Ok heres the deal...
I've volunteered myself in the company to make a generic image of an XP Pro Sp2 computer, with all of our internal software installed and network drives mapped, that will need to be installed on every incoming computer we buy. Like 20 a month.
My idea is to just use Dell's restore disk and do a clean install on a machine and then set everything up like normal. And then sysprep and image it.
The problem is sysprep needs a CD key. Of course that is fine, but once windows starts up it needs to be activated.
Obviously the prob here is when you use the Dell CD and do an install as normal then it doesn't need activation... But sysprep then ghost it will need activation after.
My original fix was to do the image and after each machine is imaged use a hack on each machine to change the image's CD key to the CD key on the bottom of each individual machine.
If I do that though then I'd have to make a phone call about EVERY single machine to get them all activated.
I've read a lot about this and read that Dell uses and OEM key? Whats that all about? When I use a hack I downloaded I see every computer we have has the same OEM 'Product ID', since they're all Dells, but they all still have a different Product/CD key..
Does anyone have any tips? My goal is to avoid activation problems, or activating at all, just like as if I had used a separate Dell CD on every single machine like normal.
If anyone knows their stuff then throw it out there for me....
PS: We use a lot of proprietary internal radio-testing software and things like that. Setting up each computer takes about 4 hours... Having an image would only take about 45 minutes... I really want to figure this out!
I've volunteered myself in the company to make a generic image of an XP Pro Sp2 computer, with all of our internal software installed and network drives mapped, that will need to be installed on every incoming computer we buy. Like 20 a month.
My idea is to just use Dell's restore disk and do a clean install on a machine and then set everything up like normal. And then sysprep and image it.
The problem is sysprep needs a CD key. Of course that is fine, but once windows starts up it needs to be activated.
Obviously the prob here is when you use the Dell CD and do an install as normal then it doesn't need activation... But sysprep then ghost it will need activation after.
My original fix was to do the image and after each machine is imaged use a hack on each machine to change the image's CD key to the CD key on the bottom of each individual machine.
If I do that though then I'd have to make a phone call about EVERY single machine to get them all activated.
I've read a lot about this and read that Dell uses and OEM key? Whats that all about? When I use a hack I downloaded I see every computer we have has the same OEM 'Product ID', since they're all Dells, but they all still have a different Product/CD key..
Does anyone have any tips? My goal is to avoid activation problems, or activating at all, just like as if I had used a separate Dell CD on every single machine like normal.
If anyone knows their stuff then throw it out there for me....
PS: We use a lot of proprietary internal radio-testing software and things like that. Setting up each computer takes about 4 hours... Having an image would only take about 45 minutes... I really want to figure this out!
Facebook
Twitter