I get enough questions about sysprep that I thought I’d faq some of the top questions of when where and why to sysprep.
Q. Where can I find sysprep?
A. You’ll find sysprep in on the XP media in a cab file called deploy.cab in a folder called \Support\Tools
Q. Do I have to sysprep every computer?
A. No, you only need to sysprep computers you’re making a clone of, and that you plan to add to Domain.
Q. If I use sysprep and put my username and password in it, will it be secure?
A. First, you don’t put domain admin credentials in a sysprep.ini file. Just create a user and delegate the right to add a computer. Second, if you create a sysprep folder on the root of the c:\ drive windows setup will delete it during set up. Thirdly, if you are using a program like Ghost you’ll be able see all files using the console; so make sure that not everyone can get to your Ghost files.
Q. Why can’t I use Ghost Walker or some other program to recreate the sid?
A. You can, Microsoft doesn’t support it, and if you ever have to fall back on Microsoft support, you’re… well, screwed.
Q. Why don’t you (me) use the Auto-generate name feature in sysprep?
A. Because naming a computer something CVC12YR-567 has no real use to me.
Q. Is there an easy way to create the sysprep.ini file?
A. Yes, you can create the sysprep.ini file using a program in the deploy.cab called the Setupmgr.exe
I’d be happy to answer other sysprep questions, but I thought I’d get these out of the way once and for all. You might also want to check out this old Ghosting post, it has some good sysprep stuff in it too.
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