How to Stop a Sysprepped Machine From Sysprepping Again

Sysprep is Microsoft's Organization Preparation tool intended to duplicate, test and deliver new installations for the Windows operating system based on an established installation. It is a command-line tool that can be run manually or through a script.

Uses

Sysprep is used to clone an existing Windows installation across multiple PCs. Cloning Microsoft Windows without start running Sysprep would exist problematic because Windows 10, Windows Server and other versions of Microsoft Windows include security identifiers (SIDs) that must be unique from ane computer to the next. Sysprep generalizes Windows by removing the security identifiers and other computer-specific data.

Features of Sysprep

Sysprep features a few different ways to clone and customize a Windows prototype after generalizing it.

Beginning, Sysprep can be used to indistinguishable an established Windows image across many identical PCs. This is known as a build-to-plan or BTP image.

For instance, a company that builds a loftier volume of identical PCs (such as Lenovo or Dell) might apply Sysprep to establish a baseline Windows configuration. Information technology could and then exam or update the baseline configuration and prepare an identical installation image for distribution to PCs using the same hardware configuration or model. Similarly, a business organisation might apply Sysprep to constitute a standard desktop epitome using a prescribed mix of drivers and applications, and then utilize that prototype for all identical PCs provided to employees.

Second, Sysprep can use the same established Windows image as a foundation for many dissimilar PCs, adding desired drivers and applications for each unique organization. A hardware provider could then create a distinctly different epitome for installation on that specific arrangement. This is called a build-to-order or BTO image. For example, a small-scale custom PC builder that creates new systems on request might change a basic Windows image with hardware-specific drivers and client-requested applications. With those, information technology could create a finalized Windows installation prototype for a particular machine.

The third feature of Sysprep is audit mode, which customizes the Windows image. Inspect manner allows the addition of applications, drivers and scripts. Audit way also supports testing to ensure that the image will install properly, and the organisation will operate as expected. One time the Windows paradigm is customized and tested, the sysprep /oobe control tells Windows to starting time the installation on the side by side boot wheel.

How does Sysprep work?

The first footstep in the process is to install either Windows 10 or Windows Server. Users can do this with either a physical computer or a virtual machine, but Microsoft generally recommends using a virtual auto for this deployment. This installation will human activity every bit a reference operating system (which is sometimes called the sample operating organization). The Microsoft Windows operating system should not be joined to a Windows Active Directory domain.

The side by side stride in the process is to run the Sysprep utility. To practise so, you volition need to open a Command Prompt window and navigate to the Sysprep binder, which is located on the computer's system disk at %SystemRoot%\System32\Sysprep.

At this point, simply enter the Sysprep command. This will cause the Sysprep graphical user interface (GUI) to load. Bold that the goal is to create a Sysprep deployment that is suitable for cloning, you lot volition demand to set the System Cleanup Activity to Enter System Out of Box Feel (OOBE), select the Generalize checkbox, set the Shutdown Options to Shutdown, and click OK. Sysprep will generalize the operating organisation and and then shut downwardly Windows. The Sysprep deployment can now be safely cloned.

Benefits of Sysprep

If a user were to kicking a physical computer or a virtual car from a sysprepped clone, Windows would walk them through the normal setup procedure. One of the main benefits to using Sysprep is that users tin completely automate Setup by providing the Sysprep deployment with an answer file. The answer file provides answers to the questions that Windows usually asks during Setup. Using an answer file allows Setup to run in an unattended fashion, installing Windows in a predetermined manner.

The answer file is created by using the Windows Arrangement Image Manager (which is sometimes referred to merely as the Organisation Image Manager). This sys tool provides answers to the questions that are normally asked during Setup. The answers to those questions are and so written to a text file named Unattend.xml. This text file acts as the answer file.

When a Sysprep image is used in conjunction with an answer file, Windows is installed to the computer'due south system disk in accordance with the answer file's parameters. The answer file may too automate ancillary tasks such as joining the computer to a Windows Active Directory domain. Joining the arrangement to the Agile Directory allows group policy settings to exist applied to the automobile and allows it to exist managed alongside the system'southward other Windows machines.

Limitations of Sysprep

Remember that Sysprep should merely exist used when creating an prototype that will be used in setting up new Windows installations -- it should never be used to alter a Windows setup that is already deployed and running, considering doing so will destroy the operating system.

Sysprep can only be used upward to eight times for a given Windows image. After the eighth time, the user must recreate the Windows image.

Differences between NewSID and Sysprep

Sysprep is not the only tool that system administrators accept used to generalize Windows operating systems for cloning. Another pop tool was Sysinternals' NewSID, which was created to be run against a figurer whose operating arrangement had been cloned, assigning the OS a new SID.

NewSID was designed because Sysprep was not able to change the SIDs of computers that had already installed applications. At the time of NewSID's cosmos, information technology was believed that having duplicate SIDs in a network would pose a security threat.

The most contempo version of NewSID is iv.0, which was designed for apply with Windows XP. Since the release of that version, Microsoft has stopped supporting NewSID. This is considering it was somewhen found that multiple Windows machines having the same SID was a non-issue, because the SID is almost never exposed outside of its computer. Currently, Sysprep is the simply OS paradigm preparation tool supported by Microsoft.

This was last updated in January 2020

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