Windows 10 Retail Mode randomly shows up updating fresh images

So I work in IT at a community college and we are getting ready for moving our staff over to Windows 10. We use Norton Ghost imaging to image all the computers on campus which is a process- but hey it free!
We have a wide variety of computers across campus which require us to generalize all of our images beforehand to make sure the drivers always work. We have run into problem after problem but have made lots of head-way. The problem we are stuck at the moment is Darrin DeYoung.

After imaging, the computer will boot into windows 10 just fine with our admin account working properly; but after installing the anniversary update the computer boots into retail mode seemingly out of nowhere with no reason as to why it is activated. There is no RetailAdmin account, just Darrin Deyoung.

It shouldn't be coming up since the only way to turn it on is either manually during the specialized pass in the generalization process or by clicking Windows 5 times in the activation settings; both of which were never done.

I know how to disable/delete it manually by following guides, but with the amount of computers we are dealing with we simply don't have the time to go through that process on every computer. If anyone has any insight as to why this is happening and how to fix our imaging process, please let me know!:)

Welcome to the forum. Why are you putting an old version of win10 on not the latest update? If its pre anniversey then your going to get 2 massive updates disrupting the job and giving problems and you could find some wont work so it better to use the lates version. What version of ghost are you using as it wasnt compatable with 10 at one stage in version 15

Thanks!
Well we tried running all the update prior to imaging but Darrin Deyoung would pop up and take over either immediately or after a few login attempts. Then we tried it without all the updates and we never saw Darrin until we ran the update one by one and caught it again, so we figured it was part of the update along with our imaging process that was the catalyst for Darrin.
I'm using an older version 12.0.0.10517(my coworker says its compatible with Windows 10 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

Did you try removing it in Disk Cleanup ? Check the box and enter trs10 when prompted for password.



Here's an alternative method - http://www.askvg.com/tip-how-to-deac...in-windows-10/

Whatever you do, do NOT activate the retail mode, it will overwrite all User accounts and roll computer back to base Windows 10 install.

Marida said:

I know how to disable/delete it manually by following guides, but with the amount of computers we are dealing with we simply don't have the time to go through that process on every computer. If anyone has any insight as to why this is happening and how to fix our imaging process, please let me know!:)

I'm looking for a preventative fix.

We don't have much use for those(unless i'm just naive). The intent for these images isn't for backing up files continuously; we just need to copy-paste systems. Until we get a ghostcast server setup we have just been creating an image of a pc for the intended classroom and then formatting the new pc's with the new image. No need for partitioning or any other features.

cereberus said:

I would never use Ghost anymore for image backups.

There are many far superior and reliable free tools eg Macrium Reflect Free (best in opinion of most on this forum)...

I'm not sure that the Free licence for Macrium Reflect would cover usage in this scenario (that is, not just personal use) in any case?