Vista Deployment - How to Generalise a Vista PC after install?

If we are getting a machine ready for Ghosting or duplication you can use SysPrep to generalise the machine.

Once Windows Vista has installed you should get to the stage of needing to supply the user name for the person who will be using this machine.  Of course if you are going to use Ghost then this is not needed as you wish the machine to be bereft of identity as much as possible.

Instead of entering in the username we can enter Audit mode by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F3.

This will  reboot the machine and skips the out-of-box experience. You will then be logged on as Administrator and you can go ahead installing any software and drivers you need to install before you are going to image the machine.

While in Audit mode, the Welcome Center and Sysprep windows are available.

Once you are ready to image your machine you can use Sysprep to generalise the machine.....

Then Ghost away!

 

Matt Rowston

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