Creation of a Universal Image

Using Windows XP Pro SP3 for Dells

1. Select the Master Mold Machine
   1. The best choice is to use a virtual machine, and this is what will be used for my process.
      1. I use Virtual PC from Microsoft because it it free, uses very basic hardware and I work at a MS shop.
      2. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
   2. If you can’t use a virtual machine try to pick a reference machine to use as your build system that is old enough that every driver for all of the hardware is included on the Windows XP Pro SP3 CD. If this is not an option, pick the slowest machine you have available.
      • Do not install any drivers onto the machine as part of the OS build.
      • Do not have any external devices plugged into the computer such as Scanners, Printers, USB Devices, etc.
      • The system must be of Dell origin when using the Dell VLK, otherwise the OS will not allow you past Genuine Advantage.
2. Boot from the Reference Media
   1. Press F12 to boot the reference machine from a “XP Pro SP3 SIF v3.1“ or later version. Select CD and install the operating system. During the Windows Setup process follow these guidelines:
      • During the initial XP Setup, press the F5 key when Setup asks you to press F6 for adding mass storage drivers. The installation will let you know it was unable to detect the type of computer and will present you with a list of options. This is where you specify the HAL to be installed. I would recommend selecting the “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC” option as a good starting point. Most new hardware will support this option.
3. Manual CD Install Process
   1. When prompted to create a partition use the following Guidelines:
      • • Microsoft Best Practices for image deployment suggest that you should use the smallest possible partition size. This will keep the size of the image file reduced and will allow you to deploy the image to machines with smaller hard drives then the original.
          Recommended Settings:
          1. Base Windows XP with SP3:
             Create a C:\ partition that is 8030MB in size
          2. Base Windows XP with SP3 OS + Office
             Create a C:\ partition that is 12030MB in size

Important: Leave the remainder of the drive unformatted!

1. 1. Do not join the computer to the domain. Just leave the default “Workgroup”
   2. At the end of the OS install, Windows will prompt you to create a username of the computer. I recommend the name “DELETEME” because it will remind you about the steps you will be taking later in this process.

1. Windows Preparation Process – Necessary if not using the SIF install Disk
   1. When the installation of the OS has completed successfully and you’ve booted into Windows, open up the Windows Control Panel and select “User Accounts”
   2. Select “Change the way users log on or off”
   3. Uncheck “Use the Welcome screen”
   4. Uncheck “Use Fast User Switching”
   5. Click “Apply Options”
   6. Log off of the computer.
   7. Log on using the username “Administrator” and the password you set during the installation.
   8. To help standardize the desktop look and feel it is often required that you configure a common “Default” User Profile so that any user created on the computer will maintain the same look at feel. This is done by performing the following steps after you have completed the previous step:
   9. Open “My Computer”
      • Choose “Tools”
      • Choose “Folder Options”
      • Choose “View”
      • Under the “Advanced Settings” scroll down to the bottom of the list and uncheck the box “Use Simple File Sharing.”
      • Click Apply
      • Click Ok
   10. Open Windows Control Panel
       • Choose Add or Remove Programs
       • Choose Add/Remove Windows Components
       • I would recommend removing the following programs:
         • Accessories & Utilities > Games
         • MSN Explorer
         • Network Services
         • Windows Messenger
   11. To make the image smaller, turn off System Restore as follows:
       • Right-click on “My Computer”
       • Choose “Properties”
       • Select the “System Restore” tab
       • Turn off “System Restore”
   12. Turn off the Windows Swap File as follows:
       • Click on the “Start” menu
       • Right-click on “My Computer”
       • Choose Properties
       • Choose Advanced
       • Choose Performance
       • Choose Settings
       • Choose “Virtual Memory”
       • Select the C:\ drive
       • Select “No paging file”
       • Click the Set Button
       • Click OK
       • Do not reboot yet.
   1. Make any additional changes required to the Start Menu
   2. Make any additional changes required to the Desktop
   3. Make any additional changes required to the Screensaver or Windows Theme
   4. Make any additional changes required to the Windows Taskbar
   5. Empty the Windows Recycle Bin
   6. Reboot the computer
   7. Logon to the computer with the username “Deleteme” which was created as part of the Windows setup
   8. Open “My Computer”
      • Choose “Tools
      • Choose “Folder Options”
      • Choose the tab “View”
      • Put a check in the box “Show hidden files and folders
      • Click OK
      • Close “My Computer”
   1. Click on the Windows Start Menu
      • Right-Click on “My Computer”
      • Chose Properties
      • Choose the tab “Advanced”
      • Under the User Profiles section choose “Settings”
      • Single-click on the Administrator’s profile and choose “Copy To”
      • Select Browse, and browse to the folder:
        “C:\Documents and Settings\default user”
      • Under the “Permitted to use option click “Change”
      • Type in “Everyone”
      • Click OK
      • Click OK to copy the profile
      • When this has completed, log off of the computer

1. Log onto the computer with the username “Administrator”
2. We will now delete the user profile for “DeleteMe” as follows:
   1. Right-click on “My Computer”
   2. Choose “Manage”
   3. Expand “Local Users and Groups”
   4. Delete the username “DeleteMe”
   5. Close the MMC
   6. Open Windows Explorer
   7. Delete the folder “C:\Documents and Settings\DeleteMe” which is the default user profile that was created.
   8. Empty the Windows Recycle Bin

1. Windows Preparation Process Part 2

1. Copy the i386 folder from the Windows XP Pro with SP3 CD to C:\i386
2. Change the source paths used by Windows to not point to the CD-ROM as follows:
3. Click on the Start button.
4. Select Run
5. Type in “Regedit” and press “Enter”
6. Edit the 4 following Windows registry keys:
   1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
      CurrentVersion\Setup\Installation Sources to read “C:\”
   2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
      CurrentVersion\Setup\ServicePackSourcePath to read “C:\”
   3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
      CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath to read “C:\”
   4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\
      CurrentVersion\SourcePath to read “C:\i386″
7. Reboot the computer to ensure the registry changes you made take effect.
8. Log back into Windows using the Administrator account.
9. Copy drivers to C:\Drivers
10. Copy Driver Tool to C:\Driver\DriverPacks
11. Clear the unnecessary source .zip files and .exe files from the system specific drivers

1. Sysprep Tool Phase 1

1. From the Windows XP Sp3 CD, extract the Deploy.cab file located in the Support\Tools folder to C:\Sysprep
   1. Or use the 500gb Seatools drive
   2. Copy Mysysprep as well into c:\sysprep
   3. Copy DriverScanner.exe to C:\sysprep
2. Run c:\sysprep\Setupmgr.exe
   1. Under “Type of Setup” select “Sysprep Setup”
   2. Select “Window XP Professional”
   3. Select “Fully Automated”
   4. For Distribution Share select “Set up from a CD”
   5. Accept Licence
   6. For Name “Broward County” for Organization “Aviation Department”
   7. Set Computer Name to “MT-ISS-%AssetTag%”
   8. Set admin password and login count to 2
   9. In the Run Once tab enter “C:\Drivers\DriverPacks\DriverPacks.net\DP_Install_Tool.cmd”

With the quotations!!

• • • Save the Sysprep.inf to “C:\Sysprep\sysprep.inf” in the end, you actually have to press cancel in the end.

1. Sysprep Tool Phase 2
   1. Customize Sysprep in such a way so that it looks like the template provided in the shared drive.
      • Copy the sysprep.inf file from the \\Techtools\Images and Tools\Sysprep
   2. Sections to change include:
      • [Unattended]
      • unattendedMode=FullUnattended
      • OemSkipEula=Yes
      • TargetPath=\WINDOWS
      • InstallFilesPath=C:\
      • ConfirmHardware=No
      • OverwriteOemFilesOnupgrade=No
      • DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
      • oempreinstall=yes
      • updateInstalledDrivers=Yes
   3. At the end insert
      • [Sysprep]
      • BuildMassStorageSection=yes
   4. Add the Mass Storage Drivers
      • Select Run
      • Type in C:\sysprep\sysprep.exe -BMSD
   1. Verify the [SysprepMassStorage] section is now populated
   2. Add the following lines at the top of the section:
      • pnp0303=C:\windows\inf\keyboard.inf
      • pnp0f03=C:\windows\inf\msmouse.inf
      • pnp0f0b=C:\windows\inf\msmouse.inf
      • pnp0f0e=C:\windows\inf\msmouse.inf
      • pnp0f12=C:\windows\inf\msmouse.inf
      • pnp0f13=C:\windows\inf\msmouse.inf
   3. Save the Sysprep.inf file and close it.
   • This will Build the Mass Storage Device Section which will populate the [SysprepMassStorage] section created in the previous step
   • Open the c:\sysprep\sysprep.inf file:

1. Using Windows Explorer, browse to C:\i386:
   1. Create a new subfolder named $OEM$ to store the drivers and several other important configuration files.
   2. In the C:\i386\$OEM$ subfolder, create a text file called cmdlines.txt. This file is used after Sysprep runs but before the Windows login screen and will be used to clean up unnecessary Mass Storage Driver device entries. The contents of the file should read as follows:
   3. [commands]
   4. “C:\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe -clean”
   5. 
      

1. 1. Create the subfolder C:\i386\$OEM$\$1\Drivers
2. Remove Admin password
3. Install RADMIN and configure accordingly
4. Install Antivirus for whichever domain
5. Empty Recycle Bin
6. Remove WGA
7. Make any last customizations to your image based on your corporate build processes.
8. Create a backup image of your computer BEFORE running Sysprep. Because of the nature of Sysprep, you only get one shot to make things work. Rather than starting completely over, using the image you create here will save you lots of time and energy. A suggestion would be to name the image “XPB4SP”
9. After the image is completed, reboot the computer into Windows XP. If Windows Plug and Play prompts you to reboot your computer, do so.
10. Right-click on “My Computer”
    1. Choose Manage
    2. Select “Device Manager”
    3. Hardware that does not have drivers installed will be listed with a Yellow exclamation point. It is critical to properly uninstall these devices before continuing. To do this, right-click on the device and choose “Uninstall”
11. Run C:\sysprep\sysprep.exe -reseal -mini -quiet

Note: Do not be surprised if this step takes up to 30 minutes to run. When it is complete Windows should shut down automatically.
An alternative to this step is to add the -noreboot option to Sysprep which will leave Windows running after Sysprep has completed. Either option will work.

1. After Sysprep completes, create a second image of the machine. This is the image you will use to distribute to your environment.