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I'm trying to sysprep a Windows 10 machine that has no access to the internet (and cannot be connected to the internet). This seems like it would be an easy task but so far it's been an exercise in frustration.
Here's what I've done so far:
Ran sysprep. This did not work. It generalized the OS but when I boot back into it, I get an error saying that setup could not be finished an I should reboot and try again. Rebooting and trying again does not change anything.
Googled previous error. Found a page saying to bring up a cmd prompt with Shift+F8, go to the oobe folder and manually run msoobe. This works great until I go through the OOBE and then it gets to "Just a moment..." and hangs. Forever. As long as I let it run.
Googled THAT issue and apparently the OOBE tries to log into my Microsoft account that I neither have or will be using on this system. Instead of erroring out when it cannot reach the internet, Windows 10 helpfully waits for an unlimited amount of time until the internet is restored.
Attempted to use the ADK and windows imaging utilities to create an unattend.xml file that skips the OOBE entirely. After an entirely over complicated and painful process to change one setting that involved sneakernetting a series of files and installers to my offline machine over the course of several days, I think I generated it correctly. Ran it, sysprepped again. Doesn't matter. Startup failed with the error in step 1 anyway.
I'm really out of patience for this. I do not have any Windows servers to use SCCM or MDT or whatever. I'm just trying to develop an imaging process for a couple dozen standalone Windows 10 laptops.
What are the procedures I need to be following to sysprep a Windows 10 installation without any internet connectivity?
DWilliams
Posted 2017-09-12T20:30:42.520
Reputation: 824
Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. – Ramhound – 2017-09-12T20:34:55.877
Provide us your setupact.log and setuperr.log – Ramhound – 2017-09-12T20:59:26.413
No way to transfer logs off the system. What should I be looking for? – DWilliams – 2017-09-12T21:08:49.427
The error that caused the procedure to fail. – Ramhound – 2017-09-12T21:12:37.393
Regarding the log files. 1. Plug in USB stick. Boot computer shift F8 or F10 to get the command prompt. 3. Use command prompt to navigate to c:\windows\system32\sysprep. 4. Use the dos copy command to copy log files to USB stick. 5. Review logs on another computer. – cybernard – 2017-09-12T21:27:45.663
Where you say "*I'm just trying to develop an imaging process for a couple dozen standalone Windows 10 laptops*"... I ask --> Are you dead set on using sysprep to get your task complete or are other options available to create the image without it actually being sysprep prepared? Are you working with the same make and model hardware with your couple dozen laptops? If you're not working with servers, etc. then I would consider having images ready to be pushed to each from one that is up, registered, activated, etc. and then push those to the others, script out post configs, etc. done, next! – Pimp Juice IT – 2017-09-13T14:58:44.407