase to 0. (manual reseal).

After you prepare image you should call fbreseal mannualy and shutdown
device.
Copy your image from this point to manny devices.
Now when you or your customer start device, reseal will do the job. and
that's it, every machine will be unique.
There is no need for additional reseals made by yuor customer, also this
could make some problems as well.

Regards,
Slobodan

Ah, right! - I understand now! The Reseal phase was still on it's
default setting of 12,000. It's interesting though, that the FBRESEAL.EXE
file isn't deleted until the second time the image is booted (obviously, by
design).

Many thanks, both to yourself, and Robert!

Ben.

 

[Andy Allred [MS]]

I'm going to add onto this thread for historical purposes because I know
someone will be reading it from the archives when searching for the same
problem later <grin>

As you've discovered, this is by design. You don't want your end user in the
field to accidentally hose themselves by running through the reseal process
again so the file is deleted on the next boot after the system is cloned.

If you later need to reseal again for some strange reason (note this is a
hack and *not* supported), you'd copy the file back into place from the
repository.

Andy