Customize Windows 10 Image in Audit Mode with Sysprep  

smali said:

I have successfully created master image using this tutorial for 1511 compilation, but I don't know how can I upgrade my image to 1607? Is it possible?

Hi Piotr, welcome to Ten Forums.

If you have Windows 10 Pro edition and you used Macrium Reflect to make the image, it's easy. See this tutorial: Macrium viBoot - Create Virtual Machine using Macrium Image - Windows 10 Forums

Macrium viBoot can be used to service, update and upgrade your Macrium system images. It needs Hyper-V which is not available in Home and Single Language editions.

Kari

smali said:

Actually I'm using Audit Mode + SysPrep + Clonezilla for OS Imaging. When I have more spare time I will look for Macrium solution. Is it possible to upgrade master image without Macrium?

As I told, using viBoot it is possible (and easy) if the image is made with Macrium and you have Hyper-V available. I have not heard Clonezilla or other imaging applications offering the same.

I think your only option is to restore the image to a PC, upgrade and make a new image.

OK, somewhat delayed but here is a Windows 10 version 1607 customization video, everything done exactly as told in this tutorial. Please notice that this video is not a walkthrough guide, it requires you to know about the process or at least that you have read the tutorial and / or watched the two videos in it.

Video has no narration but the text overlays should be informative enough for you to understand. I wanted to make this as short as possible just to show how well it works, I promise I will make a complete walkthrough video for version 1607 in near future.

In this video I will do the following:

• Install Windows and boot to Audit Mode
• Update Windows, install language packs (optional)
• When fully updated, restart to Audit Mode
• Install software, customize desktop, File Explorer, Start
• Sysprep with answer file shown under video, with specific OEM information, relocating Users folder to drive D: and copying my customizations to default user profile
• Capture the Windows image with Macrium Reflect

As sysprep was done with /generalize switch the image is hardware independent and can then be restored / deployed to any machine capable of running Windows 10. Instead of clean installing each machine, customizing them and installing all software on them I simply need less than 20 minutes to deploy the image. Fully customized and personalized Windows 10 with all software installed in less time I would need for a clean install.



I used this answer file in project shown in video:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <FolderLocations>
                <ProfilesDirectory>D:\Users</ProfilesDirectory>
            </FolderLocations>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OEMInformation>
                <Logo>C:\Windows\System32\oemlogo.bmp</Logo>
                <Manufacturer>Ten Forums</Manufacturer>
                <Model>TFPC-1</Model>
                <SupportHours>24/7</SupportHours>
                <SupportPhone>+44 123 456 7890</SupportPhone>
                <SupportURL>https://www.tenforums.com</SupportURL>
            </OEMInformation>
            <ComputerName>MyRig</ComputerName>
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
            <OEMName>Ten Forums</OEMName>
            <RegisteredOrganization>Ten Forums</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>Kari</RegisteredOwner>
        </component>
    </settings>
</unattend>

Kari

mrick69 said:

You always keep two images, a MASTER in Audit mode and a DEPLOY that has been Sysprepped. This way you can make as many changes as you want to the MASTER since it is saved without being Sysprepped.

Hyper-V makes servicing what you call Master image easy. As I always create my deployment images on a Hyper-V vm I just need to create a checkpoint before sysprepping. Creating a checkpoint takes less than a minute.

When I want to modify Windows image, I just apply the checkpoint which again takes not half a minute, do my changes, create a new checkpoint and sysprep.

vs2015sv said:

Kari,

Did you build the Windows 10 1067 image from a iso or a upgraded system (Upgraded TH2 to Redstone) & sysprep?

It is a very bad idea to build an image from an upgraded Windows installation. I would never even try to do that!

I of course do all my images by clean installing Windows on technician machine (I always use Hyper-V vm for that), booting it to Audit Mode and starting from there.

Sysprepping / customizing an upgraded Windows image is an easy way to catastrophic outcome. In this thread I will not offer any help or advice for such a silly scenario.

Kari

It's always possible to sysprep an existing Windows installation.

The machine I am using now had last clean install on January when I installed Insider Preview build 11099. Since that this machine has been upgraded 26 times to subsequent Insider builds, at the moment running build 14905. If I wanted to I could simply customize this using my existing local admin user account, or reboot to Audit Mode with built-in admin, do my customizations and sysprep.

Something being possible does not automatically mean it's a good idea.