Looking for a custom Windows 10 setup?
Looking for a custom Windows 10 setup?
I can prepare a single installation for all 50 machines using a custom Windows setup medium. This avoids repeated setup steps and saves time.
Use sysprep for this task. Since they match, refer to the MS documentation on retaining device drivers: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...stallation
Or there is a third party alternative called NTLite that does everything sysprep can do but with a nice fully featured GUI. https://www.ntlite.com/ Also if you have a server available with SMB shares I'd look at PXE. Using it you can deploy a custom Windows image onto the server then PXE boot into WinRE on all 50 machines and load the image up (its possible to automate this using a batch script). This way you can do all 50 machines without needing to walk around booting each from a USB or DVD.
Best approach is to generate a fully set-up image with all programs via Macrium Reflect, then rebuild it on another drive. If the image uses an SSD and the restore drive is also SSD, the whole process should finish in roughly two minutes. For laptops, if the BIOS stores the key, you can install Windows on another machine without the key—once the laptop boots, adjust the hardware and activate using the stored key.
Today I attempted to broaden my setup using sysprep, following guidance from Oshino Shinobu about using WinPE. Because of my limited knowledge and experience, the process took some time. For instance, I wasn’t sure how changing directories works in WinPE. Eventually, I managed to create a 300 megabyte WIM file. It seems that with this file, I’ll still have to install Windows 10 on all 50 computers before applying it. I’m not sure if this matches the expected result of using sysprep and WinPE or if I’m doing it incorrectly. I plan to look into Macrium Reflect soon since there’s a free version available.
Magic tip – make your backup when the system isn’t running. You can set up a rescue USB (Macrium Reflect option) and boot from it, then capture an image of that machine. Alternatively, use another computer. Remove Macrium Reflect before creating the image—don’t need it installed on every restored system.