sysprep with CopyProfile=True

As I will soon be deploying my first (official) Windows 8.1 soon, I'd really like to be able to sysprep it so the users get a standard profile. The last time I tried, which was some time back, I kept getting failures, as mentioned in a thread I posted at the time;
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/29456-sysprep-windows-8-1-a.html
Also, I'm hoping I don't run into this;
http://www.eightforums.com/installa...-1-eval-iso-problems-activation-problems.html
though it should already be activated since it's OEM on the device.

Can anybody give me any recent information on the subject ?? We have several applications (desktop apps) that need to be preconfigured if at all possible.

By the way, the devices in question are Surface Pro 3 tablets. All they had to do was see mine (personal) and they fell in love.

Joe

See this tutorial on our sister site the Ten Forums, it applies to Windows 8 / 8.1, too: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep.

Kari

Yeah I found an article somewhere that talks about that, but even that failed before. I'll try it again with the latest ISO. Hopefully it's all working again.

CopyProfile copies (most) settings from the last logged-on user prior to sysprep being run. Usually this is the local administrator account, but I've seen people try to get creative with user accounts pre-sysprep (never a good idea), or try to configure modern/start applications prior to sysprep (again, bad idea). If you're not careful, copyprofile will probably cause more problems than it creates. I build images with this all the time, and it works fine - but you must know what you're doing and what you shouldn't do (for instance, you shouldn't try to configure applications prior to sysprep, because (at least for certain the Microsoft ones) apps can and do break. You aren't making a copy of the ENTIRE profile, you're making a copy of the non-volatile portions - this means anything storing data in certain places in the user profile folder structure or registry (which lots of apps do, and that's a no-no for a non-user-specific app) will break if a copy only takes part of that data across.

We would really need very specific information on how the image was initially built, and how the profile was modified, before anything further could be provided in the way of actionable help, unfortunately.

Although Microsoft Accounts to sign in to Windows 8 or later are normally not used in domain / corporate networks, it's worth to mention that if a Microsoft Account is used, it's sync settings override corresponding default profile settings.

In addition to what Cluberti mentioned about not confihuring applications, here's in general what you can customize with Copy Profile in Audit Mode:

- Windows wallpaper, icons, theme, colors and sounds
- Screensaver
- Taskbar location (bottom, left, top, right)
- File Explorer settings like icon spacing, ribbon ON / OFF, hide / show hidden items, view as, group / sort, additional panes and so on
- Desktop icon spacing and size
- Software installed now will be available to all users

Examples of what can't be modified:

- Pinned icons (Taskbar and Start) will not be copied to default profile
- Start Menu and Start Screen will remain default, cannot (shouldn't) be modified

Kari

I don't attempt to configure any of the new apps unique to 8 / 8.1, just third party stuff like web browsers and the like. I standardize the browser's start page for example. I never had issues under 8, just 8.1.

I'll try it in a few days and see how it comes out.