Pre-Installing Windows

[Wall7486]

I have always been curious in how those PC vendor pre-install windows to their customers. When the customer receives the PC they are prompt to install Windows from a fresh start. I'm just curious in how the vendor can run all the 3Dmark, PCmark tests on the computer, install the nitty gritty(anti-virus, media software, etc) and the customer ends up having to install Windows from scratch.

 

[stash]

When the customer receives the PC they are prompt to install Windows from a fresh start

Who does this? Every OEM I've seen sysprep's their machines so that when the user first fires it up, the computer goes through a mini-setup where they enter their personal information, timezone, etc.

I also haven't heard of OEMs running 3DMark, etc tests on their machines (not all of them, anyway).

 

[Wall7486]

Oh for instance like VoodooPc and especially OverdrivePC. OPC actually advertise that they guarantee specific 3Dmark scores on their PC to their customers. That is why I'm curious in how they actually run these tests on a newly built PC, and the customers are still able to install windows from scratch.

 

[stash]

Hmm, interesting. Maybe they image the machine with a standard in-house image used for testing. They run the test and then reimage with a sysprepped image that will go to the customer.

 

[shortylickens]

The latest eMachine my mom got right before Xmas was all ready and good to go. It assumed central time zone and logged her in as Admin. It never asked to set up any extra users. I guess XP was already activated, (which seems like it may be a bad thing).
The only blue screen setup she had to deal with was setting up internet access. Since she was on broadband this was darn near automatic.