Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep  

mrick69 said:

My first attempts to build a 10 image have been pretty good for the most part. I used the commands in a PostRun.bat file as suggested in this post. One thing that is not working correctly is the Cortana Search. I can type in the textbox but it doesn't find what I'm searching for in my signed in profile. If I move the item from my profile Documents folder and put it in the Administrator's Documents folder, then it finds it. So it seems that Cortana Search is searching in the profile that was copied by Sysprep. Is this what you are seeing Rockasatwork?

Hey mrick69, we've disabled Cortana and Web Search with 2 local GPO edits. So the taskbar dosn't show the cortana symbol and searches local only - well, that since we go to audit mode or sysprep. In audit mode/sysprep you can't even click on search. It gets darker Grey when u mouseover and nothing opens. Trying to start search over rightclick startmenu has the same effect. Searching over Explorer works.
We've also installed a new machine with Windows 10, skipped with strg, shift and f3 to audit mode - changed nothing, copied an easy unattend.xml and sysprep. same effect. search dosn't work.

SmileyPK said:

My advice would be to make the specific edits you need to the Default profile (either by putting files or by editing NTUSER.DAT). This is what CopyProfile is already doing; it's just that CopyProfile copies almost EVERYTHING, which is where the issues come from. Making the specific edits is basically a more surgical version of CopyProfile so that all the bad edits don't come along, too.

Thanks again for your input on this, SmileyPK, but "making the specific edits" isn't an option for me. It may well be a more surgical way to achieve the specific customisations, but I'm no surgeon and the procedure is already way too complex given the relative benefits in my situation (six users, less than 8 devices).

It's either use CopyProfile to capture the user profile or do all the customisations after SysPrep, creating and modifying each user profile in turn and accept that any new users will have default settings. Since I don't foresee the need for any new users at this time, it's looking like this might be the better way to go. It's a bit more work, but saves the risk of my fears that the 'IE11/O365 admin' symptom is an indicator of much deeper damage.

I can still run SysPrep before capturing the image for deployment via Macrium so that likelihood of identity conflicts on the LAN are minimised. It's just a pity that such a powerful command can't be relied on, but a much greater shame that Microsoft won't facilitate any dialogue that might get some attention focussed on such an important issue.

Having invested so much time in this customisation project now, I'll likely give it a try with CopyProfile and just keep a close eye on things, knowing there's always a plan B.

Tolqua.

So it appears that the Documents folder is not in Indexed locations. There's no place to add it. Group Policy redirects the Documents location to a network share; but it should be visible in this list. Anyone know how to correct this?

At first, I thought it was Sysprep since the PCs here have offline files disabled by Group Policy yet the redirected Documents folder is in Indexed locations and searchable via Cortana search. These Window 10 PCs are the previous version upgraded from Windows 7.



The PC that doesn't have Documents in Indexed locations is version 1607. Even before I sysprep it, the folder is not listed. I wonder how the older version of 10 is indexing that folder with offline files disabled.

Tolqua, do what you want, but I can tell you from experience that you're going to have issues. If you can deal with them, that's good. Our problem was that it ended up causing issues that we could've never foreseen. The IE issue is a prime example; who could've predicted CopyProfile would cause that?

SmileyPK said:

Tolqua, do what you want, but I can tell you from experience that you're going to have issues. If you can deal with them, that's good. Our problem was that it ended up causing issues that we could've never foreseen. The IE issue is a prime example; who could've predicted CopyProfile would cause that?

Hmm, maybe I should be more cautious, then, especially as you're saying I WILL have problems ...and I can live without the CopyProfile benefits because I don't foresee the need to add new users anyway.

I can still use SysPrep to add the six known user accounts and redirect their folders. I'll just have to document the customisations and apply then manually, one at a time, before deploying with Macrium.

Tolqua.

Hi there, in that tutorial User Profiles were moved to different partition - is it available to reinstall Windows and use old user profiles?