Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep  

Kari said:

It has to be the install.wim file, the boot.wim is not the same. You need either a install.wim file to create the catalog file needed, or an already created catalog file.

You can use this, it's a Windows 10 Pro X64 RTM Build 10240 EN-US catalog file: install_Windows 10 Pro.zip. Notice that you need to unzip it first.

Kari

Thanks Kari - that seemed to help. Wasn't smooth sailing though.

After Step 6.3 (Execute the Sysprep command), I tried shutting down, except I couldn't access the start menu. I couldn't access anything actually besides task manager. I could get to the run dialog from task manager, but no matter what I tried to run from there, it just did not execute. Not even Shutdown /F. Hitting my laptop's Power button seemed to shut it down gracefully though.

After the shutdown, I powered it back up expecting to continue with the setup, but was then faced with a flashing blue and black screen with the loading circle starting up for a split second over and over again.

I restarted the laptop and booted off the usb stick and clicked repair. This kicked off the rest of the installation process successfully.

So for my setup I create two users and edit them before running Sysprep. they are named Kiosk and Office

the issue is the built in apps in C:\users\Kiosk\AppData\Local\Packages have a reference that needs to be cleared out, I would assume sysprep should take care of this but it does not.

so after I setup everything and sysprep is ready to go, I remove everything in the packages folder for both my users.

then I run sysprep and capture the image.

after windows installs and I login to the users for the first time, windows recognizes that the built in apps are no longer present and installs them for me...it takes about 3 minutes to finish on my machine, there is no indicator I just watched the Packages folder as it kept adding in the apps.

afterwards start works, cortana works, and the built in apps work, all my config changes remain and I have a nice vanilla start menu.

screw you Microsoft

FINN

Hi everyone,

For those experiencing Start menu and search breaking (sometimes even the notifications center). Besides being an update issue, a cortana bug, a copy_profile parameter incompatibility ...etc, if you had " Registry Reviver " software (as a standalone software or as a part of the PCReviver suite) installed, and you've used it (before, while or after syspreping), I can assure you @100% that the software is whether the exclusive source of your problem, or in the best cases, a part of it.

Thoroughly tested on Win 10 x64, pro and enterprise (Did no test on 32 bits, the software itself being 64bits compatible). Performing a registry cleaning may or may not break the components in question (I don't know on what it depends), but the registry defragmenter with absolutely no doubt will.

After defragmenting the registry using the software, two case scenarios happened on my machine :

1- The computer reboots normally, but after login in, the components are broken ( you may or may not, again, rebuild them by the now famous Get-AppXPackage in powershell, but soon after restarting, they are broke again)

2- The computer can't even start, it hangs a brief moment at the windows splash screen, then BSOD : NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM (Ntfs.sys).

Do not use that software, at least for the moment. It seems it's not truly compatible with 10. Alternatives : Auslogics, Glary (The two free ones I tested, there might be others).

PS :
Aaron
August 19, 2015 @ 2:35 am

Thank you so very much!!! I have Windows 10 and I downloaded a rubbish PC cleaner called PC Reviver. I did a Registry Defrag that made Cortana and the Start Menu inaccessible and could not restore. Entering your script into Windows Powershell as admin made it work. I thought I would never get the Start Menu, Cortana, Battery Icon, Wifi Icon, Sound Icon and Notification Icon working again.


Aaron
August 22, 2015 @ 4:57 am

UPDATE: For me this is a temporary fix and everytime I shutdown I have to re enter the script into Powershell to gain access to Start Menu and Cortana

Source of this testimony (Wish I could've seen it earlier, like him, I discovered the problem the hard way) : http://techdows.com/2015/06/fix-star...ild-10122.html (Refer to the comments section)

Bear in mind :
Registry reviver Version used : 4.3.0.12.
Drive type is MBR not GPT (if it is relevant in any way to the software developers).

Goodluck.

chrisdk781 said:

So for my setup I create two users and edit them before running Sysprep. they are named Kiosk and Office

the issue is the built in apps in C:\users\Kiosk\AppData\Local\Packages have a reference that needs to be cleared out, I would assume sysprep should take care of this but it does not.

so after I setup everything and sysprep is ready to go, I remove everything in the packages folder for both my users.

then I run sysprep and capture the image.

after windows installs and I login to the users for the first time, windows recognizes that the built in apps are no longer present and installs them for me...it takes about 3 minutes to finish on my machine, there is no indicator I just watched the Packages folder as it kept adding in the apps.

afterwards start works, cortana works, and the built in apps work, all my config changes remain and I have a nice vanilla start menu.

screw you Microsoft

FINN

I use a setup account for the fresh install. Do all updating, and adding of additional software. then sysprep to audit
cd sysprep
sysprep /audit /reboot
I then audit the system, remove the set up account and use my answer file to copy profile and create the local admin account. It also activates window and office when deployed. If you want to set a customized start screen for new user you can use power shell. For example
Export-StartLayout -Path 'C:\users\All Users\Desktop\customlayout.xml' -verbose
Import-StartLayout -LayoutPath 'C:\users\All Users\Desktop\customlayout.xml'-MountPath c:\ -verbose
del 'C:\users\All Users\Desktop\customlayout.xml' -verbose
Note that this will only customize the start screen for "new" users.
Also note that after this first Windows 10 upgrade any new profiles added seemed to be created using corrupted data from the default profile. Since windows didn't wipe out the old default profile data, just copied and migrated it as far as I can see I was able to copy files from the old folder to the new one and that seemed to fix most of the issues.

Cricky dingo...

I've been having an issue in creating an answer file in Windows SIM where the error reads, "1:44 PM : This application requires version 10.0.10240.16384 of the Windows ADK.
Install this version to correct the problem
1:44 PM :
1:44 PM : Error opening Windows image at C:\Users\amcma\Desktop\install.wim.
1:44 PM :
1:44 PM : System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.WimFileHandle..ctor(String wimPath)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.WimInfo..ctor(String wimPath)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.Cpi.OpenWim(String wimPath)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ImagePicker.GetImageInfoFromPath(String path)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ImagePicker.ValidateImageFileOrFolder(String fileOrFolder)"

I have build 10586 running on the machine, all required components of Windows ADK installed but it won't open the install.wim file I converted from .esd that was pulled from the official x64 image of 10 build 10586.

Ugh.

Coke Robot said:

Cricky dingo...

I've been having an issue in creating an answer file in Windows SIM where the error reads, "1:44 PM : This application requires version 10.0.10240.16384 of the Windows ADK.
Install this version to correct the problem
1:44 PM :
1:44 PM : Error opening Windows image at C:\Users\amcma\Desktop\install.wim.
1:44 PM :
1:44 PM : System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.WimFileHandle..ctor(String wimPath)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.WimInfo..ctor(String wimPath)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.Cpi.OpenWim(String wimPath)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ImagePicker.GetImageInfoFromPath(String path)
at Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ImagePicker.ValidateImageFileOrFolder(String fileOrFolder)"

I have build 10586 running on the machine, all required components of Windows ADK installed but it won't open the install.wim file I converted from .esd that was pulled from the official x64 image of 10 build 10586.

Ugh.

If you ever used another version of ADK on the system you are trying to create your answer file with, it won't work. Even uninstalling the old one and reinstalling the correct version didn't work for me. I just used a fresh VM, installed ADK, and used that to get my answer file from my install.wim. Also I did not need to make a new answer file after reinstalling the November Edition. I downloaded the media creation tool, installed pro and activated with our EDU Serial. I used the same answer file to sysprep the new version. I'm not sure what the install.esd is all about but I couldn't get it to work with WSIM

Deleting the packages folder worked for us as well.

Does anyone know if Microsoft plans to fix this bug? We should not have to delete the folder and wait for them to re-populate once you log into the preconfigured accounts.
I have posted on Microsoft's forums and have not had any reply from anyone.

So far during our testing/sysprepping we found 3 pretty major issues.. as most of us here have...

sysprep is brakes the start menu, search and corina
unable to create a system image unless you delete restore points
unable to backup to thumb drive.

I sure hope windows plans to address these issues.