Need help with changing SID on work PCs

[dlock13]

Well, at work we use a base image to set up the PCs that have all of our applications installed, all of the settings for profiles set up, and essentially everything ready to go save for a few applications we install after we image a PC.

We use a program called ZenWorks which we use to remotely manage PCs and deploy updates/policies/whatever. Anyway, we've been having a huge amount of issues with the newest version lately because of the fact that the way we have been imaging computers does not randomize the SID and instead just replicates it and recreates it on every PC we have on our network. Essentially, say Computer A has 2 users. The SID for User 1 is 123 and user 2 is 124. Computer B is using the same image and has the same base SID so when User 3 and 4 sign in, they get SID - 123 and then SID - 124 which ends up causing ZenWorks to corrupt itself on each PC.

So we need to figure out a new way to image these computers and change the SIDs on them. We know of the tool SysPrep, but we haven't used it yet because we're still in testing with it.

My question is how do we go about randomizing the SID on each PC without having to set up all of the applications and such and recreate our Admin profile. I researched it a little bit and noticed that a few articles on using SysPrep mention not to have applications installed when you run it. If that's the case, then it could seriously slow us down. I'm trying to figure out a way to run the tool to change the SID without having to set up Windows again or at least the settings again.

I was thinking if it doesn't affect everything other than some settings, we can use ZenWorks to push out a few policies when we register the computer and that sets it up to how we need it.

I'm not too sure on where to go from here. We've been brainstorming ourselves, but I figured there's a lot of IT Pros on AT that can definitely help with this situation.

Thanks!

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I'm not sure about the applications but I put a few on my images such as adobe and office 2010.

What i've done is to do an install of windows 7, then run the sysprep tool, then turn off the pc. Then I make an image of the drive.

After that I have been able to successfully restore the image on a new identical machine and it works fine.

Perhaps someone else can share their experiences?

 

[xSauronx]

if you use XP, there is a tool called newsid. unsupported but free, i think its an old sysinternals tool, and will change the SID

otherwise i believe sysprep is the only option. you CAN image with sysprep, but most vendors wont support that officially, and it could break some software i guess. ive used it with office and a few minor utils (java, reader, flash, etc) but only ever tried it once with any special vendor software.

sysprep doesnt require much testing...theres a boatload of documentation and how tos available for using it, from the very basics to creating an answer file and doing your own customization....which is what you should do in an enterprise environment, which i assume is what you have if you bother to use zenworks.

do you use zenworks for image deployment, as well? i know version 10 or 11 supports it, but honestly i found it annoying to use. WDS is a free server 2008 role and might work, i think the WAIK will also let you do some software additions with the image, but i honestly never spent much time with it and havent read up on it in some time.

how many PCs are we talking here...just curious