Sysprep file protection

After running Sysprep times, you must recreate your Windows image. Refer the following table:. In previous versions of Windows, you could use the SkipRearm answer file setting to reset the Windows Product Activation clock when running Sysprep. If you are using a volume licensing key or a retail product key, you don't have to use SkipRearm because Windows is automatically activated. Installing new Microsoft Store apps or updating your existing Microsoft Store apps before generalizing a Windows image will cause Sysprep to fail.

Instead of using the Microsoft Store to update your apps, you should sideload updates to your line-of-business apps, provision offline-licensed Microsoft Store for Business apps for all users, or have end-users update their apps by using the Microsoft Store on their destination PCs.

If Microsoft Store access in a managed environment is disabled by an IT administrator, end-users will not be able to update the Microsoft Store apps. To generalize an image, you have to first boot into Audit Mode. Boot a PC into Audit Mode. You can choose to either close the System Preparation Tool window or allow it to remain open. Customize Windows by adding drivers, changing settings, and installing programs. During the specialize configuration pass, Plug and Play scans the computer for devices, and then installs device drivers for the detected devices.

By default, the computer uninstalls these device drivers from the system when you generalize the system. In Audit mode, you can view the status for Microsoft-Windows-Deployment RunSynchronous commands that run during the auditUser configuration pass.

The AuditUI window displays the status for commands and provides:. If the answer file contains Microsoft-Windows-Deployment RunSynchronous commands in the auditUser configuration pass, a list of the commands appears in the AuditUI window. Each list item in the user interface is the string from one of these:.

Sysprep processes all RunSynchronous commands in order. If the command succeeds, its related list item receives a green check-mark annotation.

If the command fails, its related list item receives a red X annotation. If the command requests a reboot, the AuditUI window appears after the boot, but only unprocessed list items appear. Previously processed items no longer appear in the AuditUI window. Examples of handwriting and voice samples, location information, error reports, calendar contents — all of these can be sent to Microsoft servers.

Run the elevated Command prompt, and execute the following commands:. Starting with Windows 8. Save the PSWindowsUpdate. Available updates will be downloaded from the Windows Update servers and installed automatically. Use the following PowerShell script to remove the preinstalled Windows 11 apps:. Copy the list of commands for your Windows build, paste them into the PowerShell console, and press Enter:.

If your computer has a static IP address configured, specify that the address should be obtained automatically from a DHCP server. You can do that in the network adapter settings.

You can use an answer file together with the System Preparation Sysprep tool. It allows configuring unattended Windows Setup settings. This step is optional used to automatically specify various parameters that must be configured when the image is at first run. You can skip this step, and go straight to the step of capturing a Windows image. The answer file may contain the answer to each question. This must be selected when installing Windows and choosing the initial settings region, language, product key, keyboard, account, and privacy setting, etc.

Follow the steps during the out-of-box experience OOBE. You can create an answer file manually this is simple XML. Use the ADK version for the Windows version you want to deploy. Run the adksetup. You will need install. You can copy the install.

If only the install. SIM will prompt you to specify a Windows image file for which you want to create an answer file. Specify the path to the before installed install. Closes the Sysprep tool without rebooting or shutting down the computer after Sysprep runs the specified commands. Sysprep System Preparation Overview. Sysprep Process Overview. Sysprep Generalize a Windows installation. Sysprep Support for Server Roles. Use Answer Files with Sysprep. Skip to main content.

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