Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support. Feedback will be sent to Microsoft: By pressing the submit button, your feedback will be used to improve Microsoft products and services. Privacy policy. Before you can deploy a Windows image to new PCs, you have to first generalize the image. Generalizing the image removes computer-specific information such as installed drivers and the computer security identifier SID.
You can either use Sysprep by itself or Sysprep with an unattend answer file to generalize your image and make it ready for deployment. On a generalized Windows image, Windows Setup processes settings in the generalize configuration pass. Even if you're capturing an image that's going to be deployed to a PC with similar hardware, you still have to generalize the Windows installation to remove unique PC-specific information from a Windows installation, which allows you to safely reuse your image.
When you generalize an image, Windows replaces the computer SID only on the operating system volume where you ran Sysprep. If a single computer has multiple operating systems, you must run Sysprep on each operating system individually. Generalizing a Windows installation uninstalls these configured devices, but doesn't remove device drivers from the PC. If you're deploying an image to computers that have identical hardware and devices as the original PC, you can keep devices installed on the computer during system generalization by using an unattend file with Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep PersistAllDeviceInstalls set to true.
You can run Sysprep command up to times on a single Windows image. After running Sysprep times, you must recreate your Windows image. Refer the following table:. In previous versions of Windows, you could use the SkipRearm answer file setting to reset the Windows Product Activation clock when running Sysprep.
If you are using a volume licensing key or a retail product key, you don't have to use SkipRearm because Windows is automatically activated. Installing new Microsoft Store apps or updating your existing Microsoft Store apps before generalizing a Windows image will cause Sysprep to fail. Instead of using the Microsoft Store to update your apps, you should sideload updates to your line-of-business apps, provision offline-licensed Microsoft Store for Business apps for all users, or have end-users update their apps by using the Microsoft Store on their destination PCs.
If Microsoft Store access in a managed environment is disabled by an IT administrator, end-users will not be able to update the Microsoft Store apps.
To generalize an image, you have to first boot into Audit Mode. Boot a PC into Audit Mode. You can choose to either close the System Preparation Tool window or allow it to remain open. Customize Windows by adding drivers, changing settings, and installing programs.
Don't install any Microsoft Store apps using the Microsoft Store. Run Sysprep from Command Prompt. See Sysprep command-line options to see available options. After the computer shuts down, capture your image with DISM. Deploy this image to a reference computer. When the reference computer boots, it displays the Download sysprep tool for windows server 2008 r2 free screen. If you use multiple unattend files during your computer deployment, you can add the following settings to your each of your unattend files so Windows Setup will generalize the PC after processing the unattend file.
Sysprep Process Overview. Sysprep Command-Line Options. Sysprep Support for Server Roles. Work with Product Keys and Activation. Skip download sysprep tool for windows server 2008 r2 free main content.
This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Is this page helpful? Please rate your experience Yes No. Any additional feedback? Important Even if you're download sysprep tool for windows server 2008 r2 free an image that's going to be deployed to a PC with similar hardware, you still have to generalize the Windows installation to remove unique PC-specific information from a Windows installation, which allows you to safely reuse your image.
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