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We've created a customized Windows 8.1 Pro installation (including all the programs, settings, and additional user accounts we need). We'd like to deplay this image onto about 90 of our computers, so for starters we used sysprep to generalize that installation. It worked just fine (the command used was: sysprep /oobe /generalize /reboot), the target computer rebooted, device drivers got reinstalled, the login screen appeared with all three accounts we created on the source machine and bam! Everytime we want to log-in using any of those accounts we are greeted by "You have been logged on with a temporary profile" message, despite the fact that corresponding folders exist under d:\Users - which is where we moved it to with autounattend.xml during Windows installation.

Now, my question is, is there any way to maintain existing user accounts/settings when sysprepping a Windows installation? I do know that there's this "copyprofile" option for sysprep, but from what I understand it can only be used to customize default user profile, which is not what we need. Our objective is to maintain each and every aspect of those user accounts and system settings we need down to desktop arrangement and quick launch icons layout. Is there any way to do that?

DeepSpace101
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pietrek
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2 Answers2

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It turns out out that sysprep resets permissions on your default Users folder - I think it's some kind of security mechanism. We simply created a new administrative account called "test" with OOBE wizard, logged in and used it to restore proper folder permissions for all of our user accounts. Everything seems fine now. Consider this question closed.

pietrek
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I was having the same issues with the user profiles. I setup a WDS server to push my installation to the PC's. What worked was to make use of ImageX. You will need to setup a reference PC with everything you want in your installation. Create a USB drive with a Windows PE environment. Make use of ImageX and created an image of the whole disk. Take this image and drop in in to the WDS server. This is what worked for me.

Also check there is a new version of the Windows AIK that specifically works with Windows 8.

WDS 2012 For Win 8 Check here for info For Win 7

StBlade
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