Windows 10: Upgraded PC win7 to win10 tried to install image activation not valid?

Thanks Karl, In the tutorial it says to open up the answer file to check it is correct do I need to change the wim.install to point to the CD I am using to install windows or leave it pointed to the desktop version I coppied and made writable ?

 

As long as the CPI Source points to a valid install.wim, everything is OK, regardless where install.wim is. At Sysprep phase it does no longer need to be writable, it's only important when creating a catalog file from it to make an answer file.

 

Ok I will try again thanks for the help

 

Ok so I followed the guide step by step
I installed programs using chocoltey, I installed office2016 and adobe cloud, I installed photoshop, dreamweaver, I set a default theme, I edited the policy settings to lock down the PC I set the start menu and lock screen images, I uninstalled most of the windows apps, I installed avast business and disabled until reboot

this is my sysprep working as I expected




I created an image file then restarted the machine and get this error




guess its back to the drawing board

 

And this is my xml file




I created a checkpoint prior to running the syprep cmd

 

First something I noticed in your screenshot: Sysprep will automatically use an answer file unattend.xml in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder.

Therefore, if the answer file is named as unattend.xml AND it is saved in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder, then the /unattend:X:\AnswerFilePathAndName.xml switch is not needed.

If the answer file is named anything else than unattend.xml OR it is not saved in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder, then the /unattend:X:\AnswerFilePAthAndName.xml switch is required.

Examples:

• Answer file unattend.xml saved in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder, sysprep command is:
  Code: sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown[/quote]
• Answer file anyname.xml saved in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder, sysprep command is:
  Code: sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:C.\Windows\System32\Sysprep\anyname.xml[/quote]
• Answer file unattend.xml saved in D:\Sysprep folder, sysprep command is:
  Code: sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:\Sysprep\unattend.xml[/quote]

The answer file is OK, assuming your Windows is 64 bit. I have not a clue why Windows failed to finish OOBE boot.

Did you install any third party AV suite other than Windows Defender in Audit Mode? Those can easily screw up Sysprep (Avast, Avira, Panda and so on) and should never be installed for an image that will be sysprepped.

Some of them do not disturb the process if they are completely turned off when sysprepping but the above recommendation is generally speaking better: simply do not install any third party AV programs in Audit Mode before sysprep.

As you have a checkpoint, you can check this quite fast. Restore the checkpoint, uninstall any third party AV and if possible remove all traces of it from registry, then sysprep again.

To avoid extra work, when the vm shuts down after Sysprep, right click it in Hyper-V Manager and create a checkpoint (they can be created also when vm is turned off!). When done, start the VM to test. It's unnecessary to create an image every time you have syspreppd and shut down, only create a checkpoint, do a test run and if / when everything is OK apply the checkpoint and create the image.

 

Bingo looks like Avast was the problem, it restarted with the correct screen

- I will create an image and try it out on the machine - thanks for your help

 

You are welcome. Please post if any issues.