Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep  

Kari said:

Yes, the link was to TechNet article about KMS activation. That's what you have to do.

I am sorry but you do not seem to understand, Think of this as installing from the base VL DVD and not at the activation part once you have Windows installed. The INSTALL portion is the same as when building a brand new system with the installation DVD. One of the first steps after booting into the installation media is to select "Install". Normally after that you will get to license key and then eventually to the partitioning piece of the puzzle, but in this case the installation media will not bypass the license key portion.

KMS activation does not come into play until you actually have Win 10 installed.

After getting rid of the copyprofile induced search problem (by simply not using copyprofile), I stumbled across the next one: Most of the modern apps (store, mail, people, news, etc...) do not open. In event logs there is some jumbling about licensing, it doesn't matter if windows is activated or not.

I've been creating the image on a physical laptop, only for that model, in audit mode and with an answer file. There's not much customization done in audit mode, just the drivers and Office package - also fully updated before sysprep. I've done this for two separate laptop models and both inhibit the same issue.

Googling didn't help much, most what I found (and probably have been discussed here as well) were about removing provisioned apps, but I haven't tinkered with them at all.

I also installed a hyper-v machine from the same ISO and used the same answer file (although not updating or installing anything before sysprep) and that worked. So now I'm going to try the same but update the VM before sysprep, to see if the updating is the problem.

Unless anyone has any bright ideas :)

salle said:

After getting rid of the copyprofile induced search problem (by simply not using copyprofile), I stumbled across the next one: Most of the modern apps (store, mail, people, news, etc...) do not open. In event logs there is some jumbling about licensing, it doesn't matter if windows is activated or not.

I did an in-place upgrade to fix this issue after relocating user folders when user already existed. I got this issue running apps for existing accounts but not new ones. You could try that.

halasz said:

I did an in-place upgrade to fix this issue after relocating user folders when user already existed. I got this issue running apps for existing accounts but not new ones. You could try that.

What do you mean by "in-place upgrade"? I did try creating another user account and trying to open apps with it, but didn't work.

Also, I started from scratch with the laptops, and installed only drivers and changed some power etc. settings -> works. Now I'm about to test with Office installed (as soon as my audit mode image is backed up).

Edit: Also I forgot to mention, that on last try I installed .net 3.5 before sysprepping. Now I didn't. Not sure if it affects.

salle said:

What do you mean by "in-place upgrade"? I did try creating another user account and trying to open apps with it, but didn't work.

I mean upgrading from Win 10 to Win 10 by clicking on setup.exe from an ISO. It might fix the symptom (did for me) but not whatever went wrong with sysprep of course.

See Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

Hello Kari

I am here with the same issue as a few others folks. The CopyProfile / Search / Cortana issue. I'm in the process of building an image per your instructions. I was wondering if you know of a way via the registry or GPO that I can modify the start menu. I wanted to turn off Most Used, Recently Added, and turn on Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, and Personal folders. Thanks !!

Kari said:

I have exactly the same results. Whatever I do, however the new users are created (in answer file, in OOBE, later on), the order of the tiles does not stick.

I am currently using a couple of hours every working day to test various scenarios and will tell when I have found something.

Hi Kari, just letting you know that I made a little progress on this issue where at least I managed to get the tiles in the order I needed them .... but only when setting copyprofile to false (which defeats the purpose of using it in the first place)!

The export-startlayout powershell command does not extract the XML file in the correct manner and I had to modify it to position the tiles in the way I wanted them to be (image below). I needed to include the StartTileGroupsColumnCount and StartLayout GroupCellWidth tags to position my groups one above the other. Now if only this XML file would work as it should when copyprofile is set to true in the unattend file!!!

Code:

<LayoutModificationTemplate Version="1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification">
<LayoutOptions StartTileGroupsColumnCount="1"/>
<DefaultLayoutOverride>
    <StartLayoutCollection>
      <defaultlayout:StartLayout GroupCellWidth="3" xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout">
        <start:Group Name="Power Options" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout">
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="{1AC14E77-02E7-4E5D-B744-2EB1AE5198B7}\logoff.exe" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="Microsoft.AutoGenerated.{29461002-13B9-698F-0958-1DA8FF4DCA13}" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="Microsoft.AutoGenerated.{89B6E0C3-9FC0-3FD0-41CB-27CB0929D561}" />
        </start:Group>
        <start:Group Name="Microsoft Office" xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout">
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="2" DesktopApplicationID="{7C5A40EF-A0FB-4BFC-874A-C0F2E0B9FA8E}\Microsoft Office\Office12\MSACCESS.EXE" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="2" DesktopApplicationID="{7C5A40EF-A0FB-4BFC-874A-C0F2E0B9FA8E}\Microsoft Office\Office12\INFOPATH.EXE" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="{7C5A40EF-A0FB-4BFC-874A-C0F2E0B9FA8E}\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="0" Row="2" DesktopApplicationID="{7C5A40EF-A0FB-4BFC-874A-C0F2E0B9FA8E}\Microsoft Office\Office12\POWERPNT.EXE" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="2" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="{7C5A40EF-A0FB-4BFC-874A-C0F2E0B9FA8E}\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" />
          <start:DesktopApplicationTile Size="2x2" Column="4" Row="0" DesktopApplicationID="{7C5A40EF-A0FB-4BFC-874A-C0F2E0B9FA8E}\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" />
        </start:Group>
      </defaultlayout:StartLayout>
    </StartLayoutCollection>
  </DefaultLayoutOverride>
</LayoutModificationTemplate>