Sysprep

Sysprep is the name of a tool from Microsoft for the automated distribution of Microsoft Windows operating systems.

History

Sysprep was first delivered for use with Windows NT 4.0. Later versions were compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Latter are available free for download on the Microsoft web site at their disposal and they are included on the installation disk. Windows Vista includes a further development of the program.

Usage

The distribution of operating systems takes place in a larger network, typically via third party programs to clone a complete operating system installation. Sysprep is used to prepare the operating system for the dissemination of having one, so-called system image.

Windows includes a variety of user-and computer -related settings that need to be brought to a possible "neutral" state prior to creating the image, so that the use on different computers is possible without error. These include the computer name, belonging to a domain, the user profile of the local administrator as well as the security identifier. Sysprep away with the / generalize this information as well as drivers for plug-and- play devices that were added during Windows setup.

An administrator uses for Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, for example, the also supplied setupmgr.exe or from the Windows Vista System Image Manager to create an answer file, which reads the installation routine during installation. This allows the installation run automatically, as no user input must be made during setup.