Mandatory profile - will it always take this long to make a change?

[sidewinder]

I'm creating a mandatory profile for students to use with Windows 7.

 

Rather annoying to have to use sysprep just to copy a profile but if that is the official way, fine, I'll do it.

I first of all used this guide: How to customize default user profiles in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 and customised the profile, used our usual unattend.xml and ran the sysprep command. It reboots, but then comes up with a message that there was an error processing the generalize section. Asks you to reboot, then its stuck in a loop of 'Windows installation cannot proceed'. So there is nothing you can do apart from reinstall. Annoying to say the least.

 

So I then followed this guide Sysprep a Windows 7 Machine thinking that creating a new unattend.xml just for this would do it, and sure enough, following the guide to the letter meant it worked perfectly.

However, as at that point I had only made some random changes to the profile to see it worked, I decided to make some more and get it working properly. I assumed I could edit it, then run the sysprep again on the same machine and it would copy to the default profile again. Wrong - it brings up the same error I originally got - with the unattend.xml that worked perfectly before.

 

So after all that, my question is, do I really have to do a fresh install on Windows 7, just to get into that special sysprep SHIFT+CTRL+F3 mode, EVERY time I want to make a change to the default/mandatory profile? Although I cant even make a change can I, I'll have to start fresh every time. I know its not something you need to do every day, but it does need to be done on occasion

 

Unless I'm missing something, this makes the whole process unnecessarily long. I dont mind having to do things a different way, but this seems ridiculous. Or should my running of sysprep that brings up the error method work?

Edited June 30, 2010 by sidewinder
woeful spelling

[sidewinder]

Another "quirk" which is leaving me close to throwing the f*cking thing through the window - started installing software so as to be able to run it and get application prefs added to the profile, all going well until I left the machine, it locked, and then told me the admin account had been disabled! And then rebooting, despite what that sysprep guide says, does not boot back into the admin account, instead it appears to try and run sysprep again, and brings up the same error about not being able to install windows, despite following the guide to the letter again

[garethEds]

Hi sidewinder,

 

I've been working on this all week - I have my clean profile but the more I am working with Windows 7 Enterprise the more I am thinking of staying on XP. I simply haven't the time to look for workarounds and fixes etc.

 

I wonder if SP1 will fix things.

 

Gareth

[sted]

seriously sysprep wtf

 

cant you just copy a local admin profile over the default profile then copy that?

 

i really dont want to sysprep as all my win7s are oem and i cant face the extra phonecalls

[DMcCoy]

seriously sysprep wtf

 

cant you just copy a local admin profile over the default profile then copy that?

 

i really dont want to sysprep as all my win7s are oem and i cant face the extra phonecalls

 

No. Things get broken. The supported way is sysprep. It removes some things however, but Microsoft haven't felt the need to document *what* yet.

[sted]

No. Things get broken. The supported way is sysprep. It removes some things however, but Microsoft haven't felt the need to document *what* yet.

 

censored

what was wrong withthe old xp way and tbh ive not hit any issues with using windows enabler and doing that on win7 yest (well possibly a very small smartboard one)

 

looks like im going to have to set up a vm on the server or something and run its with no code just to sysprep to make a profile what a pita

[sidewinder]

Yeah i just want to do it the supported way. I know the enabler method would be easier but I need this all to go as smoothly as possible....last thing I want in September is strange issue kicking in when students start to use the profile. Interesting that the otherwise excellent book I've got (Group Policy - Fundamentals, Security & the Managed Desktop) advises you to use a Vista machine to do your Windows 7 mandatory profiles (as the button isnt greyed out) and doesnt mention the sysprep method.

 

Anyway, I think I have got it working now. If I install 7 fresh, finish the installation (not hit CTRL+SHIFT+F3), customise the local admin profile, then run sysprep wih the unattend.xml I created, it works. I've done it 3 times now and no errors so far...touch wood