Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

On a Dell Studio 1555 where I extracted the recovery image .wim file (which was still good from its failing hard drive), I did not have to enter the Product Key after the restore procedure since the recovery image was from the same computer - and it was not an issue for the free upgrade to Windows 10.

On the 7 discs, there's an install.wim file. You can use DISM to mount it and then set the product key. You can google for Windows 7 pre-activation product keys and find the one for your manufacturer and version of Windows that you want. For Dell, the keys are:

Starter   -- 36Q3Y-BBT84-MGJ3H-FT7VD-FG72J 
Home Basic  -- 36T88-RT7C6-R38TQ-RV8M9-WWTCY 
Home Premium -- 6RBBT-F8VPQ-QCPVQ-KHRB8-RMV82 
Professional -- 32KD2-K9CTF-M3DJT-4J3WC-733WD 
Ultimate   -- 342DG-6YJR8-X92GV-V7DCV-P4K27

The SLIC data is already in the BIOS so you'd just need the certificate. You could find it on the recovery .WIM or download it. If you put it in the install.wim windows\system32\OEM directory, when you go to install, it'll automatically pre-activate. If you remove the ei.cfg file, you can just pick which ever version of 7 you want, and it'll always pre-activate.

It's just advice in case you ever want to play around. I know you don't need the advice because you was able to use the recovery wim to get what you needed and stuff.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

Manufacturers provide a recovery partition as it's cheaper than supplying the disc and they have to provide a copy of the OS when the sell a PC.
There is no need to provide it for a customer unless they specifically ask and pay for it.

Yeah. I want to work on creating 7 recovery partitions. I was thinking, this customer, he asked for a recovery disk, and I made him one. It doesn't have all the updates slipstreamed because, well, I can't seem to find a way to slipstream .NET Framework 4.5 and there's some updates that require that. It's hard for me to tell which ones require it and which ones don't. So, when I slipstream the updates, and go to install 7, it goes into an infinite loop before it finishes installing. Looking at the log files, I see it's because .NET framework 4.5 isn't there.

Usually, when I get a customer, they come back. If their PC gets messed up again, they'll bring it back to me and I'll fix it. I was thinking of creating recovery discs for me, for each customer. So when they bring it back, I can just plop in the disc and away we go. Wish I could find away to slipstream that dang .NET Framework though.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

Blaming customers? not me. A good business does their job and more. I have no trouble looking after my customers and I'm very good at making them feel good even when things go wrong for them. I've been doing this 15 years with no advertising so i guess i must be doing something right.
I did make one cry once when i told her it was the dirtiest PC ever and she should smoke outside and she was my friends mum !

Manufacturers put recovery partitions on because they are legally bound to provide a copy of the OS when they sell a PC and it's cheaper than providing a disc. In all my years though I have never used one. Hence me saying they are a waste of time.

There actually might be something with the Microsoft TOS that manufacturers have to deal with. I almost want to say I remember some white paper from Microsoft saying Manufacturers weren't supposed to provide 7 Discs but instead, recovery discs / recovery partitions , something about trying to stop piracy.

[diif]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

Yeah. I want to work on creating 7 recovery partitions. I was thinking, this customer, he asked for a recovery disk, and I made him one. It doesn't have all the updates slipstreamed because, well, I can't seem to find a way to slipstream .NET Framework 4.5 and there's some updates that require that. It's hard for me to tell which ones require it and which ones don't. So, when I slipstream the updates, and go to install 7, it goes into an infinite loop before it finishes installing. Looking at the log files, I see it's because .NET framework 4.5 isn't there.

Usually, when I get a customer, they come back. If their PC gets messed up again, they'll bring it back to me and I'll fix it. I was thinking of creating recovery discs for me, for each customer. So when they bring it back, I can just plop in the disc and away we go. Wish I could find away to slipstream that dang .NET Framework though.

Rather than a recovery disc/s just image the PC once all the updates etc are done. I have a 2TB drive just used for customer images. Either before or after I've done work.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

Yeah, I thought about that, but I would fill up a drive real quick like. It's nothing for me to be working on 6 PCs at a time, get them done, maybe wait 3 or 4 days, get some more. I'm working on slipstreaming all the updates to a 7 disc so when I install 7, I don't have to wait for Windows update to install 200+ updates. The problem I've ran into before when doing this was some updates require .NET Framework 4.5 to be installed. When you slipstream an update to install.wim that requires .NET Framework 4.5, when you go to install, it'll go into an infinite loop. When you check the logs, you see it's because 4.5 isn't available. I could try to figure out which ones require it. Last time I checked, there where about 45 of them. 45 updates is still better than over 200.

I've asked for help on the TechNet forums. Trying to see if there's anyway to actually slipstream it. I know I install the updates on a machine, use sysprep and capture an image. I haven't tried it yet, but I have a feeling the image will be much, much better than what's available for a DVD. I think that's the "normal" way of doing it though. Using sysprep and deploying the image to the machines. Not really what I'm looking for though.

[diif]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

Its been a couple of years since I used sysprep last. Its definitely much faster pxe booting, choosing x64 or x86 picking the software at the next screen and hitting the enter key than installing windows and doing it manually.
If I was doing many installs a week then I'd set up a server and automate it a bit.
I rarely get machines back to wipe and start again so I have no need to keep images after, or even recovery images. Its the ones before I do any work I keep for a month. If malware removal goes wrong or the customer says to wipe the PC as there was nothing on it to remember a week later there was.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

I seem to get a lot of them back, mainly from people who have children. It's almost always viruses. Instead of removing them, I'll just backup the data and format reinstall.

I wonder if there's away to use sysprep where it doesn't capture the drivers, so I could fully update a machine, use sysprep to capture it, and then use that image on ANY computer that I get. I like the PXE booting. Wouldn't that be slower than flash drive though? Here, we only have 100Mbps for the LAN.

I'd like to get some experience with deploying images over the network. That sounds like a lot of fun.

[diif]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

IIRC you use the normalize command when syspreping to remove the drivers.
We had two images, one for x86 and one for x64 as we had some little crappy netbooks that didn't like x64.
Definitely faster than installing Windows and updating, even from a flash drive, ours was a 100Mbps LAN with fibre and Gb copper connecting the switches.
Part of the process lets you install software, so the adobe suite got installed at this time
although Office was in the image.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

So I can use sysprep, capture an image, lets say from an HP G56, then use normalize to remove the drivers, and then I can use that image for any make / model computer I install 7 on?

Also, you're saying installing via network is actually faster than thumb drive? I definitely want to check into this. It would be great if I could deploy the images from my Linux box some how.

[diif]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

No, its a little more involved than that.
There are a couple of ways to do it IIRC.
2 master images are made 86 and 64 using a Windows 7 image on a Windows machine and WAIK.
Have a look here for an idea.
https://4sysops.com/archives/microso...e-preparation/

Once the images are made I believe they can be deployed from a Linux server.
The speed increase comes from the fact that its an image that is copied across from the server and when it restarts its pretty much done.

[stj]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

so deploy it from a raspberry / orange pi.
then you have a pocket server.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

No, its a little more involved than that.
There are a couple of ways to do it IIRC.
2 master images are made 86 and 64 using a Windows 7 image on a Windows machine and WAIK.
Have a look here for an idea.
https://4sysops.com/archives/microso...e-preparation/

Once the images are made I believe they can be deployed from a Linux server.
The speed increase comes from the fact that its an image that is copied across from the server and when it restarts its pretty much done.

Okay, I've talked to a customer (who's also a friend) and he's agreed to let me keep his machine a bit longer to play around with this stuff. My goal here is to create a universal image that is fully updated with Windows update, that has no specialized drivers, and can be used to deploy Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on any computer via the local area network. My understanding is the generalize switch to sysprep removes the drivers, usernames, etc.

I'm following directions here:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/windows_..._windows_7.htm

I'm a bit confused though. I see some walkthroughs say enter Audit Mode, install software, use sysprep, then capture the image....this walkthrough though says install 7, login with a temp username / password, fully update Windows and then enter Audit Mode and do the rest.

Should I be doing Windows Update in Audit Mode or should I do updates first and then enter Audit Mode?

[diif]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

Do the updates, the enter audit mode.

In case you weren't aware you only get to sysprep a pc three times. After that you have to start from scratch.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

I thought you could change it to 8 by messing with some setting. Would there be a reason as to why I'd need to sysprep a machine more than once? Thanks.

I'm also gonna try to create a recovery partition. I know how to set what function key that has to be pressed during POST to boot to the recovery partition. Just not sure how to deploy the image from the recovery partition. I know the WinRE.wim has something to do with it...

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

I think I have the Windows Recovery partition figured out. Still have a couple questions about it though. Following this tutorial from Microsoft:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.10).aspx

I see I'm supposed to move the winre.wim from the c:\windows\system32\recovery directory to the system drive's \Recovery\WindowsRE directory.

But all I have is a system partition that contains Windows and all the program files and then the recovery drive. Do I put the WinRE.wim file on the recovery partition? I wouldn't think it'd make sense to put it on the partition that contains Windows...

Also, I want the recovery partition to be small but the partition that contains the OS to fill the rest of the hard drive. I have to find away to have the recovery partition delete the Windows partition, create a new one, format it for NTFS, and then deploy the image. Deploying the image won't be a problem, the tutorial covers that. But the partition stuff, that isn't really covered.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

I think I figured out why you might run sysprep more than once. I had the system all setup where I boot from the flash drive. Started the PC, didn't boot off the flash drive for some reason. Went into Windows, so I have to run sysprep again. Got it booting off the flash drive now but gotta go back in Windows and re-generalize the system because when Windows started, it installed drivers.

[diif]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

The partition size/s and details are set using WAIK. It's one of the tools used to create the unattend answer file.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

So, if I enter a product key and pre-activate, and then run sysprep, do everything, but before I shutdown and boot off the USB thumb drive to capture the image, I remove the product key and cert using slmgr.vbs, would this allow me to run sysprep as many times as I want on that image?

Isn't the reason sysprep fails after running it three times is because each time, it takes the rearm counts and subtracts one? If it's activated, would it not matter? Thanks!

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

The partition size/s and details are set using WAIK. It's one of the tools used to create the unattend answer file.

I wasn't going to use an unattended answer file. Is one absolutely required? Hopefully, if I have to use one for the partitions, I can set it up in such away where it deletes the System Reserve partition and the partition containing Windows and then recreates the System Reserve partition and the OS partition where the OS partition uses all the available free space. That way, if a different PC has a different size hard drive, I don't have to create special unattended answer files for each system.

Thanks for all the help Diif. You've been really helpful here and being the first time I've done this, I'm sure to someone who's done it a lot, my questions are pretty simple. I really appreciate your help.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Questions about Windows 7 Pre-Activation.

On a Technet article about sysprep, I see this:

If you anticipate running Sysprep multiple times on a single computer, you must use the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component to postpone resetting the activation clock. Because you can reset the activation clock only three times, if you run Sysprep multiple times on a computer, you might run out of activation clock resets. Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer.

I'm going to look into this Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component and see how to set SkipRearm. I know there's a registry key called SkipRearm but I don't think that's how I properly set it.