Sysprep answer file.....WHY!?!?!? Rich Martinez (RRCC) 6/24/2007 4:41:02 PM Hello, I'm still trying to get Windows Vista to work with the answer file I built and so I did a little bit of research and found an article that basically said that the XML file has 7 passes but it only pays attention to pass 4 (specialize) and pass 7 (OOBE). Also, this article mentions that certain settings have to be put in certain passes for them to work. I have not tried any of this as of yet but why won't Microsoft just make this easy? People are going to use this tool and go crazy because it won't work. The guy who wrote the article spent a whole lot of time doing trial and error. Also, sysprep will only run one time before you get a fatal error. Microsoft has a fix, which I got from them and applied but it does not fix the problem. How are we supposed to test our answer files??? The website for the above mentioned article is http://www.minasi.com. Any thoughts or hellp would be appreciated Thaanks, Rich

Re: Sysprep answer file.....WHY!?!?!? "Duncan" <duncan[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> 6/24/2007 5:34:13 PM Have you read the OPK userguide? It's a very extensive document, and it explains in the introduction how to use the tool. As well, in the WSIM program, you can right-click on any item and it click help and it explains what that function/component does. The answerfile uses all 7 sections of the file - the author must have gotten that wrong. For example, it most certainly uses the WinPE pass. Each pass does a different job, you can skip AuditUser and AuditSystem if you don't need those passes though of course and leave them empty. I'd start by sitting down and reading the help file, and then you should get a better understanding of what you are doing. Cheers "Rich Martinez (RRCC)" <RichMartinezRRCC[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:440FFB47-4040-4CEE-B00E-CEAD31785125[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > Hello, > > I'm still trying to get Windows Vista to work with the answer file I built > and so I did a little bit of research and found an article that basically > said that the XML file has 7 passes but it only pays attention to pass 4 > (specialize) and pass 7 (OOBE). Also, this article mentions that certain > settings have to be put in certain passes for them to work. I have not > tried > any of this as of yet but why won't Microsoft just make this easy? People > are going to use this tool and go crazy because it won't work. The guy > who > wrote the article spent a whole lot of time doing trial and error. > > Also, sysprep will only run one time before you get a fatal error. > Microsoft has a fix, which I got from them and applied but it does not fix > the problem. How are we supposed to test our answer files??? The website > for the above mentioned article is http://www.minasi.com. > > Any thoughts or hellp would be appreciated > > Thaanks, > Rich

Re: Sysprep answer file.....WHY!?!?!? "Duncan" <duncan[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> 6/24/2007 6:43:23 PM Okay, I glanced briefly through that article. From what I saw, the author is simply explaining how to set the OOBE pass so that the end-user doesn't have to go through the first run steps (entering username, password, locale etc.). The author it seems wants to deploy the system in a ready-to-boot in 2 minutes state. I'm not sure what sort of environment this person is deploying into but I can't see why he's going through such hassle to specify each and every little detail for the end-user. For example, end-users should accept the EULA themselves, and they must enter their own product key. If you specifiy a unique product key, and that system is sent out to person A who activates, and then you deploy the same image file to person B and they try to activate it won't work. And why not let users enter their own password, username and pick their own options for Vista? The only reason I can see this guy using sysprep in this manner is either for playing around, or he's deploying inside a lab where he wants all his systems to have the same username/password etc.) "Duncan" <duncan[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:%23HDOLaotHHA.1204[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... [Quoted Text] > Have you read the OPK userguide? It's a very extensive document, and it > explains in the introduction how to use the tool. As well, in the WSIM > program, you can right-click on any item and it click help and it explains > what that function/component does. The answerfile uses all 7 sections of > the file - the author must have gotten that wrong. For example, it most > certainly uses the WinPE pass. Each pass does a different job, you can > skip AuditUser and AuditSystem if you don't need those passes though of > course and leave them empty. > > I'd start by sitting down and reading the help file, and then you should > get a better understanding of what you are doing. > > Cheers > > > "Rich Martinez (RRCC)" <RichMartinezRRCC[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote > in message news:440FFB47-4040-4CEE-B00E-CEAD31785125[ at ]microsoft.com... >> Hello, >> >> I'm still trying to get Windows Vista to work with the answer file I >> built >> and so I did a little bit of research and found an article that basically >> said that the XML file has 7 passes but it only pays attention to pass 4 >> (specialize) and pass 7 (OOBE). Also, this article mentions that certain >> settings have to be put in certain passes for them to work. I have not >> tried >> any of this as of yet but why won't Microsoft just make this easy? >> People >> are going to use this tool and go crazy because it won't work. The guy >> who >> wrote the article spent a whole lot of time doing trial and error. >> >> Also, sysprep will only run one time before you get a fatal error. >> Microsoft has a fix, which I got from them and applied but it does not >> fix >> the problem. How are we supposed to test our answer files??? The >> website >> for the above mentioned article is http://www.minasi.com. >> >> Any thoughts or hellp would be appreciated >> >> Thaanks, >> Rich >