New
#420
Sorry, I just mean icons I actually want there and put on the Task bar myself as opposed to those that are already there by default (such as the one that links to Windows Store, which I always remove). I should have said "...the inability to customise the Task Bar by adding/removing icons".
Tolqua.
So I changes these settings in the registry and was able to end the boot loop, then I had to create a new user, I hope this doesn't mean the log file is worthless now?
"
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\AuditBoot
- 0x00000000 (0)
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion\setup.exe
- 0x00000003 (3)
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion\audit.exe
- 0x00000000 (0)
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus\CleanupState
- 0x00000002 (2)
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus\GeneralizationState
- 0x00000007 (7)
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\UnattendPasses\auditSystem
- 0x00000000 (0)
"
I will attach the log-file, I hope it provides the required information.
setupactlog.zip
EDIT: I finally found a thread with HP customers having the same issue and maybe found a solution, which I will try soon and let you know. As these are similar PC models to mine, it really seems like faulty drivers.
Their solution: "Go to F10 BIOS Setup -> Advanced -> System Options -> and uncheck "Allow PCIe/PCI SERR#" Interrupt"
EDIT (again): The BIOS workaround did it for me, HP seems to have messep up for these kind of PCs this model has no fixed BIOS version, others were fixed apparently. Fortunately someone shared this and it did the trick.
So sorry that I bothered you, it was a hardware issue and thanks for your thread :)
Last edited by DerPwny; 21 Jul 2016 at 04:46.
I do not post something, ask you to do something just for fun of it. The workaround batch file and instructions how to use it are there because after the sysprep, when Windows goes through OOBE, the remnants of admin Quick Access are there.
No, I have not found that to be the case. The batch fixes all of Quick Access, not only Recent Items. Sometimes the folders will be correct, sometimes trying to open for instance Desktop or Downloads folders from Quick Access, you get Access Denied because they are still pointing to built-in admin's respective folders.
I would never (repeat: NEVER!) use CCleaner in general and in Audit Mode before sysprep in particular. I would never let a third party application modify Windows registry in Audit Mode, apart from letting software installers add entries they need for applications to run.
Personally. since Windows XP I have never used any registry cleaners, Windows tweakers or optimizers. Generally they do more harm than good, Windows is totally capable of taking care of itself.
Nothing I can suggest that would help you with these. For instance Taskbar, this worked with Windows 8 but does not work with Windows 10: TaskbarLinks
Simply, sysprep and answer file documentation is not up to date. Mostly when you search the web for references, you'll find that MS articles are for previous Windows versions, published years ago.
There are several unofficial not supported ways to do stuff which Windows will not do when sysprepped. I will not discuss about these ways because I need to know that this tutorial stays within the Microsoft supported boundaries.
Kari
Here's how I do it (works for Win 7 - Win 10)
The following is a .bat file that we run where, in our unattend file, we name the PC "TESTPC01". The program then performs a "search and replace" function and adds a prefix (that is related to the PHYSICAL location of the computer as we have multiple sites) to the serial number of the computer (obtained by the WMIC command). Our unattend file for this purpose is called MyAnswerFile2.xml.
Therefore, instead of running sysprep from the command prompt, it is run from this file DIRECTLY from AUDIT MODE AFTER all modifications have been brought forth to the image (all software installed and start menu modified to our liking).
COPY PROFILE is set to TRUE (had the search bar issue but solved it by removing latest Windows security update).
@echo off
for /F %%a in ('wmic bios get serialnumber') do call :Sub %%a
powershell -Command "(gc c:\MyAnswerFile2.xml) -replace 'TestPC01', 'XX-%SerialNumber%' | Out-File -Encoding "UTF8" c:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\AnswerFiles\unattend.xml"
C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /reboot /unattend:c:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\AnswerFiles\unattend.xml
goto :eof
:Sub
if not "%*"=="" set SerialNumber=%*
:eof
NOTE FOR DENIISE AND KARI:
In order to get the start menu modifications to carry over to ALL new logons, we first unpinned unwanted W10 apps (all of them) and then proceded to pin the apps we DID want (Chrome, FireFox and IE - Office2013 Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint, and Publisher as well as our own "intranet web apps".
Exported using Powershell in Admin mode:
Export-StartLayout -Path C:\users\administrator\appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\layoutmodi
fication.xml
Import-StartLayout -LayoutPath C:\users\administrator\appdata\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\layoutmodification.xml -MountPath $env:SystemDrive\
THEN, using Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer, import layoutmodification.xml into a provisioning package project, sellect Common to All Windows Desktop Editions, click on Runtime Settings, Start, Start Layout, export the package, add it to a folder on your imaging machine that would be deleted in SCRIPTS and RUN the package (you only need to do this ONCE and accept the pop-up about coming from a trusted source) - this has NOT failed (yet) to maintain our start menus for staff as well as (different) menus for PUBLIC use.
I hope you find this helpful (and timely).
R
Hi,
Thanks for your step by step guide!
I'm curious though about this:
Assuming they're all x64, should I have different images ready for different types of machines?
Such as: legacy boot using mbr; uefi using mbr; uefi using gpt.
Is my question clear? I hope so.
Thanks in advance.
Yes, of course. That's only logical. For instance if using Hyper-V vm to create the image, select Generation 1 vm if deploying to BIOS / MBR systems, and Generation 2 vm if deploying to UEFI / GPT systems (as shown in first video at 1:52).
UEFI / MBR and BIOS / GPT are not doable in Hyper-V; you need to use physical machine as technician machine if these images are needed.
In other words, BIOS and UEFI systems require their own deployment images.