What is mean by Sysprep Installation or system preparation installation?

Question

What is mean by Sysprep Installation or system preparation installation?

Answer 1

An average Windows XP installation can last for 90 minutes, and even more, considering all the hotfixes, service packs and applications you need to install. This can make OS installations extremely time consuming operation for the IT administrator.

One way to save this time is to deploy using an image-based installation.

In an image based installation, you can create image on one reference computer, and duplicate it to computers with the same hardware abstraction layer, meaning this computers will use the same hardware platform (CPU) and will use the same hal.dll file as an interface between the operating system and the hardware. When deploying computers using images, you copy the entire computer configuration including the computer name and SID (security identifier). You can use the SYSPREP tool to solve duplicate computer names and duplicate SIDs (security identifier) problem, caused by this method of deployment.

To deploy computers using image based application with the sysprep tool you should follow the steps outlined in this article.

The Mini setup wizard

The wizard will prompt the user with some or all of the following screens:

    *

      Welcome

    *

      Microsoft License Agreement

    *

      Product ID

    *

      Regional settings

    *

      User name and company

    *

      Computer name

    *

      Network configuration

    *

      Join workgroup or domain (workstation only(

    *

      Server licensing (server only)

    *

      Time-zone selection

After finishing the Mini setup wizard, the %systemdrive%\sysprep\sysprep.pcl and the %systemdrive%\sysprep\sysprep.exe files will be deleted, insuring SYSPREP will not run again on the next boot.

Then the computers reboot, they will do so with the new configuration and with their own computer names and SIDs.

However, one small problem still exists: who's going to provide all required information to the Mini setup wizard on all duplicate computers? Imagine running from one computer to the other, manually entering the CD Key or computer name. This is not feasible when more than a few computers are involved in the imaging process.

Luckily for us, we can create an answer file.

Answer 2

Sysprep is the name of Microsoft's System Preparation Utility for Microsoft Windows operating system deployment.

Sysprep was originally introduced for use with Windows NT 4.0. Later versions introduced for Windows 2000 and Windows XP are available for download from Microsoft and included in the Windows CD. Windows Vista marks the first version of Microsoft's operating system to include a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) independent version of Sysprep in the "out of box" installation.

Desktop deployment is typically performed via disk cloning applications. Sysprep can be used to prepare an operating system for disk cloning and restoration via a disk image.

Windows operating system installations include many unique elements per installation that need to be "generalized" before capturing and deploying a disk image to multiple computers. Some of these elements include:

    * Computer name

    * Security Identifier (SID)

    * Driver Cache

Sysprep seeks to solve these issues by allowing for the generation of new computer names, unique SIDs, and custom driver cache databases during the Sysprep process.

Administrators can use tools such as SetupMgr.exe (Windows XP) or System Image Manager (Windows Vista) to generate answer files that Sysprep will process on new computer deployments.

Hope this information solves your question. Thanks.

Answer 3

Sysprep are tools that PC makers use like Dell, HP, Lenovo etc. rather then install windows on each one, they usre one machine, build windows, install all the drivers and software, then they use sysprep to strip out the windows key and give it a different screen for the first time you turn on the PC.

When the user gets the new PC it will boot up to a welcome screen asking what country your in and sometimes windows key depending on what options they used.