Reference Computer

What is a Reference Computers

A reference computer is used in companys and educational services in which you would put all your version of windows your going to use, device drivers,software you want on, including windows updates.

What is sysprep

The System Preparation (Sysprep) tool prepares an installation of Windows for duplication, auditing, and customer delivery. Duplication also called imaging, enables you to capture a customized Windows image that you can reuse throughout an organization.

How to build a reference Computer

1. Identify the computer that will be used as the reference computer.
2. Configure the reference computer with the appropriate operating system and other software needed to create the operating system image.
3. Configure the reference computer to be a member of a workgroup.
4. Reset the local administrator password on the reference computer to be Blank or what ever you want.
5. then go to the c:\windows\system32\sysprep and double click and run the sysprep. you can choice to restart or shutdown.
6. i choice to shutdown then boot the computer into sysprep, then locate a locally drive to store a backup of it and then you can either ip address of server or server name and choice to add into wds, capturing the image takes around 30-40 minutes.

How to build a reference computer then use the MDT sysprep and Capture Task Squence

1. Identify the computer that will be used as the reference computer.
2. Configure the reference computer with the appropriate operating system and other software needed to create the operating system image.
3. Configure the reference computer to be a member of a workgroup.
4. Reset the local administrator password on the reference computer to be Blank or what ever you want.
5. open up MDT and right click new task sequence, scroll up to Sysprep and Capture.
6. you can either run the litetouch.vbs from the reference computer through to the server.
7. then you can choice to sysprep and capture or just choice to capture the machine and give it a name.
8. let the sysprep and/or capture run,then if you go to the c:\ or d:\ depending on where you put the deployment share\captures
9. and once the capture has completed you will see the image and the name you gave it in the captures folder.
10. next you have to import the captured image into wds intsall folder to be able to install the captured image, next also have to add a boot image into wds, so you have to browse to the c:\ or d:\ deployment share\boot and add lite touch x86 or x64.