Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep  

changari said:

BUt i still would like to know about intructions of removing all the appx applications that microsoft has decided to bless us by updating windows 10 with.

Hi Changari,

I had to uninstall each app from within the Windows Start. Those apps are often marked with a "New" sign. So it is quite easy to uninstall those non-default apps, which are automatically installed by Windows Store without asking for permission.

hi again... can u help me with exact command needed..
I can get the info : Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Select DisplayName | Sort DisplayName
i can remove either in group or indiviually .. but i cant seem to add an app back in that i have removed from online
like the Microsoft.WindowsCalculator.. can u assist with exact line needed or a really good example

thanks

changari said:

hi again... can u help me with exact command needed..
I can get the info : Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Select DisplayName | Sort DisplayName
i can remove either in group or indiviually .. but i cant seem to add an app back in that i have removed from online
like the Microsoft.WindowsCalculator.. can u assist with exact line needed or a really good example

thanks

Hi Changari,

I don't think you have to add those apps afterwards, because those apps you have to remove are optional (Bloat ware), not the Windows default apps from Microsoft. So if you have deleted them, it will be of no consequence (unless your users don't need them) for a running operating system. The Windows Calculator is a Microsoft App. And on my site, Sysprep does not complain about those Microsoft Apps. On my site Windows has installed several apps by itself, like Bing News or others. Removing them was without consequence for the later functionality of the Windows image.

Hi guys!

I've been following this guide for quite a while now and have over time refined a fantastic reference image that we deploy on all of our machines. The answer files work great, the OOBE process is completely automated, it's wonderful and couldn't have been done without all the resources I've found within this thread. Thanks to all!

I do have one problem with it though. I created the image (Currently on Windows 10 Pro Fall Creators Update - 1709) in a Hyper-V environment. I am fairly certain the Hyper-V (and perhaps most other hypervisor frameworks) are using a virtual IDE interface for connecting the drives. This works very well in almost every circumstance we've run into installing the reference image on to physical machines. I have deployed it hundreds of times over the past year with no issues.

I have run into a use case here recently where I am having to install windows on a single M.2 nVME SSD along with having mechanical HDD's in a RAID 5 on the built in Intel controller.

Because the controller handles all of the drives (not just the mechanical drives) even the SSD I install the OS on falls under the RAID setup as a non-RAID disk. Deploying the image has not been an issue, I was able to create a WinPE based bootable recovery disk with Acronis True Image (My choice for imaging software) and inject the Intel Rapid Storage Manager drivers into the WinPE WIM and it loads up and can access the OS drive as well as the RAID 5 array I set up, no problem.

The problem I am running into is that once I have the reference image deployed to the machine with the SATA controller set to RAID mode (rather than AHCI) Windows boots to a BSOD calling out inaccessible boot device. I am fairly certain this is because the intel rapid storage driver is not part of the image. I need to get this fixed, surely there has to be a way to deploy a Hyper-V created reference image to a PC with RAID mode enabled.

I just need to know how to get the correct driver baked into the image that will allow me to deploy the image to a machine regardless of the SATA mode (AHCI or RAID). Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Dave

Dave M said:

I just need to know how to get the correct driver baked into the image that will allow me to deploy the image to a machine regardless of the SATA mode (AHCI or RAID). Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Dave,

from my point of view, you have to prepare a new VM. This time with a SCSI-Controller connected with your virtual HDs. Otherwise you have the opportunity to add the RAID controller driver to the image by Windows System Image Manager. I think you have to use the windowsPE configuration pass to do that, because those are 'boot critical drivers'.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/pre...28v%3dws.10%29

Personally I tried the offlineServicing configuratioh pass to add drivers. I ended up in a blue screen. I used this sysprep command then:

sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\unattended.xml



Maybe I misused/misunderstood it.

Currently I am planning to make a plain image for AHCI configurations (REFERENCE IMAGE). The drivers for special chipsets and graphics cards are added later on in Audit mode on the machines themselves (one per unique hardware platform). Those specialised images are then used to setup other platform representatives.

Is there anybody knowing a better resolution? Especially for adding drivers to Kari's reference image in a correct way, don't causing blue screens?

Frank

I made a new image, can't confirm yet if my fix worked or not...

I applied the Intel RST drivers to the boot.wim and install.wim files of the Windows 10 install media using DISM.

Deploying the new image to another VM appears to have retained the injected drivers through the Sysprep process, which is promising. Hopefully having the drivers in the image will allow the OS to recognize the RAID controller and boot into windows rather than going to a BSOD.

I'll know later today if it worked after I make an attempt to deploy the new image on a machine. Will let you know the results.

In retrospect, I probably could have gone to my Hyper-V checkpoint just prior to running sysprep on my working reference and added the drivers to that already built image using the same process. Oh well, the stupid shall be punished. Hah

I wish you the best. Hope it works. If you are new to something great like virtualization and the opportunities it offers, it will be hard to see all existing solutions.

I am looking forward to your result.

Happy to report that adding the RAID drivers to the install.wim and boot.wim of the install media did the trick. Found the built in RAID controller and booted into the OOBE process with no issues. No more booting into a BSOD! Hah, and no more storage spaces volumes...

Oh yeah, not new to virtualization at all. Been working with virtualization for ~15 years now, just never had a need for customized images until recently. :) Nobody knows everything! After 25 years in this crazy world of IT, I still learn new stuff almost every day.

I’m trying to customize my windows 10 during audit mode. Anytime I set a custom wallpaper and run sysprep and then install windows it goes back to default blue wallpaper. Is there another way to make the wallpaper stay for new users?

blumoon said:

I’m trying to customize my windows 10 during audit mode. Anytime I set a custom wallpaper and run sysprep and then install windows it goes back to default blue wallpaper. Is there another way to make the wallpaper stay for new users?

Hi there. That's a good question of which I haven't found an answer. This new member was inquiring the same thing: Custom desktop wallpaper disappears after every update - Windows 10 Forums

Seemed to me it could be performed with Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), but only found a way to change color scheme. GPMC seems to be heading out the door as well. Nothing about it for 10 that I could find.

Anywho, if you find a way, would you please let us know?