Windows 10: Customize Default User Profile for New Accounts in Windows 10

IF you only want to customize the default user profile, this is the method; following instructions in this tutorial you fget a Windows setup where every new user account will get your default settings and applications.

The more in-depth tutorial about creating a customized Windows can be found here: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

 

Kari:
Excellent information in this thread. I ran the audit, did my customization based on the information in this thread and not the more advanced tutorial, created the answer file and ran Sysprep. Most of my settings came over and I have documented what changes will need to be made to each new user to make them our full stock default. All good... except the Search function does not work for the new users. Neither the icon in the task bar nor the r-clk / Start / Search work. Also if you left click Start and just type, nothing happens. I had a similar problem when I used the old enabler / copy profile button. Is there a fix or do I need to run the full blown tutorial to make this work right. I am running this on a Gigabyte GA-H97N, Windows 10 Pro build 10240.
Thank you.

 

Did you customize the default profile on a fresh clean install before any user accounts were created? Do the Start and Search work on new accounts you create?

 

Thank you for your prompt response. Yes, as per your instructions the install was clean with no prior users. That being said there had been an instance of Windows 10 on that drive before, but the installation of the OS from DVD should have overwritten any previous data/partitions. After running Sysprep with the answer file I created a local non-microsoft user, opened gpedit and enabled the administrator user, logged back in as a the local administrator, made some changes and then logged in as a non-admin user. In each case the Start menu, both left clk and right click work as they should. The exception occurs with each standard user created post sysprep. The magnifying glass icon (cortana/search) in the taskbar, when clicked does nothing. So I tried right clicking on Start and left clicking on Search. Again, no reaction. Keep in mind all of these users are local, non-microsoft accounts, are not domain users and the PC in question, though connected to a network is not part of a domain.

 

Try this on one of the user accounts where Start & Search are not working: Delete the %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat file, reboot. Windows creates a new UsrClass.dat when it does not find an existing one.

"Reseting" UsrClass.dat often helps when Start and Search stop working. Try this.

 

I will try this fix in the morning and let you know.

 

I tested this on a standard users that had been created with a broken search function and it worked for that user. The cortana/search function is now live. Then I deleted the UsrClass.DAT file from the default user profile, created a new standard user and the search function worked for that user as well. Thank you for the additional help as this was causing fits for us as a software/PC supplier to our clients who want to know why we are not selling Windows 10. With this knowledge we can now move forward. The next hurdle will be to sysprep a Surface Pro 4. Hopefully that will not be a monkey and football routine.
I will certainly be passing your information to our support team and telling those I know about your excellent forum site.
May all your hard drives spin true.

 

Good to know this worked for you! Please keep us informed in case something changes or does not go as expected.

Logically thinking it might be worth trying to delete the UsrClass.dat file from built-in admin profile always just before sysprepping.

 

I want to use your Sysprep procedures to set default user account attributes, install some programs and utilities and relocate the user folders to my second HDD (I've done this relocation successfully many times on its own). It appears that as long s I get the answer file right I should be able to do it all in one go, but I also want to use your procedure for creating a hardware independent image for deployment to other PCs. Is this possible and if so are there any special overall guidelines for combining the two procedures? It looks like you may have already written them with this in mind, but I'm not quite sure as there's a lot to take in in one go (a lot of things become clearer when you actually go through the procedure).

I also want to delete the Music, Pictures and Videos folders and prevent Windows from automatically creating them whenever I run a file that Windows considers to be a media file. Is this possible?

One other small point. I noticed that Windows 10 has installed the System Reserved partition on my second (Aux) drive which is a 500GB spinner. I didn't choose this and the OS itself has been correctly installed the 'primary' SSD drive which I did specify. I was going to reinstall, but thought that perhaps there's a good reason for this since both drives were unformatted empty space. Is this the best configuration?

 

This tutorial shows how to do all that: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Forums

That is a no go; Windows needs those system folders and they will be recreated for new user accounts even if you manage to remove them.

System reserved partitions are as the name says a system partition. There's no reason to be worried about them, nor should they be removed. Thay are so small they do not affect your storage capacity.

 

Thanks Kari.

Yeah, I thought you'd already allowed for this on your customisation thread - that's where I started, then branched off to here. I'll work through it one step at a time. Excellent work you've done on these tutorials. Big thanks to you, sir! *Smile

Pity about the media folders. Like you say, they just get recreated. At last they'll be located on the Aux drive thanks to your redirection tutorial. It's really only the shortcuts and library entries that are the problem and even then they aren't doing any harm - just adding clutter and taking up screen space. Maybe there's a way to run a script or macro to regularly delete them (shortcuts, not folders, that is).

My comment about the System Reserved partition was not that there's any problem with it - like you say it's very small. I just wondered why Windows chose to put this on the second drive which is a 500GB spinner when the rest of the OS is on the first drive, a 256GB SSD, which is the location I specified during install. Is this normal? Is Windows doing this for a good reason? Maybe the SR partition doesn't need to be on the primary partition and Windows has put it on the HDD to conserve space on the primary partition? ...or maybe it's function is better served in a location that's physically separate from the primary? Just curious to know, really.

One other question I have is that once I've restarted in Audit Mode and begun my customisations/installations, how do I save this point so I can switch off and come back to it later? When I tried this, I got an error when rebooting saying there was a problem with the Administrator account. Is this a one-shot deal where I have to have everything ready to go and do it in one pass?

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About cleaning the clutter, this small batch file in %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder will reset (clean) the Quick Access and recent files every time you sign in:

Code: echo Y | del %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations\*[/quote] Save as .bat. It's not much but something *Smile

Placing it in %programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder instead will do the same for every user, existing and new, every time aa user signs in.

I have pretty much given up to understand the placement of System reserved, and various recovery partitions created in UEFI systems. My policy: Windows knows what it is doing.

When in Audit Mode and you restart, Windows will automatically return to Audit Mode if specifically not told to exit to OOBE. The same after shutdown / new start. Sometimes when the technician machine is shutdown and not immediately restarted, Welcome screen reports issues with signing in the built-in admin. Usually clicking sign in button resolves this and you can sign in.

However, my recommendation is not to enter Audit Mode if you are not willing to do what you have planned in one go. This recommendation is based on the fact that sometimes, not after restart but after shutdown / new start, s*** happens and you can't sign back in.

 

Thanks for this, but I don't want to reset these completely - They're useful and I do use them. I just don't use Windows' media folders so their inclusion in lists and libraries is a nuisance. It's not a big issue and, like a lot of things in Windows we just put up with it, but it would be better if they weren't there.

You may well be right about that, but not being sure or knowing why is a bit of a leap of faith. As I said, it's likely there's a good reason Windows has put the System Reserved partition on my second drive, but I've not seen it do this before and it seems both illogical and contrary to what I understand is common good practice. For example, what happens when it comes to doing an image backup of the system - I'd normally include all OS partitions in a backup and since the image is best saved to a physically separate drive, I'd have to exclude the SR partition because it's already located on the target drive.

I'd like to take your advice and leave it alone, but as you can see, it's not that simple. Do you think it would be worth posting a new topic about this on TenFoums?

In the meantime I'll see if I can get some input from Macrium on this.

I had done a shutdown then a new start so I guess I got the s***!

Your recommendation is what I'd expected and in line with my previous (limited) experience using Audit Mode. It's a pity because having to allocate a large chunk of time to do the job makes it less accessible for many like me (it's the reason I've not had a go already). It's also daunting knowing that there's no way to 'save the good bits' and make changes in the future, but then I guess you know this better than most given the large number of times you've gone 'round the loop, eh? *Cool

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About signing back in to Audit Mode: one of the most clear advantages in using Hyper-V virtual machines as technician machines is that with checkpoints you will have no issues in returning to your not yet finished image project.

In my case, I set up my technician virtual machines to use standard checkpoints. I install Windows, enter Audit Mode and start customizing the image. When I need a break, I create a standard checkpoint and turn the vm off.

When ready to continue, I simply restore the checkpoint.

Hyper-V Checkpoints - Create and Use in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

I was about to ask if you'd used VMs to do this work.

I have a small amount of experience with Hyper-V on my Windows 2008 R2 server which I'm about to retire. I understand it's part of Windows 10 so I'll check out your tutorial.

Thanks again.

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