Sysprep and copyprofile

[caffrey]

Playing around with sysprep and WDS in preparation of rolling out windows 7 at some point.

So far so good I cant capture images and install without a problem.

However when I customise windows (wallpaper, default theme etc.) these are just not being applied.

Copyprofile is in unattend.xml, administrator is the only user - but its just not working for some reason.

I'm also doing this in admin mode (ctrl,shift,f3).

Any sure fire ways of getting this to work (I've trawled the internet and the forums but there's no definitive answer that i've found)

Only thing stopping me from finalising an image!

[mbrunt]

To be honest I couldn't get the copyprofile setting to work properly....

 

Here is a dirty way....

 

Windows 7: Copy A Modified User Profile Over The Default Profile

 

it does work, just be careful

[Davit2005]

Playing around with sysprep and WDS in preparation of rolling out windows 7 at some point.

So far so good I cant capture images and install without a problem.

However when I customise windows (wallpaper, default theme etc.) these are just not being applied.

Copyprofile is in unattend.xml, administrator is the only user - but its just not working for some reason.

I'm also doing this in admin mode (ctrl,shift,f3).

Any sure fire ways of getting this to work (I've trawled the internet and the forums but there's no definitive answer that i've found)

Only thing stopping me from finalising an image!

 

Found some where the instructions for doing this, from memory this is basically what I done to make it work there was also reported problems with doing the copyprofile under the administrator login. Do this before putting on the domain. Also be carefull not to use the same local administrator password as the domain administrator password.

 

1. Create a local user that is part of the local administrator group i.e. profile

2. Log in as that user and make the required changes

3. Log back in as administrator and copy the sysprep files over etc.

4. While logged in as administrator rename the Default users profile folder to something like Default.orig

5. Log back in as the user with all the profile changes and run the Sysprep command with the copyprofile switch

 

That should be it from memory.

[caffrey]

I was going to try the "dirty" way but it could cause more issues, i'll have a(another) go with your method davit2005, if i get nowhere with that - i'll create a base image and just use GPO instead....

[Duke5A]

The copyprofile option in the unattended XML works for me. I installed Win7 into a VM, enabled the built in local administrator account, and created a second local administrator to do all my work out of. The only time I ever step into the built in local admin account is when I need to make changes that will be included in the default user profile.

 

Here is my answer file.

 

   
       
           
               true
               My Organization
               My Organization
           
       
       
           
               en-us
           
           en-us
           en-us
           en-us
           en-us
           en-us
       
   
   
       
           true
           true
           true
       
       
           true
           true
           XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
           *
       
       
           
               
                   mydomain
                   password
                   joinaccount
               
               mydomain
               OU=ComputersWDS,DC=mydomain,DC=COM
           
       
   
   
       
           
               
                   password
                   false
               
               true
               1
               ITLocal
           
           
               true
               true
               Work
               1
           
           
               
                   
                       ITLocal
                       Administrators
                       ITLocal
                       
                           password
                           false
                       
                   
               
           
           Eastern Standard Time
       
       
           en-us
           en-us
           en-us
           en-us
           en-us
       
   
   

 

For some nagging reason I remember reading something to the effect that the built in local admin password needed to be set the same as the secondary local admin that was created. Don't quote me on this as I set this up over a year ago.

 

Sysprep is ran with the oobe, generalize, and unattend command line switches. I hope this helps.

[caffrey]

Thanks for that, my unattend is very similar (apart from country)

 

I tried your suggestion davit2005 but ran into more issues eg :-

had to do sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:c:\windows\system32\sysprep\unattend.xml instead of sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml because of permission issues.

but now when im dishing the image out i get "windows could no apply unattend settings during pass [offlineservicing]" and it fails.

Bit frustrating this whole wds thing might just go back to the way I was doing it and just gpo everything!

 

I usually either clone the drives after a partial build (before joining domain) using a hardware disk to disk copier which works great, or just use windows 7 backup which worked just as good too.... why do people use wds ?! seems like it's half finished to me...

[Davit2005]

Soz to hear still issues.

 

Was the profile a member of local administrators, I use 'sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:c:\windows\system32\sysprep\Windows7.xml'

and have never had any issues.

 

I did have early problems with sysprep as a whole but these were fixed with a Microsoft hotfix whilst I was originally using Win 7 non-SP1.

[caffrey]

just tried again twice to pinpoint the issue.

 

I installed windows 7, created a profile user (definately in local admin group), ran sysprep - worked ok, but desktop customisations failed.

 

did another exact same fresh install (must be onto my 100th by now ;p) renamed the default user folder and i get that message during install

 

So I guess that means my unattend.xml is fine (Country options and stuff are working fine)

 

no clue as to whats happening, feels like walking on eggshells this procedure - you would think microsoft would've got it's act together by now!

 

Guess i'll just create a default image and just GPO the theme change, will save some hair anyway

 

cheers fer help

[asilber]

Have a look at the website "forensit" in their free section for a great little utility called DefProf and do away with the sledgehammer SysPrep approach.

[caffrey]

cheers for that, didn't really want to go to 3rd party utils (you really shouldn't have to...) but that util sounds like it'll do the job but I'm always wary that it'll cause issues later.

[asilber]

Well if it makes you feel any better they are from your side of the pond :-) and I can tell you that I have used it many times without issue. from what I understand they are basically replicating the specific piece of what the SysPrep does when it does the CopyProfile without anything else. Enjoy

[caffrey]

That tool seems to have done the trick thanks,

I did try another experiment and got to the root of the issue of "windows could no apply unattend settings during pass [offlineservicing]"

you have to run the cmd prompt as administrator (even though you are an administrator - go figure) - then it works.

I installed the theme for all users and tried again and it just didn't stick - so i've no idea what's going on! (Is it because the wallpaper i'm using is in windows/web/wallpaper/windows?)

 

thanks again