Sysprep and SP2

[Charlie]

* You can skip all of this and go right to my question at
the bottom, but you might also might want to read about
my problem if you use Sysprep with SP2.

I know that there is a new version of Sysprep for XP
SP2. I also understand that it only works from a
slipstreamed installation of XP w SP2. In fact, a
colleague tried it with non-slipstreamed version and it
failed, which should confirm that.

I figured that meant that if you didn't have a
slipstreamed version you were out of luck, since there
wouldn't be any version that would work.

However, I have created 3 different Ghost images in the
past week using the older version of Sysprep for XP on
prototype machines that had SP2 installed typically.
Every thing seemed to be OK until today....
I had to set up a student computer lab of 25 machines
which are quite locked down. I started with a Ghost
image that has worked fine over the last 2 years, the
only real difference being that I installed SP2. After
running Sysprep and then reimaging the machines, the
default user got the Administrator's profile.

I had done a Registry hack to set the printers for the
default user as I always do. I then tested it by logging
on as a regular user that didn't already have a profile
and the profile looked fine, including the printers. So
I know that I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm convinced that either SP2 itself or Sysprep caused
this problem.

Can someone clear up my confusion and tell me which
version of Sysprep I'm supposed to use for imaging an XP
machine that has SP2 installed by the conventional method?

Thanks

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

* You can skip all of this and go right to my question at
the bottom, but you might also might want to read about
my problem if you use Sysprep with SP2.

I know that there is a new version of Sysprep for XP
SP2. I also understand that it only works from a
slipstreamed installation of XP w SP2. In fact, a
colleague tried it with non-slipstreamed version and it
failed, which should confirm that.

I figured that meant that if you didn't have a
slipstreamed version you were out of luck, since there
wouldn't be any version that would work.

However, I have created 3 different Ghost images in the
past week using the older version of Sysprep for XP on
prototype machines that had SP2 installed typically.
Every thing seemed to be OK until today....
I had to set up a student computer lab of 25 machines
which are quite locked down. I started with a Ghost
image that has worked fine over the last 2 years, the
only real difference being that I installed SP2. After
running Sysprep and then reimaging the machines, the
default user got the Administrator's profile.

I had done a Registry hack to set the printers for the
default user as I always do. I then tested it by logging
on as a regular user that didn't already have a profile
and the profile looked fine, including the printers. So
I know that I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm convinced that either SP2 itself or Sysprep caused
this problem.

Hi

If I am not mistaken, the SP2 sysprep by design now overwrites
the default profile with the Administrator's profile.

 

[Dusan Kosaric]

Hi Charlie,
check
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...91-ac56-4665-949b-beda3080e0f6&DisplayLang=en
and related documents.

This is probably not direct answer to your question but if you have a lot of
"set up a student computer lab of 25 machines" than you might consider using
Virtual PC or equivalent. The greatest plus is that you create one virtual
machine and can then reuse it on other computers using Virtual PC and
running Sysinternals's NewSID on every machine in order to change SID's.
"Minus" of such virtualization is that you need more powerful machines but
this is irrelevant if you consider time consumption.

Hope this helps
Dusan

 

[Charlie]

-----Original Message-----

Hi

If I am not mistaken, the SP2 sysprep by design now overwrites
the default profile with the Administrator's profile.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default.msp x
.
Thanks, Torgeir.

Note that I wasn't able to use the SP2 Sysprep because my
XP with SP2 installation is not slipstreamed (See my post
above) therefore I understand that I can't use that
version.
Could it be that using any proper version of Sysprep on
an XP SP2 machine and not Sysprep itself overwrites the
default profile by design?

 

[Charlie]

-----Original Message-----

Hi

If I am not mistaken, the SP2 sysprep by design now overwrites
the default profile with the Administrator's profile.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default.msp x
.
OK,

I have confirmed that the SP2 version of Sysprep cannot
be used with a non-slipstreamed installation of XP with
SP2. It's in the Readme that comes with the SP2 Deploy
Tools.
I have also confirmed that even using the previous
version of Sysprep for XP overwrites the default user
profile with the Administrator's profile. I proved it by
simply installing SP2 then running Sysprep, nothing
else. I really hope this isn't by design and that it's
an incompatibility problem with the older Sysprep. Even
if that's the case we'll have to start from scratch with
a slipstreamed version of the installation to build a
whole new prototype.

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Charlie,
This was a change in XPSP2. The change is not actually in sysprep but in
the mini-setup that runs after sysprep is run, so different versions of
sysprep do not change the behavior.

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Charlie,
Rather than make the changes to the default user profile make the changes
to the Local Administrator profile.
your changes then will be copied over to the default user profile and thus
new users will get the changes.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

 

[Charlie]

-----Original Message-----
Hello Charlie,
Rather than make the changes to the default user profile make the changes
to the Local Administrator profile.
your changes then will be copied over to the default user profile and thus
new users will get the changes.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

Thanks, Darrell. I had already thought of that, but in
this case I had way too many customizations already done
to the Default User profile because this is such a
reconfigured, locked down image. Also, the local Admin
profile contains utilities that turned the Group Policy
on and off, etc. Way too much work. Instead I simply
created the Image using our previous image without
installing SP2. I'll wait until those machines get SP2
through Automatic Update just like the rest of the
machines in our domain.

Why, oh why did MS do this by design? What kind of
security advantage is copying the Admin profile to every
user's profile? Keep in mind that your suggestion (which
I appreciate and is probably about the only one that
exists) means more than just cleaning up the desktop;
there are the built-in folders such as My Documents. You
have to remember to clear Recent Documents, Temp Internet
files, Temp folder; that's the easy stuff. There's also
Application Data, etc.

Can you point me to a KB article that suggests the best
way to keep the Admin profile clean before running
Sysprep?

Also, are you certain that if I use a slipstreamed
version of XP/SP2 with Sysprep that this will still
happen?

Thanks.

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Charlie,
We have an urgent request in to make this optional rather than just making
it always happen.
There are some limitations to making changes to the default user profile.
There is also a common issue where a custom profile is created then copied
over the default user profile. This is fraught with problems, so this
change was made to start correcting some of the problems by automating the
process.
There isn't an article yet on this change, I am not sure we fully
understand all the implications of what it does. It is supposed to clean
out most of the MRU lists for example as I understand it but I have tested
that yet to make sure that it happens.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<#[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:26:34 -0700
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-----Original Message-----
Hello Charlie,
Rather than make the changes to the default user profile make the changes
to the Local Administrator profile.
your changes then will be copied over to the default user profile and thus
new users will get the changes.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

Thanks, Darrell. I had already thought of that, but in
this case I had way too many customizations already done
to the Default User profile because this is such a
reconfigured, locked down image. Also, the local Admin
profile contains utilities that turned the Group Policy
on and off, etc. Way too much work. Instead I simply
created the Image using our previous image without
installing SP2. I'll wait until those machines get SP2
through Automatic Update just like the rest of the
machines in our domain.

Why, oh why did MS do this by design? What kind of
security advantage is copying the Admin profile to every
user's profile? Keep in mind that your suggestion (which
I appreciate and is probably about the only one that
exists) means more than just cleaning up the desktop;
there are the built-in folders such as My Documents. You
have to remember to clear Recent Documents, Temp Internet
files, Temp folder; that's the easy stuff. There's also
Application Data, etc.

Can you point me to a KB article that suggests the best
way to keep the Admin profile clean before running
Sysprep?

Also, are you certain that if I use a slipstreamed
version of XP/SP2 with Sysprep that this will still
happen?

Thanks.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

[Charlie]

Thanks Darrell.

Yes, as I understand it there are problems with copying
profiles in general with XP so I've been staying away
from copying entire profiles. We used to do that pretty
regularly with NT4 but not any more.

What I have done are things such as copying specialized
shortcuts and exporting registry keys to the default user
profile. For example, setting default printers as a
regular user and exporting those keys after loading a
hive with ntuser.dat from the Default User profile.
That's a lot of work. If I could simply log on as
Administrator and set everything the way it's supposed to
be for all users that would be great, but I would have to
start from scratch. Until the bugs are worked out, I
won't even consider doing that.

-----Original Message-----
Hello Charlie,
We have an urgent request in to make this optional rather than just making
it always happen.
There are some limitations to making changes to the default user profile.
There is also a common issue where a custom profile is created then copied
over the default user profile. This is fraught with problems, so this
change was made to start correcting some of the problems by automating the
process.
There isn't an article yet on this change, I am not sure we fully
understand all the implications of what it does. It is supposed to clean
out most of the MRU lists for example as I understand it but I have tested
that yet to make sure that it happens.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<#[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:26:34 -0700
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-----Original Message-----
Hello Charlie,
Rather than make the changes to the default user

profile
make the changes

to the Local Administrator profile.
your changes then will be copied over to the default user profile and thus
new users will get the changes.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

Thanks, Darrell. I had already thought of that, but in
this case I had way too many customizations already done
to the Default User profile because this is such a
reconfigured, locked down image. Also, the local Admin
profile contains utilities that turned the Group Policy
on and off, etc. Way too much work. Instead I simply
created the Image using our previous image without
installing SP2. I'll wait until those machines get SP2
through Automatic Update just like the rest of the
machines in our domain.

Why, oh why did MS do this by design? What kind of
security advantage is copying the Admin profile to every
user's profile? Keep in mind that your suggestion (which
I appreciate and is probably about the only one that
exists) means more than just cleaning up the desktop;
there are the built-in folders such as My Documents. You
have to remember to clear Recent Documents, Temp Internet
files, Temp folder; that's the easy stuff. There's also
Application Data, etc.

Can you point me to a KB article that suggests the best
way to keep the Admin profile clean before running
Sysprep?

Also, are you certain that if I use a slipstreamed
version of XP/SP2 with Sysprep that this will still
happen?

Thanks.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties,

and
confers no rights

References: <[email protected]>
<#[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 08:14:08 -0700
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-----Original Message-----
Charlie wrote:
* You can skip all of this and go right to my question
at
the bottom, but you might also might want to read
about
my problem if you use Sysprep with SP2.

I know that there is a new version of Sysprep for XP
SP2. I also understand that it only works from a
slipstreamed installation of XP w SP2. In fact, a
colleague tried it with non-slipstreamed version and
it
failed, which should confirm that.

I figured that meant that if you didn't have a
slipstreamed version you were out of luck, since there
wouldn't be any version that would work.

However, I have created 3 different Ghost images in
the
past week using the older version of Sysprep for

XP
on

prototype machines that had SP2 installed typically.
Every thing seemed to be OK until today....
I had to set up a student computer lab of 25 machines
which are quite locked down. I started with a Ghost
image that has worked fine over the last 2 years, the
only real difference being that I installed SP2.
After
running Sysprep and then reimaging the machines, the
default user got the Administrator's profile.

I had done a Registry hack to set the printers for the
default user as I always do. I then tested it by
logging
on as a regular user that didn't already have a
profile
and the profile looked fine, including the printers.
So
I know that I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm convinced that either SP2 itself or Sysprep caused
this problem.
Hi

If I am not mistaken, the SP2 sysprep by design now
overwrites
the default profile with the Administrator's profile.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn
Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version
of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default

..m
sp

x
.
OK,
I have confirmed that the SP2 version of Sysprep cannot
be used with a non-slipstreamed installation of XP with
SP2. It's in the Readme that comes with the SP2 Deploy
Tools.
I have also confirmed that even using the previous
version of Sysprep for XP overwrites the default user
profile with the Administrator's profile. I proved

it
by

simply installing SP2 then running Sysprep, nothing
else. I really hope this isn't by design and that it's
an incompatibility problem with the older Sysprep. Even
if that's the case we'll have to start from scratch with
a slipstreamed version of the installation to build a
whole new prototype.


.

.

 

[Phil Wade]

Hi Charlie

I've got a possible solution for you to try!

Try renaming the local Administrator account (e.g. to "admin") before
you run sysprep. This seems to stop mini-setup on an XPSP2 machine
copying the Administrator profile over the Default User profile.

It's a little surprising that this works, as the local Admins profile
is still stored in "Documents and Settings\Administrator" even if you
rename the local Administrator account. Mini-setup seems to look for
the profile of a user called Administrator (rather than for a profile
in the folder "Documents and Settings\Administrator"). If it finds a
user called Administrator, it copies that users profile to Default
User. If it doesn't find a user called Administrator, it leaves
Default User alone!

Hope this works for you!

Regards,
Phil.

 

[Charlie]

-----Original Message-----
Hi Charlie

I've got a possible solution for you to try!

Try renaming the local Administrator account (e.g. to "admin") before
you run sysprep. This seems to stop mini-setup on an XPSP2 machine
copying the Administrator profile over the Default User profile.

It's a little surprising that this works, as the local Admins profile
is still stored in "Documents and

Settings\Administrator" even if you

rename the local Administrator account. Mini-setup seems to look for
the profile of a user called Administrator (rather than for a profile
in the folder "Documents and Settings\Administrator"). If it finds a
user called Administrator, it copies that users profile to Default
User. If it doesn't find a user called Administrator, it leaves
Default User alone!

Hope this works for you!

Regards,
Phil.
.
Yeah, I'm shocked that this would work as well.

If you've tried it and it works, then I'll give it a shot.
It will be tried on a test machine, so no harm if for
some reason it doesn't work for me.
Talk about a simple solution!
Thanks

 

[PGomersall]

Hi Darrell,

I have made numerous postings to this newsgroup but have never had a
reply from MSFT.

I have read with interest the discussion on the setup_deployment
newsgroup re sysprep and Admin overwriting the DU profile.

You mention that this is a factor of design, but that it may be made
optional – I would definitely like to see that happen.

We noticed the problem in RC1, but after numerous bug reports and
email to MSFT we never got a reply.

The current overwritten profile doesn't work correctly since all
subsequent new users have a My Documents folder called
"Administrator's Documents" – the desktop.ini not been correctly set
up for the new owner.

I understand the reasoning behind the move but surely administrators
using sysprep and worth their salt should understand how to build a
"corporate default user profile" or whatever you want to call.

Rather that cut everyone out of the process and a build a sloppy
solution that doesn't work correctly; shouldn't adequate internal
testing have shown this to be a problem?

Also there has been absolutely no documentation that I can find that
is easily accessible that explains to us administrators the changes
that have taken place.

Obviously you are in no way directly responsible for the situation,
but it would be nice if those that are responsible are made aware of
the general situation and annoyment of probably 100's of system
administrators.

Pete Gomersall

MCSA Windows 2003, MCSE (Windows NT4, 2000 & 2003), MCDBA & MCT

Hello Charlie,
We have an urgent request in to make this optional rather than just making
it always happen.
There are some limitations to making changes to the default user profile.
There is also a common issue where a custom profile is created then copied
over the default user profile. This is fraught with problems, so this
change was made to start correcting some of the problems by automating the
process.
There isn't an article yet on this change, I am not sure we fully
understand all the implications of what it does. It is supposed to clean
out most of the MRU lists for example as I understand it but I have tested
that yet to make sure that it happens.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

<#[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:26:34 -0700
Lines: 162
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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-----Original Message-----
Hello Charlie,
Rather than make the changes to the default user profile make the changes
to the Local Administrator profile.
your changes then will be copied over to the default user profile and thus
new users will get the changes.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

Thanks, Darrell. I had already thought of that, but in
this case I had way too many customizations already done
to the Default User profile because this is such a
reconfigured, locked down image. Also, the local Admin
profile contains utilities that turned the Group Policy
on and off, etc. Way too much work. Instead I simply
created the Image using our previous image without
installing SP2. I'll wait until those machines get SP2
through Automatic Update just like the rest of the
machines in our domain.

Why, oh why did MS do this by design? What kind of
security advantage is copying the Admin profile to every
user's profile? Keep in mind that your suggestion (which
I appreciate and is probably about the only one that
exists) means more than just cleaning up the desktop;
there are the built-in folders such as My Documents. You
have to remember to clear Recent Documents, Temp Internet
files, Temp folder; that's the easy stuff. There's also
Application Data, etc.

Can you point me to a KB article that suggests the best
way to keep the Admin profile clean before running
Sysprep?

Also, are you certain that if I use a slipstreamed
version of XP/SP2 with Sysprep that this will still
happen?

Thanks.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
From: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
Sender: "Charlie" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 08:14:08 -0700
Lines: 73
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
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X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment


-----Original Message-----
Charlie wrote:
* You can skip all of this and go right to my

question
at

the bottom, but you might also might want to read about
my problem if you use Sysprep with SP2.

I know that there is a new version of Sysprep for XP
SP2. I also understand that it only works from a
slipstreamed installation of XP w SP2. In fact, a
colleague tried it with non-slipstreamed version and it
failed, which should confirm that.

I figured that meant that if you didn't have a
slipstreamed version you were out of luck, since there
wouldn't be any version that would work.

However, I have created 3 different Ghost images in the
past week using the older version of Sysprep for XP on
prototype machines that had SP2 installed typically.
Every thing seemed to be OK until today....
I had to set up a student computer lab of 25 machines
which are quite locked down. I started with a Ghost
image that has worked fine over the last 2 years, the
only real difference being that I installed SP2. After
running Sysprep and then reimaging the machines, the
default user got the Administrator's profile.

I had done a Registry hack to set the printers for the
default user as I always do. I then tested it by logging
on as a regular user that didn't already have a profile
and the profile looked fine, including the

printers.
So

I know that I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm convinced that either SP2 itself or Sysprep caused
this problem.
Hi

If I am not mistaken, the SP2 sysprep by design now overwrites
the default profile with the Administrator's profile.

version
of

the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default.m

sp
x

.
OK,
I have confirmed that the SP2 version of Sysprep cannot
be used with a non-slipstreamed installation of XP with
SP2. It's in the Readme that comes with the SP2 Deploy
Tools.
I have also confirmed that even using the previous
version of Sysprep for XP overwrites the default user
profile with the Administrator's profile. I proved it by
simply installing SP2 then running Sysprep, nothing
else. I really hope this isn't by design and that it's
an incompatibility problem with the older Sysprep. Even
if that's the case we'll have to start from scratch with
a slipstreamed version of the installation to build a
whole new prototype.


.

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello Pete,
There were large numbers of people who were creating custom profiles, then
copying them over the default user profile.
You are correct this causes any number of problem as you state with several
examples below.
Yes there are things that need to be addressed in this process, before it
wasn't supported, now since it happens during mini-setup we can get things
addressed in process.
The documentation will be coming, it's just going to take a little time to
complete.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------

From: (e-mail address removed) (PGomersall)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment
Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: 13 Sep 2004 13:39:28 -0700
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Hi Darrell,

I have made numerous postings to this newsgroup but have never had a
reply from MSFT.

I have read with interest the discussion on the setup_deployment
newsgroup re sysprep and Admin overwriting the DU profile.

You mention that this is a factor of design, but that it may be made
optional – I would definitely like to see that happen.

We noticed the problem in RC1, but after numerous bug reports and
email to MSFT we never got a reply.

The current overwritten profile doesn't work correctly since all
subsequent new users have a My Documents folder called
"Administrator's Documents" – the desktop.ini not been correctly set
up for the new owner.

I understand the reasoning behind the move but surely administrators
using sysprep and worth their salt should understand how to build a
"corporate default user profile" or whatever you want to call.

Rather that cut everyone out of the process and a build a sloppy
solution that doesn't work correctly; shouldn't adequate internal
testing have shown this to be a problem?

Also there has been absolutely no documentation that I can find that
is easily accessible that explains to us administrators the changes
that have taken place.

Obviously you are in no way directly responsible for the situation,
but it would be nice if those that are responsible are made aware of
the general situation and annoyment of probably 100's of system
administrators.

Pete Gomersall

MCSA Windows 2003, MCSE (Windows NT4, 2000 & 2003), MCDBA & MCT



(e-mail address removed) ("Darrell Gorter[MSFT]") wrote in message

Hello Charlie,
We have an urgent request in to make this optional rather than just making
it always happen.
There are some limitations to making changes to the default user profile.
There is also a common issue where a custom profile is created then copied
over the default user profile. This is fraught with problems, so this
change was made to start correcting some of the problems by automating the
process.
There isn't an article yet on this change, I am not sure we fully
understand all the implications of what it does. It is supposed to clean
out most of the MRU lists for example as I understand it but I have tested
that yet to make sure that it happens.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:26:34 -0700
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-----Original Message-----
Hello Charlie,
Rather than make the changes to the default user profile make the changes
to the Local Administrator profile.
your changes then will be copied over to the default user profile and thus
new users will get the changes.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

Thanks, Darrell. I had already thought of that, but in
this case I had way too many customizations already done
to the Default User profile because this is such a
reconfigured, locked down image. Also, the local Admin
profile contains utilities that turned the Group Policy
on and off, etc. Way too much work. Instead I simply
created the Image using our previous image without
installing SP2. I'll wait until those machines get SP2
through Automatic Update just like the rest of the
machines in our domain.

Why, oh why did MS do this by design? What kind of
security advantage is copying the Admin profile to every
user's profile? Keep in mind that your suggestion (which
I appreciate and is probably about the only one that
exists) means more than just cleaning up the desktop;
there are the built-in folders such as My Documents. You
have to remember to clear Recent Documents, Temp Internet
files, Temp folder; that's the easy stuff. There's also
Application Data, etc.

Can you point me to a KB article that suggests the best
way to keep the Admin profile clean before running
Sysprep?

Also, are you certain that if I use a slipstreamed
version of XP/SP2 with Sysprep that this will still
happen?

Thanks.



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Subject: Re: Sysprep and SP2
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 08:14:08 -0700
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-----Original Message-----
Charlie wrote:
* You can skip all of this and go right to my question
at
the bottom, but you might also might want to read about
my problem if you use Sysprep with SP2.

I know that there is a new version of Sysprep for XP
SP2. I also understand that it only works from a
slipstreamed installation of XP w SP2. In fact, a
colleague tried it with non-slipstreamed version and it
failed, which should confirm that.

I figured that meant that if you didn't have a
slipstreamed version you were out of luck, since there
wouldn't be any version that would work.

However, I have created 3 different Ghost images in the
past week using the older version of Sysprep for XP on
prototype machines that had SP2 installed typically.
Every thing seemed to be OK until today....
I had to set up a student computer lab of 25 machines
which are quite locked down. I started with a Ghost
image that has worked fine over the last 2 years, the
only real difference being that I installed SP2. After
running Sysprep and then reimaging the machines, the
default user got the Administrator's profile.

I had done a Registry hack to set the printers for the
default user as I always do. I then tested it by logging
on as a regular user that didn't already have a profile
and the profile looked fine, including the printers.
So
I know that I didn't make any mistakes.
I'm convinced that either SP2 itself or Sysprep caused
this problem.
Hi

If I am not mistaken, the SP2 sysprep by design now overwrites
the default profile with the Administrator's profile.


--
torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version
of
the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default.m sp
x
.
OK,
I have confirmed that the SP2 version of Sysprep cannot
be used with a non-slipstreamed installation of XP with
SP2. It's in the Readme that comes with the SP2 Deploy
Tools.
I have also confirmed that even using the previous
version of Sysprep for XP overwrites the default user
profile with the Administrator's profile. I proved it by
simply installing SP2 then running Sysprep, nothing
else. I really hope this isn't by design and that it's
an incompatibility problem with the older Sysprep. Even
if that's the case we'll have to start from scratch with
a slipstreamed version of the installation to build a
whole new prototype.


.

 

[Charlie]

-----Original Message-----
Hi Charlie

I've got a possible solution for you to try!

Try renaming the local Administrator account (e.g. to "admin") before
you run sysprep. This seems to stop mini-setup on an XPSP2 machine
copying the Administrator profile over the Default User profile.

It's a little surprising that this works, as the local Admins profile
is still stored in "Documents and

Settings\Administrator" even if you

rename the local Administrator account. Mini-setup seems to look for
the profile of a user called Administrator (rather than for a profile
in the folder "Documents and Settings\Administrator"). If it finds a
user called Administrator, it copies that users profile to Default
User. If it doesn't find a user called Administrator, it leaves
Default User alone!

Hope this works for you!

Regards,
Phil.
.
Phil, it looks like you are correct. I finally got

around to trying this and it seems to work. I'll try it
again with a different image to be sure.
Thanks! What a simple solution.

 

[Guest]

Can anyone confirm that the below suggestion will work?