Unsupported Sysprep scenarios

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

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 to create a new image of a Windows installation on a computer that has been running in a production role. When you create a Sysprep image of such a system, many issues may exist 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. 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.
• 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.

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