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Unsupported Sysprep scenarios

Article ID: 828287 - View products that this article applies to.

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INTRODUCTION

This article describes some Sysprep scenarios that Microsoft does not support.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft does not support the following Sysprep scenarios:

Upgrades
Microsoft does not support the use of Sysprep to create images of an installation that has been upgraded. For example, if you install Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) and then upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP, you cannot use Sysprep to create a new image of that installation. Sysprep is only supported on clean installations. This restriction also applies to in-place upgrades, such as Windows XP-to-Windows XP upgrades.

Microsoft supports the use of Sysprep to create images of an installation that has been updated with a service pack.
Production environment
Microsoft does not support the use of Sysprep for the following scenarios
- To take a computer that has been running in production for extended period of time and run sysprep then create a new image or clone from the computer. Sysprep is designed to prepare new installations of Windows for imaging.
- To run sysprep after imaging or cloning production computer for the purpose of changing the SID and computername to join the domain and make the computer unique. For example if you cloned or performed a Physical to Virtual(P2V) of a computer but want to leave the source computer running instead of decommissioning it.
When you use Sysprep to prepare an image of such a system, many problems may surface immediately or may be exposed at a later time that make it difficult to troubleshoot the system without a full understanding of the complete history of the changes. Therefore, in this scenario, you may have to rebuild the image if that installation has issues.
Incompatible Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
Microsoft does not support the use of Sysprep to install an operating system from an image if the image was created by using a computer that has a different HAL. For example, you cannot create a Sysprep image on a computer that uses a standard PC HAL and deploy the image to a computer that uses an ACPI uniprocessor HAL.

Note This limitation applies only to Windows XP and to Windows Server 2003.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
309283
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283/ )
HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 setup
Note Microsoft also does not support the use of Sysprep to install an operating system from an image if the image was created by using a computer whose motherboard has a different manufacturer, or if the image was created by using a computer with the same configuration but from a different manufacturer.
OEM installation image
Microsoft does not support the use of Sysprep to create a new image of a system that was originally created by using a custom OEM installation image or by using OEM installation media. Microsoft only supports such an image if the image was created by the OEM manufacturer. For more information see the following licensing brief on Reimaging Rights
(http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Reimaging.docx)
Overwritten default user profile
If another user profile has been copied over the default user profile, Microsoft does not support the use of Sysprep to create a new image of the installation.
Different processor vendors
We do not support using Sysprep to install an operating system from an image if the image was created by using a computer that has a different processor. For example, you cannot create a Sysprep image on a computer that has an Intel processor and deploy the image to a computer that has an AMD processor. Issues can occur if there are "processor" specific drivers installed on the source machine.

Note This limitation applies only to Windows XP and to Windows Server 2003. Windows Vista and later require the use of the /generalize option with Sysprep. If you use the PersistAllDevices unattend flag you must maintain separate images.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216680/ )

How to identify an installation created with the Sysprep tool

Note Microsoft does not support the use of the Riprep tool or the Risetup tool to create a new Remote Installation Services (RIS) image of a system that was originally created by using a custom OEM installation image or by using OEM installation media. Microsoft supports such a RIS image only if the RIS image was created by retail, MSDN, or volume license media.

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Article ID: 828287 - Last Review: November 29, 2011 - Revision: 10.0

APPLIES TO

Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Starter
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)
Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Windows 7 Enterprise
Windows 7 Home Basic
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Starter
Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows Server 2008 Standard
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter

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