Copying default profile windows xp

I have seen this exact same error and issues with Windows 7 Enterprise if I try and sysprep an image that isn't activated with the KMS. I find this interesting that this thread is marked "Answered" when it is not in fact answered. I have been dealing with this issue for a long time now because it has impeded our ability to deploy Windows 7.

I have created a video on how to convert Windows XP profiles copied using the Copy button into Windows 7 mandatory profiles. I have tested it and it works well. This profile, because it has all user specific settings stripped, can then be used as the Default User one for Windows 7. I find it interesting that the "answered" post says they don't support it anymore which is not a solution in reality.

Created an Admin account when asked and install all the software you need prior to capture image Office, Flash, PDF reader, Silverlight, Quicktime, etc. Once you have the Adminsitrator profile the way you want it run a disk clean and defrag; also, good idea to remove any history in IE, and start menu. Windows will sysprep the system and apply the sysprep. After this the system willshutdown.

Just one problem: The default user profile ballooned to over 70M and a new user picks up about 25M of that. If all else fails the ntuser. I get the impression that you have never had to do a large roll out of new PC's. I worked for the state deparment of corrections for four years setting up new PC's to be used by the staff that were replacing old green screen terminals.

These PC's were used by many different users and the state wanted them all to have exactly the same desktop and total configuration. How would you like to be the guy who has to travel miles on a Saturday night to set up a PC for a new guard who starts work for the first time at midnight that night?

DUH, not me. We are talking here about users who thought that you put the mouse on the floor and it worked like the control on momma's sewing machine or complained when the coffee cup holder on the PC broke off! In my opinion this is why Windows 7 has not been adapted by the business community, XP just works, it ain't broke, don't fix it. I've been following this thread and re-visiting periodically for about a year now. We all must agree that there are many more problems with Microsoft and this is just the tip of the iceberg, altho this issue is my biggest problem.

I have recently resigned myself to the fact that we are witnessing Microsoft deteriorate as a company. This happended due to an office update that trashes excel and the "fix" that Microsoft offers is not really a fix. I'm done believing anything they say. I believe they are actually unable to assist us here or in the myriad of other issues they have created.

Trusting them is very dangerous to your career, if your employment depends on fixing problems and providing an acceptable user experience.

Aside from all that, my already stressed mental health just cannot take any more of this. I use sysprep to roll out teacher and student images because i have to make them unique in the way that newsid does for me on xp. Copying the default profile is done using windows enabler, then going thru ntuser. I have developed probably 10 win7 images now and think i have a system that works. I worry that windows 8 will actually bring a reality where we are finally unable to image pc's at all.

But in the interest of sanity i do not focus on that very much. Please do yourselves a favor and acknowledge that we are on our own here. The community of admins is your best hope for help. Treat anything from Microsoft with the suspicion it is due. This is a Microsoft "official" method for copying a user profile..

It even sets the wallpaper. By not copying ntuser. I say "should" because I haven't actually tried it yet. I see that WAIK requires install. Am I up the proverbial estuary without a means of locomotion? The process I use sound pretty much the same as most others in this thread but I haven't seen many examples of specifically what fails or, rather, what error message occurs to stop the process. Maybe I read it too quickly, but there are quite a few messages and I was anxious to see if a definitive answer had been found.

Below are the steps I've taken, the unattend. I'm hoping that someone will point out a silly mistake I made Windows could not parse or process the unattend answer file for pass [specialize].

The settings specified in the answer file cannot be applied. The error was detected while processing settings for component [Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup]. Now, I've used multiple variations of my original unattend file Everything will go through except the copy profile. In each instance, the above error occurs. The most recent hour ago attempt used an answer file containing only the copy profile option and, again, failed. The entire answer file, created using WAIK, is:.

Am I missing something? Or I am running into the exact same problem everyone else is having and not realizing it? If memory serves, You may need to add registered orginization and registered owner and I remember reading somewhere that they HAVE to be there and have to have Microsoft as the organization and AutoBVT as the owner. This is what I use to copy my profiles to default and I haven't had any issues with it. Been using it for over a year now.

I remember reading about that in a number of posts. While I haven't paid as close attention to the unattend file as I probably should, I just checked a couple of things. But when I save the file they're missing. There is a flaw in it for sure. I have built Sysprep images of Windows 7 to deploy through Windows Deployment service. The minute I do that it corrupts the entire image with that exact Error.

Seriously use the Windows Enabler and just copy the profile using the Copy Utility. Then delete all the desktop. Currently now I have successfully deployed Windows 7 across 3 separate domains using both Mandatory and Roaming profiles that were converted from XP just fine.

Forget everything else on this thread if all you want to do is create a costum configured profile and have that profile copied and used for all new users loging in for the first time. Use the Evil Fingers utility found at the above link. That's it. Hi, I would simply add my voice to the choir of complaints I'm working on a deployment via MDT and it's a great tool, but I really hope that Microsoft will soon add a more "elegant" way to customize the default user profile I have written a set of programs to customize the default profile.

We have been using it on campus for staff and student lab images for a year and it seems to be working. If you are using MAK, make sure to comment out the rearm lines in the code. The new user I had login had a black background. Under personalization it said nothing was selected even though before I did the copy I selected the aero theme.

The picture for the new user was not the logo of the company. In the default user profile I configured I selected a specific picture to use for the profile, but that did not come across. The picture for the new user account was not the logo of the company.

It was just a default picture of the orange flower. Has anyone tried this technique? Does anyone see any reason it wouldn't work? Thanks in advance! Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Windows Client. Sign in. United States English. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Windows 7 Installation, Setup, and Deployment. Sign in to vote. Hello, In the past even with W7 Beta , I could create a profile set up to corporate specs, then copy that profile to the Default Profile.

The process went something like this: 1 - Set up profile with corporate settings, links, etc. At this point any new logins would have the 'corporate profile' as their starting point. With W7 RC1, I am unable to copy any profiles to the default. The 'Copy To' button in 'User Profiles' is grayed out for any dummy admin account I create, as well as for the built-in Administrator account.

How do I go about modifying the default profile? Is there some new 'best practice' regarding W7? Just to be clear, I was able to do this in the Beta, but now am unable to do so in the RC. I'm hoping that there is an alternate method to modify the default user profile as this seems like a serious backstep from the Beta.

I hope this isn't 'by design' as it places a serious crimp in our corporate deployment. Wednesday, May 6, PM. There were many issues with it in the prior OSes, even though those issues were not always apparent, they did exist and caused inconsistencies and lingering problems.

This article points to the supported way of updating the Default User profile which is the only profile that should be used to for creation of the new user profile. Friday, May 29, PM. I've tried using sysprep. In fact, in pretty much erased all of the settings, desktop icons, default bookmarks, computer name and network settings. As I said before, not being able to copy the configured profile to the 'default profile' is a serious crimp in our proposed deployment to Windows 7.

This worked in the Beta, does not work in the RC. Thursday, May 7, PM. Are you using MDT ? Hope that helps. Proposed as answer by brockie Friday, January 6, PM. I need to be able to replace the Defualt with a custom profile as well. Wednesday, July 1, PM. Did you modify the unattend. I have not had a chance to try this as I've had other more pressing issues for the last several weeks a large system migration.

I'll let you know as soon as I get a few free moments. Friday, July 10, PM. I followed a guide from Microsoft that creates a fully automated windows installation that has CopyProfile set to true and boots into audit mode automatically, but I still had to use steps to get the profile to copy over. Friday, July 24, AM. As I will be doing this on each PC I deploy this doesn't need to be done. It also adds extra time to the build, as after the reboot, it has to re-install all the drivers again! The alternative is to import the shortcuts and various registry entries straight into the default profile.

I assume this would work, but there are bound to be various items which will not work! I cannot believe that Microsoft have not included an easy Profile Copy function - a large oversight in my opinion. Friday, July 31, AM. Wouldn't it be easier to work with images when you deploy machines though? If it's something you have to do on-site at locations, make a Windows PE bootable USB-attached external hard drive with the images and everything else you'd need on it.

Even if it isn't very customized you could at least roll up certain Windows updates into the package. Tuesday, August 4, PM. Hello, I'm still having problems with this. Still no success in creating a new default profile. What I get is a machine that thinks it's been newly installed.

Each new user that logs on to the machine is presented with settings and preferences that appear as if the applications were freshly installed. What I really need is the "Copy to Default" functionality that we had previously.

After using the sysprep method all I get is a default profile with ALL customized preferences wiped out. Not an ideal situation for computers that are used in public access university labs, and on workstations set aside for multiple users who need the EXACT same preferences and bookmarks.

This whole situation is FAIL. Yes, I've read the reasons why Microsoft made the change. They must not that big of a deal however, because thousands of IT professionals have used the old method without serious disasters occuring. Friday, October 2, PM. Does anyone have any idea how to make this work? We're getting nowhere at all and MS doesnt seem to have any kind of answer. I've got a Vista image and there's no solid information on how or why CopyProfile is not working in an unattend file.

There are thousands of people reporting this to you and all we have is Darrell pointing us toward the same old wrong information Friday, November 6, PM. Saturday, November 7, AM. Hi guys I am trying to cook up a DVD with my custom install. However default user settings are vital for this deployment scenario. Having skipped Vista, I assumed that configuring default user settings would be a breeze by now.

Upon reading the windows team blog I was shocked to read this about the only 'supported' method sysprep with CopyProfile : "However this process does have a drawback.

It does not propagate all settings to Default User and there is no known documentation as to what will and will not be propagated. How can the operating system that is going to be used by the entire planet NOT have any "known" documentation about preparing it for its users? Somebody must have written some code at some stage. Or has the sysprep sourcecode been lost down the line? Another thing, what use is a "supported method" if the company supporting it doesn't know what the method actually does?

Still happy with the OS itself, but not amused with the 'custom default user settings' issue. Friday, November 13, AM. Anyone see anything wrong doing it manually as shown on this site? Tuesday, November 17, PM. Hi there, can you put a sample of that unattend. I have tried it but I get errors.

May you please address me on that? It's really a pain.. Thank you in advance for you attentions to this concern. Thursday, November 19, AM.

The "default user" is also a problem for us. Everything seems to work just fine except for the background, it does not load but that is just a minor problem because we can use group policy to set this not tested yet. This methode is unsupported and not extensively tested.

Who has time to test it and post remarks? Greetings, Wouter. Friday, November 20, AM. Can you contact me at visser terena. Thursday, November 26, AM. Hello there. We cannot get this to work in our organization to customize a default user profile in Windows 7. We are using MDT to create a standard base image using a deployment share called Admin where we install all our custom applications and such in an automated fashon using a task sequence.

Then we use another deployment share in MDT called deploy with its own task sequence to reimage PCs with this base image. To edit the Unattend. This opened the Windows System Image Manager. Make a copy of "adrian", then rename the copy of "adrian" not the original!!! Try to login as an account that does not already have a profile. If the new user's profile looks like the setting you did for "adrian", all is good in the hood. I have no idea what other problems may crop up later with this method, and keep in mind this is not the way Microsoft wants you to copy profiles.

Use at your own risk, but so far these instructions have worked fine when I try to overwrite the Default user profile. Options Help Chat with a consultant. Include archived documents. This content has been archived , and is no longer maintained by Indiana University.

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Privacy policy. This article discusses how to customize the default local user profile settings when you create an image in Windows. This article discusses how to customize the default local user profile settings when you create an image on a computer that is running one of the following operating systems:.

After you deploy the image, these settings are applied to all new users who log on to the computer. This article supersedes all previously published procedures for customizing default local user profiles when you prepare images.

For more information about the steps to customize the default local user profile for Windows Vista or later operating systems, see How to customize default user profiles in Windows Vista, Windows Server , Windows 7, and in Windows Server R2.

In Windows XP and in Windows Server , updates that you've installed may change the method that you use to customize the default local user profile. For more information, see the following sections. The default behavior is to automatically copy customizations from the administrator profile to the default user profile.