SIDs and Sysprep

[BJG]

Sorry if this has been covered, but the withdrawal of NewSID has left me confused. If SID duplication isn't a problem, is there still a need to run Sysprep after imaging a networked Windows XP PC...?

[sparkeh]

Sysprep does a whole lot more than just change the SID so yeah it *must* be run when imaging.

 

edit: Hang on, you run sysprep *before* taking an image, not after.

[SYNACK]

Heres the blog post from Mark Russinovich that explains the SID stuff a bit more and was the main reason for the removal of the tool.

 

Mark's Blog : The Machine SID Duplication Myth

[BJG]

...hang on a minute though, if it was necessary to run Sysprep anyway, what use was NewSID...?

[plexer]

Sysprep prepares an installed system for imaging.

 

If you haven't sysprepped then wds will not see the drive you wish to image.

 

Ghost etc... will.

 

Ben

[sparkeh]

From Mark's blog:

I wrote NewSID in 1997 (its original name was NTSID) because the only tool available at the time for changing machine SIDs was the Microsoft Sysprep tool, and Sysprep doesn’t support changing the SIDs of computers that have applications installed.

[BJG]

Oh, OK...thanks!