RIS resetting customized configuration on RIPrep image ??

[Guest]

Hi All,
Have setup a RIS server on Win 2K3 SP1 and which successfully deploys XP Pro
SP2. Now looking at "nice to have" things to configure but RIS seems to have
a method of selectively undoing my tweaks.

1. Have added certain scripts to the "Default User" RunOnce hive (to
configure Outlook, printers and things). When the image is pulled down from
the server to a client this configuration is missing. The keys configured
aren't in the "HKCU" hive or in the "Default User" ntuser.dat file.

2. Similar to the above, have fiddled with the boot.ini file to change the
"OS Selection" timeout and DEP policy settings but it gives me a default
boot.ini file when the image is pulled down.

3. Finally, place "Favourites" under the "Default Profile". These don't get
pulled into the Default profile at all ... let alone put into any new
profiles.

Have thought about sticking the default profile under Netlogon but I don't
think this this is really an option with the fact that we have so many
different configurations on client machines (applications, hardware, etc).
Image is riprep as opposed to CD-based. When the image is RiPreped upto the
server I can load the registry dat files and look at the boot.ini file and
all looks as I configured. Can someone point me in the right direction to
sort this out ? Or better, has anyone come across this before and found any
work arounds ?

Thanks for any help,
Mark

 

[Guest]

HEllo Mark!

The thing is that when deploying WINXP SP2 via Sysprep or Riprep, when the
Mini-Setup Wizard runs, it looks for a Local Administrator Account and if it
finds it copies that Administrator Profile to the Default USer Profile and
that's why all you previously customized Settings made in your Default User
Profile disappear!

I had the same problem and found the following article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887816/en-us

I called Microsoft to ge their Hotfix but actually did not apply it because
I could get only the Japanese version. Don't know if it is so different from
the English version but anyways, I just decided to look for a different
workaround.
The trick is to rename the Local Administrator User to something like
"Admin" on your Source RIPREP Image.
Like this, during the Mini-Setup Wizard the Default User Profile is not
modified and then you should be able to keep all the settings you applied in
your Default User Profile.

Oh, and if you want to have a Local Administrator Account with the
Administrator name, then you can rename it back to "Administrator" once your
RIPREP deployment is over! (GPO/Startup Script...)

Hope this helps!
Let me know if this helped!
Always interested in knowing if it worked or not!
J.

 

[Guest]

Hi Julien,
I didn't realise that copy took place, that explains why I can look at the
dat file after riprep and all looks correct. I can see why they did it
because now you can tweak the gui in the administrator profile until your
hearts content without needing to know registry locations and settings.
There were other settings that went missing not profile but system related
(so long ago I can't remember what they are but boot.ini below was one of
them). So I've written scripts that perform everything that I need using
autologon and GuiRunOnce.

Thanks for the reply, I hadn't realised this stage in setup happened.
Mark