Sysprep

[Spin]

Gurus,

One of the top techs at my company made an operating system image with
Sysprep on it so that when the image first boots up, the Sysprep mini-loader
dialog appears and it asks for a computer name. That tech has since left.
How do I get this Sysprep thingy into a new image I am making? Can someone
tell me how to do it, in laymen's terms?

 

[Paul Adare]

One of the top techs at my company made an operating system image with
Sysprep on it so that when the image first boots up, the Sysprep mini-loader
dialog appears and it asks for a computer name. That tech has since left.
How do I get this Sysprep thingy into a new image I am making? Can someone
tell me how to do it, in laymen's terms?

I don't really understand what you're asking here, and you've cross-
posted this to far too many news groups. For example, this is not an
Active Directory issue, nor is it a networking issue.

Can you clarify what you're asking here? Does this have something to do
with Virtual Server?

(follow-ups set to one news group, microsoft.public.virtualserver)
--
Paul Adare - MVP Virtual Machines
It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke--or a lie.
How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said
it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does
not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and
Satan, the first consultant." - Mark Twain

 

[Seahawk60B]

Try doing a google search on windows image sysprep - there's no
shortage of information/instruction on what you're looking for...
Quite frankly, as an administrator, it concerns me when I hear people
who are attempting to perform technical tasks that require a certain
level of skill or expertise use terms like "sysprep thingy" and
"layman's terms". It doesn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy that they're
the ones who should be behind the wheel in performing said tasks...

 

[RA]

Gurus,

One of the top techs at my company made an operating system image with
Sysprep on it so that when the image first boots up, the Sysprep
mini-loader dialog appears and it asks for a computer name. That
tech has since left. How do I get this Sysprep thingy into a new
image I am making? Can someone tell me how to do it, in laymen's
terms?

Sysprep isn't a thing you probably should mess with if you need to have it
in layman's terms. If you can find a copy of the book "Mastering Windows
2000 Server" by Mark Minasi, you will find excellent instructions and
explanations of how sysprep works and how to configure it. Go also to
Microsoft's website and search for sysprep information.

 

[Manny Borges]

Sysprep is an imaging software preperation tool.

It is found on the XP cd inside a file called deplpoy.cab in the support
tools folder.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577&sd=tech

This article outlines the tool and details its parameters. Make sure you use
the Nosidgen option and disjoin from the domain before running the tool
to avoid nasty surprises.

If you utilise the sysprep answer file part of the solution, you will want
to also pull the setupmanager tool out of the deploy.cab . Don't forget all
its associated files.

This is not a laymans tool. It is an administrators level tool. Use caution
and be prepared to spend some time reading.

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.

 

[Matthew Chestnut]

How to use the Sysprep tool to automate successful deployment of
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577&sd=tech

How to use Sysprep with Windows Product Activation or Volume License
Media to deploy Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=299840


sysprep a virtual machine
http://blogs.technet.com/megand/articles/357570.aspx


Windows 2000: Windows 2000 System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) Version
1.1
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/tools/sysprep/default.asp


Windows XP: Windows XP Service Pack 1 Deployment Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...3d-507b-4095-9d9d-0a195f7b5f69&DisplayLang=en


Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003: Windows XP Service Pack 2
Deployment Tools
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...949b-beda3080e0f6&displaylang=en&Hash=RWRPDM9


Updated System Preparation tool for Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows
Server 2003, and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];838080


Creating a Sysprep Image Library for Virtual PC
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Creating-Sysprep-Image-Library-Virtual-PC.html

 

[Spin]

You have given the best answer Manny, so I'll reply to this. I think I have
it figured out. The tech must have (after extracting all the files from
deploy.cab) run sysprep.exe, which brings up a Sysprep dialog window.
Allowing the default options, I clicked the "Reseal" button and rebooted the
machine. This automatically shuts down the machine. At this point, this
must have been the "image" file he used for new virtual machine images.
Because after turning the Virtual Machine back on, it brought up the
mini-setup that I was referring to in my original post, where it asks you
questions like CD-key, regional settings, network settings, etc...Of course,
to avoid answering all these questions everytime, one could use the
setupmanager tool which creates an answer file that the sysprep mini-setup
looks for. Thank you.

--
Spin

Sysprep is an imaging software preperation tool.

It is found on the XP cd inside a file called deplpoy.cab in the support
tools folder.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577&sd=tech

This article outlines the tool and details its parameters. Make sure you
use the Nosidgen option and disjoin from the domain before running the
tool to avoid nasty surprises.

If you utilise the sysprep answer file part of the solution, you will want
to also pull the setupmanager tool out of the deploy.cab . Don't forget
all its associated files.

This is not a laymans tool. It is an administrators level tool. Use
caution and be prepared to spend some time reading.

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.