Imaging Windows 7 machines and dealing with SID issues

[MrEgo]

Ok, so now that newsid doesn't run on Windows 7, how is everyone dealing with image deployments?

 

[yinan]

Just run sysprep, and newsid was never really needed.

 

[MrEgo]

Ok, that was kind of where I was going with that.

I would like to customize a profile and "copy" that profile to the default user profile. Can sysprep accomplish this? If so, can you explain or point me to where this information is available?

 

[stash]

You need to use CopyProfile: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748953%28WS.10).aspx

Just keep in mind it doesn't necessarily copy everything. There's a quote on a Microsoft blog that basically says we have no idea what will get copied and we have no documentation on it.

 

[MrEgo]

So if I'm understanding you correctly, I would customize the built-in local administrator account to the way I want it, then I run sysprep, and before the machine is powered back on, I image it with my imaging software?

 

[phoenix79]

So if I'm understanding you correctly, I would customize the built-in local administrator account to the way I want it, then I run sysprep, and before the machine is powered back on, I image it with my imaging software?

Thats the way sysprep works, yes. Obviously you have to power on the machine to image it, just don't let windows start 😉

 

[MrEgo]

Do any of you use sysprep in conjunction with Windows 7 and an enterprise-grade imaging software? If so, which one(s), and what do you think of it?

 

[phoenix79]

I've not used it with windows 7 but with XP many times. For imaging I use G4L (ghost 4 linux). http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/ It works wonders.

 

[Emulex]

anything other than sysprep nowadays is unsupported by microsoft.

Do it right the first time!