Sysprep/Ghost Full Automated 12 PCs with different Product Keys?

[Scott Townsend]

We have 12 PCs that we want to use ghost to push out Images to.

I cant seem to figure a way to use one Ghost image and a different product
key for each machine without having to enter in the Product key each time.
Since these are all Dell PCs, its not a Volume License.

What are my best options?

Thanks,
Scott<-

 

[Shenan Stanley]

We have 12 PCs that we want to use ghost to push out Images to.

I cant seem to figure a way to use one Ghost image and a different
product key for each machine without having to enter in the Product
key each time. Since these are all Dell PCs, its not a Volume
License.
What are my best options?

Some sort of unattended process - which would work on as many PCs as you
could throw it at.

http://unattended.sourceforge.net/ (network)
http://unattended.msfn.org/ (cd/dvd)

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Preserving OEM Pre-Activation when Re-installing Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/oempreac.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| We have 12 PCs that we want to use ghost to push out Images to.
|
| I cant seem to figure a way to use one Ghost image and a different product
| key for each machine without having to enter in the Product key each time.
| Since these are all Dell PCs, its not a Volume License.
|
| What are my best options?
|
| Thanks,
| Scott<-

 

[Scott Townsend]

This looks sort of what I want, though.

The info you provided leads me to believe that its for just using Sysprep on
a machine that has an ID already

I will be pushing down a new identical image to each of the 12 machines. The
machine image wont know what the original Key was...

Thanks,
Scott<-

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

If you start ghost32 from WinPE you can create a script that updates
sysprep.inf after the image is layed down but before is it rebooted
into mini-setup.

Note: you may need to run a diskpart script first to assign drive
letter and activate the volume (that is after the ghost image is layed
down and before your productupdateid script is run)

regards

Johan Arwidmark
Microsoft MVP - Setup/Deployment

 

[SteveWa]

Hi Scott,

I am trying to do the same thing I think. You want to install XP pro on
one computer, then install all your applications, then copy that
installation to other computers. So i think, based on my research, that
you have to pick one new computer to be the master computer. Then
install xp pro on the master computer, and install all the applications
you want on the master computer. When the master computer is configured
to be the way you want it, run the sysprep program with the -nosidgen
command line option. I believe this will remove the system ID (the
product key) from the installation. Then you can clone or mirror the
master computer hard drive to the other computers. After the other
computers are started up, they will prompt you to enter the xp pro
product key (M7HYU-MHTRY-TREWQ-QWERT-FAKE1) on that computer. Then xp
pro will work and all the applications are already installed. So if you
purchased 12 computers with the xp pro os already installed from dell,
each computer will have the product key sticker on the side. just wipe
the oem installation from Dell (get rid of all that preinstalled
trialware crap, AOL, QuickBooks, etc) and mirror the master drive. Note
that it appears you can't run sysprep on a machine that has been joined
to a network domain. You have to join to the domain after the product
key is activated. Which actually makes sense because you have to
specify the user name and password and computer name when joining to
the domain. Hay all you experts out there - is this the correct way to
do it???