What is the difference between sysprep and imagex

In the interest of keeping this somewhat complicated topic short I am assuming you the reader already have the basic skills to:. Once installed here are two resources you can utilize to assist you in creating your disc:. The reference computer is your model from which to create your customized image. Set it up how you like ie programs, drivers, etc — just keep in mind that sysprep will remove certain elements depending on which switches you utilize in the command. If you would like to customize the sysprep process, create an unattend.

So, I create a custom unattend. Run sysprep from the command line. This will sysprep the reference computer and shut it down, allowing you to then boot it up from your Windows PE disk with ImageX and capture an image. Boot the reference computer into the WindowsPE environment. Please note that while it is possible to place ImageX onto the root of your WindowsPE disc I prefer to place it into a separate Tools folder. This is reflected in the example below. In the example below we will switch to the drive containing our WindowsPE disc and then to the directory containing ImageX.

We then use net use to connect to a network share to store the image on. Alternatively you could use an external hard drive to capture the image. We then run ImageX to capture the image of the reference computer. Dependent on your situation you may need to prep the hard drive of the target computer. Boot the target computer using your WindowsPE disc and follow the commands below. This will erase the drive and format it to receive the image. If your target drive is already formatted appropriately you can skip this step.

We then use net use to connect to a network share where the image is stored. We then run ImageX to deploy the image to the target computer. If you experience this, reboot back into you WindowsPE environment and run the command below. Your target PC should now work fine. You can also look into modifying the WindowsRE environment and even assigning custom Fx button presses at startup to give your users a very quick restore function similar to Lenovo or more the modern Dell System Restore.

Awesome for business laptop users on the go. No, it would not. Hence the issue. Morning -just a quick note to say thanks for the download of imagex on ISO — saved me a couple hours! An impressive share! And he in fact ordered me lunch because I found it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this matter here on your website. I have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.

It is pretty worth enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be much more useful than ever before. Dubai Abbas. Jafri ncr. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.

You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Skip to content Using imagex. Tools you will need for this are as follows: A WinPE disk with imagex. My version is bit, which should be okay as most machines are bit these days. Try to match the version of Windows 7 you have, e. Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium or Enterprise. An alternative form of storage, e.

WIM file which is single instance, however you will need enough space, just in case. You will need to be familiar with your computer and which function key you need to press at start-up to bring up the different boot options.

Sysprep source PC To get the source PC ready so that you can take an image of it with imagex , you will need to sysprep it. Step one of the systprep process means that you need to get everything ready, complete installing all the applications, download all updates to everything, Windows and Office updates etc. Remove any sensitive information. Run Sysprep by running the sysprep. Sysprep will take about minutes and will shutdown upon competition.

After executing sysprep, you might get an error for instance " A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine ", also you might see the following errors in the sysprep log file. Like this: Like Loading Windows Server Hyper-V server command line configuration.

Regards, James. James Hatton Author February 9, at pm. Steven Author March 6, at am. David Author April 12, at am. Andrew Author April 14, at pm. Improve this question. There really isn't a difference. In either case you end up with a. FrankThomas I think unattended installs are a different topic, not necessary implied with using a custom image.

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. This is the only Microsoft supported method for preparing a reference image for deployment. Certain applications may require you to perform other steps prior to sysprep'ing the machine; others simply aren't made to handle that but they're few and far between. The Windows Update portion of the imaging process takes take 60 minutes due to the sheer number of patches.

Most do the former as there are limitations to offline servicing: You can't install. MSI's and. EXE's offline. DISM offline can handle. CAB files,. MSU files,. INF files or a folder containing one or all of the previous file types.

When adding patches offline, the patches are queued in an Uninstall Pending or Install Pending state and only get applied during the first boot. MSU files If you need to install. I'm sure there are others. Improve this answer. Ah, so that is probably why my installation failed, I tried to apply alot of windows updates in bulk offline :. Shame there is no support for. The goal is to have a quick installer with everything on it. Context is friends and family use.