SysPrep in Depth – Part 5 – Customizing Sysprep.inf

Customizing Your Sysprep.inf For Use  (Last updated 5/15/08 )

-Understanding the sysprep.inf

I am know there are other sections to the sysprep.inf then what I will use in this example but in my environment I only use these so I will stick to these. Many of these are also optional and many don’t seem to have an effect in my environment but I will still explain them to you. You can find more resources on the sysprep.inf parameters on the Microsoft KB article 298491 and on Microsoft’s Windows 2000 Deployment Guide.

I would suggest running setupmgr.exe in the sysprep folder to create a base sysprep.inf file and to then edit it by hand from then on as setupmgr.exe can delete some of your customizations.

- Our sample sysprep.inf


;SetupMgrTag
; ----------------- Sysprep Notes -----------------
; Note: All notes in this files must have a ';' before them, and the first line should not be changed from ';SetupMgrTag'
;
; Steps to using this file:
; 1: Run the file c:\sysprep\utils\PNPPath.bat - this will set the OemPnPDriversPath below for syspreps use
; 2: Verify if you need a new HAL and add appropriate UpdateUPHAL or UpdateHAL lines below under the [unattended] section
; 3: Verify the admin password in the [GuiUnattended] section
;        If done properly this file is deleted after sysprep completes so this should not be a security issue
;
[Unattended]
OemPnPDriversPath="Drivers\1\1;Drivers\1\10;Drivers\1\11;Drivers\1\12;Drivers\1\13;Drivers\intel"
    DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
    InstallFilesPath=C:\sysprep\i386
    TargetPath=\WINDOWS
    KeepPageFile=0
    OemSkipEULA=Yes
    UpdateInstalledDrivers=Yes
    NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
    UpdateServerProfileDirectory=1
[Sysprep]
    BuildMassStorageSection=Yes
[GuiUnattended]
    AdminPassword="0h S0 S3cure"
    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
    OEMSkipRegional=1
    OEMDuplicatorstring="Demo Clone"
    TimeZone=10
    OemSkipWelcome=1
    AutoLogon=Yes
    AutoLogonCount=3
[FavoritesEx]
    Title1="Google.com"
    URL1="http://google.com"
[UserData]
    FullName="Your Name"
    OrgName="Your Orginization"
    ComputerName=*
    ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
[Display]
    BitsPerPel=32
    Xresolution=1024
    YResolution=768
    Vrefresh=72
    AutoConfirm=1
[TapiLocation]
    CountryCode=1
    Dialing=Tone
    AreaCode=719
    LongDistanceAccess="9"
[RegionalSettings]
    LanguageGroup=13,17,3,2,5,16,4,12,15,7,8,10,11,9,6,14,1
    Language=00000409
[Networking]
    InstallDefaultComponents=Yes
[Identification]
    JoinWorkgroup=TEMPORARY
[GuiRunOnce]
    Command0=c:\drivers\scripts\cleanup.bat
[SysprepMassStorage]
*pnp0a00=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
*pnp0a01=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
*pnp0a04=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
*pnp0a03=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
pci\cc_0604=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
pci\cc_0601=c:\windows\inf\machine.inf
...Shortand for this post...
pci\ven_1055&dev_9130=c:\windows\inf\mshdc.inf
pcmcia\micron-mtcf____-392d=c:\windows\inf\mshdc.inf
pci\ven_1179&dev_0105=c:\windows\inf\mshdc.inf
-Section by Section

[Unattended]
OemPnPDriversPath=…    We talked about this in Part 1 of this series
DrvierSigningPolicy=Ignore    This will let SysPrep silently install drivers that are not signed
InstallFilesPath=c:\sysprep\i386   This should be the location of the i386 folder from the Windows XP CD
TargetPath=\Windows   The folder name to install windows to
KeepPageFile=0    Deletes the page file to help make sure no residual from the other hardware is still hanging around
OEMSkipEULA=Yes    Accepts the EULA for you automatically
UpdateInstalledDrviers=Yes    Reinstalls any drivers that have updates to them
NonDriversSigningPolicy=Ignore    Ignores warnings about unsigned files that are not drivers
UpdateServerProfileDirectory=1 More Info The article talks about this setting with a hotfix and SP2, but in this hotfix seems to be included in SP3. This setting takes the administrator profile and copies it to the default profile.

[Sysprep]
BuildMassStorageSection=Yes     Extremely important as this will build all mass storage drivers

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword=…     Set this to your password
EncrypedAdminPassword=NO     I always opt out of encrypting the admin password as I have had times this step fails and encrypting the password disables the autologon feature use further down
OEMSkipRegional=1   Skips the Regional options page
OEMDuplicatorString=”Clones Name”   This is a key put into the registry so you can track what clone a computer came from
TimeZone=10    10 just happens to MST so you will need to change this to your time zone
OEMSkipWelcome=1   Skips the Welcome Screen
AutoLogon=Yes    Logs the administrator into the computer automatically after sysprep finishes
AutoLogonCount=3    Will log the administrator on for 3 reboots. Note that if you log off the PC it will log you right back on until you restart

[FavoritesEX]
Title1=”Google.com”     This is to add a favorite to IE automatically but it has yet to work for me. Change the number for each new site
URL1=http://google.com      The URL to match Title1

[UserData]
FullName=”Your Name”     The name in which the computer is registered to
OrgName=”Your OrgName”    The organization in which the computer is registered to
ComputerName=*       Let sysprep pick a random computer name
ProductKey=     Put your volume license key in here, if you do not have one leave this value blank. Look for another post from me shortly to get around typing in the key on every computer if you don’t have a VLK

[Display]
BitsPerPel=32     32bit color
xResolution=1024     set the monitor to 1024×768
yResolution=764     set the monitor to 1024×768
vRefresh=72     72 Hz
AutoConfirm=1      Confirm the resolution change, if you don’t set this to 1 you will need to click ok within 15 seconds to keep the video settings once they change

[TapiLocation]
CountryCode=1     1 is for the US, change this accordingly
Dialing=Tone     Set the modem to tone dialing
AreaCode=719     Your area code
LongDistanceAccess=”9″     Set this to the number the computer will need to use to get an outside line

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17     Installs all languages
Language=00000409    set the default to English

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes       Installs all the default network protocols

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=Temp     Joins the computer to a workgroup called Temp

[GuiRunOnce]
Command0=c:\drivers\scripts\cleanup.bat      Runs a program once the computer boots into windows. I will explain cleanup.bat in a little

[SysprepMassStorage]
This section is created automatically and contains a list of mass storage drivers.

- Creating the Mass Storage Devices List

SysPrep will need to know what type hard drive drivers to load during setup so you should always create you [SysprepMassStorage] section to help it out will all your drivers. The get this section filled in with all your values run sysprep.exe with the -bmsd switch.

- Creating Cleanup.bat

If you were paying attention to my sample sysprep.inf file you noticed a cleanup.bat file that would be run on login once the computer was finished syspreping. This is optional but I always delete the drivers folder off the root of the hard drive. To accomplish this with ease download movefile.exe from Microsoft  and place it in a ’scripts’ folder within the drivers folder along with a new batch file called cleanup.bat

Edit this cleanup.bat file and add the following to it:
@echo off
cls
title PCHS Clone Process - Cleaning Files
echo.
echo Cleaning unneeded drivers from sysprep process.
cd /d c:
cd \
"c:\drivers\scripts\movefile.exe" c:\drivers\ "" 1>nul 2>nul
rmdir /s /q c:\drivers\ 2>Nul
del /s /q /f c:\drivers\ 2>nul

This will start a little command window on login that will delete as many drivers as it can and then proceed to delete any it couldn’t delete on the next restart. The plug and play section of SysPrep should have installed all the drivers you need from this folder so there is very little use for this folder now.

Sorry this isn’t easy to read but I don’t want to spend to much time touching it up.