Deploying windows xp on multiple computers

After clicking Manage, the Goverlan Objects Manager will appear. Enter the appropriate silent switches in the Argument String area obtained from the specific software vendor to make the installation Silent. All switches are not the same for all EXEs.

If no silent switches are specified, client machines will get prompted to install the software. A resource we use to find various silent switches is www. After configuring all of the Software Package settings, Click Ok. Think of what would happen if they brought it home and booted YOUR system. You can start the first one going while we make modifications for the second one. Click on the Users Tab. Now for Some more choices. You can add more users. Just have administrator and guest. If the above is the case, click on New User, then Remove.

Click on the New user Under guest , Then go over to the personal section, highlight New user and type in the new user name. Change the local group look up to Users. Make sure, there is a check in the active box above. You can set password expiration. Bottom Left By default it's never. If you added a user called system1, you can have it auto logon Top Right If you Don't add a user or users, Administrator will log on by default.

If you require a password. If you Don't want them to be able to change the password, uncheck Can change password. If you don't use passwords, check Blank password Click on the Owner and network ID Tab.

TYpe in the Computer Name. System1 for example Type in the Workgroup Name. CLick on the Regional tab. If you speak English and your in the US you can leave the defaults. Click on TimeZone drop down box At the bottom Pick you time zone. I leave all of the other tabs at the defaults except, Display. Click on the display tab.

I change my screeen resolution to x Click Next It will ask if you want to apply changes. Clcik Yes Then it will start updating a bunch of files. It is merging the updates into the XP install It then processes the files. Finalizing Then it re- Compresses them into.

Cab's which the install will later use. When it's finished, Clcik on Next. Just to Keep everything consistant. The System Preparation Tool Sysprep , included with Windows XP, can be used to clone a computer and automate the deployment of the operating system. In this article, I will outline how you can use Sysprep to perform disk duplication.

This blog post was originally published as a TechRepublic article on September 14, One of the benefits of using disk duplication is that it makes installing an operating system, such as Windows XP, on multiple computers more efficient. It is a welcome alternative to manually installing the operating system on multiple computers and configuring identical settings. Instead, the operating system, any service packs, configuration settings, and applications can be included in the image and copied to the target machines.

What Sysprep does is prepare the system running Windows XP to be duplicated. Once the image is created, you must then use a third-party utility to deploy it. Using a utility like Sysprep offers several advantages.

Although some time must be spent preparing the image, it will obviously speed up future installations as well as reduce the amount of user interaction required. The size of the hard disk on the destination computer must also be the same size or larger than the reference computer.

All plug-and-play devices are redetected after Sysprep has run. The general steps that must be completed when using disk duplication to deploy an operating system include:. The first step in using Sysprep to create a disk image is to set up the reference computer. This entails installing the operating system, any service packs, software applications, and configuring settings that you want applied to the target computers. Once you've tested the image and are confident that it's configured the way you want it, you are ready to being the cloning process.

After completing the steps outlined in the previous section, you are ready to launch the Sysprep utility to clone the reference computer. From the command prompt, change to the Sysprep directory and type in the following command:. Once Sysprep has successfully duplicated the reference computer and shutdown remember the computer can be shutdown automatically by using the -reboot optional parameter , you can remove the hard disk and clone it using third party disk-imaging software.

When you restart a computer from a cloned disk for the first time, two events will occur. First, the Setupcl. Second, the Mini-Setup Wizard will start, allowing you to customize the computer. You can also automate this event by creating and using a Sysprep. The first time a computer reboots after being cloned by Sysprep, a Mini-Setup wizard starts.

The Mini-Setup wizard prompts the user for information to customize the installation on the target computer. However, if you want to automate the Mini-Setup wizard, you can use a Sysprep.

The Sysprep. In order to use the sysprep. The first time the computer is restarted, it will automatically look for the sysprep.