Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep

DavidY · 01 Jun 2015

I'm still having trouble with sysprep fatal errors. As I understand it, Kari has got this to work, but I'm still having no success.

So I've posted a video, just in case someone can spot what I'm doing wrong. Some details of what I'm trying to do are:

Run in a Virtualbox VM
Using Build 10130, converted from ESD to ISO. (But I've had the same problems with 10122 and 10074.)
32-bit version of Windows
Booted in non-EFI mode (I guess I'd call that BIOS mode?)
It's a clean install in a partition which I've deleted in Setup
The video starts when the install has got to the settings screen, with nothing else done in Setup since selecting the partition. At the start of the video I press Ctrl-Shift-F3
I have a VHD linked into the VM, containing installers for Firefox, VLC Player, 7zip, Adobe Reader
Network is disabled in my VM
I want to use sysprep to generalize, as I'm trying to learn more about DISM etc., and all the Microsoft instructions I've seen say you need to generalize in sysprep.
I'm not trying to use an answer file

The video is rough and ready, - I've not had time to edit and there's no sound. (You might want to skip to around 4 minutes 45 into the video for the action .)

So can anyone spot what I'm doing wrong/ not doing? Or is it a defect somewhere?

Thanks for your time!
David

Kari · 02 Jun 2015

DavidY said:

I'm still having trouble with sysprep fatal errors. As I understand it, Kari has got this to work, but I'm still having no success.

So I've posted a video, just in case someone can spot what I'm doing wrong. Some details of what I'm trying to do are:
...

David, I have not yet had time to test Sysprep in 10130. In 10122 it worked perfectly, apart the CopyProfile. I will do some testing and come back to tell how it went.

I've now watched your video and you do it exactly as it should be done. Only one unnecessary step there, I see that you changed the folder view options which of course would not stick because you do not use an answer file with the CopyProfile=True setting.

I'll come back with the results of my tests.

Kari

Kari · 02 Jun 2015

OK, seems that the Generalize fails every time, culprit seems to be Apppackages and the Modern Apps repository:

Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep-2015-06-02_09h04_34.png

Will continue testing.

DavidY · 02 Jun 2015

Hi Kari,

Many thanks for taking the time to look at my video and trying to replicate it.

Kari said:

Only one unnecessary step there, I see that you changed the folder view options which of course would not stick because you do not use an answer file with the CopyProfile=True setting.

Yes you're right of course. I changed the view settings the first 2 times I tried it, so thought I would do the same when I was recording, in case it made a difference (not that it should cause a crash, I think).

Kari said:

OK, seems that the Generalize fails every time, culprit seems to be Apppackages and the Modern Apps repository:

Will continue testing.

Thanks for finding that. I'm reassured that I'm not doing something silly - I guess I'll need to wait for another build.

Kari · 02 Jun 2015

OK, some further testing, seems that all Sysprep scenarios not involving the /generalize switch will work. For instance I just sysprepped the Users folder to drive E: (tutorial) without an issue:

Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep-2015-06-02_09h49_39.png

More testing...

Kari · 02 Jun 2015

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SaggyMaggyPoo · 02 Jun 2015

I read the tutorial with interest, Kari, and generally understand it (I think

).

Can I ask a couple of simple (I hope) questions please:

Firstly, you say this is 'hardware independent'. Does this mean that if I use your tutorial I can create an image that I could put onto a different laptop, say a new one I bought that did not have an OS installed? What about product keys?

Secondly, when my laptop is upgraded to W10 I will get the 'Home' version. Does the tutorial work with this version or only with pro and enterprise?

gtrX · 12 Jun 2015

Hi Kari, I'm getting 10130 to sysprep just fine with a slight work around, copy profile works perfect as well.

tiledatamodelsvc is still playing up in this build

I'm booting to audit mode then making my image customization's, once complete open command prompt and goto the sysprep folder and type out the sysprep /generalize etc command but dont press enter.

Open up Services Snap-in and double-click on tiledatamodelsvc, keep pressing stop on it after 5-6 times it will stop for a while.
Quickly alt+tab to the command prompt window, press enter to run the command then quickly switch back to the tiledatamodelsvc properties.

Now start spamming that stop button like you have never spammed before!
It will keep trying to run while sysprep is doing it's thing so keep spamming and you may see some other error's, just ok them and keep spamming!

Hope that helps, nice thread...

Kari · 12 Jun 2015

Hi gtrX, welcome to the Ten Forums!

gtrX said:

...

Open up Services Snap-in and double-click on tiledatamodelsvc, keep pressing stop on it after 5-6 times it will stop for a while.
Quickly alt+tab to the command prompt window, press enter to run the command then quickly switch back to the tiledatamodelsvc properties.

Now start spamming that stop button like you have never spammed before!
It will keep trying to run while sysprep is doing it's thing so keep spamming and you may see some other error's, just ok them and keep spamming!

Quite an interesting workaround :). I've tried stopping various services in Audit Mode to get the /generalize to work, never thought an approach like this, keep hitting the Stop.

I will do some tests this weekend with this, thanks for sharing.

Kari

Kari · 14 Jun 2015

OK, have been testing this. I do not get it working. Stopping the tiledatamodel service clearly helps somewhat, instead of Sysprep failing straight away it seems to be working, Windows can be booted to OOBE. But after asking the user about the settings, express or customize, when installation should proceed to create user dialog, installation stops with an error message "Windows cannot be installed on this computer".

Tested only on one vm and one real machine, will continue testing this.