Sysprep for Beginners

How to sysprep a Windows 7 or Server 2008R2 machine

[OjiiOsoi]

Thanks, great explanation without needlessly banging on forever like other youtube guys. Good stuff.

[Themagicalkevin]

When you say that you would never sysprep for than 2 times because you've seen problems can you clarify? Do you mean more then 2 times after the image has been transferred that you would not sysprep? Or do you mean you would not sysprep more then twice in a single instance where your sitting in front of the same computer?

[bandanakid]

So i can sysprep shut down remove hdd and put it in another computer with a different product key and it will fire right up?

[DaleMeredith]

Need a little more info....fatal error when you run sysprep? Are you using the GUI interface?

[MarkBroge]

Greatly appreciated. While studying for my 70-680 cert, I've discovered that I can image just fine, but cannot deploy the sysprepped WIM (created from an Asus laptop) into a virtual machine. Am I missing something? Does Generalize not remove all the hardware specific information also? Again, many thanks for the video, looking forward to more.

[DaleMeredith]

yes...just make sure you select OOBE so it resets it to "plug and play" on reboot.

[yydegu]

Thank you Sir for your instructions. Our company uses XP until now. But now we will start to deploy windows 7 and this has been very helpful. If you don't mind I would like to ask you a question. We use Clonzilla and FreeNAS to ghost the images. It has been fantastic for XP. After performing a Sysprep for Win 7 WS and create an image, will it require licensing or activations for other images? we have Win 7 professional. We do not have volume license either. the disk is Dell OEM. Thanks

[enterprise]

Can this be used, to change out MB and RAM? My MB and or Ram is failing. I ordered a new MB and RAM but do NOT or can not do a complete reinstall of Win 7. I have software that I use that is not available anymore and do not have the CD's for it. Also, too much data and info on HD. So I need to replace my MB and RAM, yet use the the other hardware I have now. Can this help?

[jlaroche]

Just wondering: what are some of the 'bad things' that can happen when you continuously sysprep the same machine?

[lifehackertips]

wow your sysprep was done in 2 minutes mine has been going for 20 minutes.  I stopped and restarted and it went right back to windows but 800x600 resolution default video card drivers.  Ran sysprep again and it's still taking a long time

[alexw]

I recently SysPrep'd a Windows 7 machine and I lost some abilities when I loaded the image on another machine.  I can't get to the System window by just right clicking my Computer and then clicking on properties.  Nothing happens when I do this.  I have to go to Control Panel and click on System.  

Do you by chance know why this is happening or how to fix it?

[DaleMeredith]

also, you might have some apps that act like it's the first time that they are running, because they could be linked to the userdata folder.

[DaleMeredith]

3 time is the limit MS has given because you can reset the activation clock only three times, if you run Sysprep multiple times on a computer, you might run out of activation clock resets. Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer."

[VTGGT]

Hello. I have a core 2 duo based system. I installed there windows xp but drive didnt work on AMD Athlon 64 754 socket based. Will sysprep allow me to do so?

[mr.anythinganimeseries]

i have a question for this procedure, sir what if i want to sysprep HDD from dead PC, is it by using live pc and slave the HDD that i want to sysprep? thanks for answering

[daran]

Could sysprep be used to maintain all data on my hard drive when preparing to install a new motherboard and processor?

[nikolaynikolov]

so after shutdown the computer how do you make image? Do I have to start it again or? I am using acronis..

[whats]

My sysprep says it had a fatal error do you know why?

[DaleMeredith]

wingchunguru3: Not that I'm aware of....MS technet says "You cannot make an image of an activated Windows installation and duplicate that image to another computer. If you do, Windows fails to recognize the activation and forces the end user to reactivate the installation manually."  Now if you're using a KMS server, you wouldn't have to worry about the COA....but that's an VL solution ;-)

[DaleMeredith]

you should be good....sysprep was designed for system builders to be able to preload apps and data, then use the same image on different systems (Dell and HP use sysprep), it's always a good idea to have a backup of your data, just in case ;-)