Re: Sysprep on a Vista Rollback to XP forces reactivation
- From: elzoido <elzoido@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:25:01 -0700
Thanks Dave - Sorry for not replying sooner but its been madness over here.
I followed the procedure you outlined - all working great.
Cheers for that.
"Dave R." wrote:
.
"elzoido" <elzoido@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5A7C604D-7DFF-4D0D-BDEF-6EE4E603B8AD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi all,
We are getting "windows activation" come up after loading a ghosted
image on
our new laptop builds. Please read on for full explanation:
We have 50 laptops to roll out in my organisation. these laptops are
HP
Vista OEM machines that have been rolled back for us in the factory to
XP
(the laptops have a vista OEM sticker on them).
Steps we take:
1. We installed SP3 on the laptops and installed everything ready to
roll in
our SOE.
2. We sysprep it using latest version of sysprep
3. When testing that buid we get the familiar "set of keys" asking to
activate windows.
I've tried entering the vista OEM product key but that obviously
doesnt work.
My problem lies with this - because:
1. We cant be ringing microsoft 50 + times to activate, not to mention
in
the future when the inevitable failure happens.
2. We do not have any XP product keys anyway - but do have the XP
restore
CD's from the HP factory - but no product keys on them.
My Question:
Is there a way to sysprep the laptop so that it doesnt ask for
activation?
You can preserve the OEM pre-activation during a sysprep by following
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457078(TechNet.10).aspx
That is assuming that HP uses the same BIOS-based activation that Dell
uses. I've used this approach with the Dell systems I've deployed, but
instead of the key in the Tech Net article, I used the Magic Jelleybean
Finder app to pull the actual key being used on the Dell systems. That
only works if you've got one you haven't already sysprepped though, and
as far as I can tell it doesn't make a difference which one you use.
Hope this helps
Dave
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