This assumes you are eligible for hardware based entitlement to Win 10 PRO
Enter the default Windows 10 Pro product key:
VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
Below message is shown
Click Start Upgrade, and after a few minutes, the system restarted. As soon as I connected to the Internet, the Windows activation process checked my hardware against Microsoft’s servers. Because this hardware was already recorded with a digital entitlement to Windows 10 Pro, I was activated immediately, without the need to enter a product key.
If like me you hate Sysprep then this is for you, I have always and will (for the foreseeable future) use Fog as my imaging solution, RIS was too flaky and WDS…well its WDS
A Windows user profile defines the look and feel of the desktop environment configured for a particular user. It contains various settings such as desktop colors, backgrounds, icon placement, and Windows Explorer settings. The default profile is a template profile that is used when a user logs on to a Windows computer for the first time. The default profile can be customized by the image creator.
Microsoft does not support copying profiles under Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. The “Copy To” button is grayed out for all profiles except the default profile. The only supported method is built into Sysprep and this method is itself very problematic. The following steps are not supported or recommended by Microsoft but seem to work:
Enable Desktop Background
Download and edit the RDP file for your imaging reservation from the VCL website to allow desktop backgrounds or else you won’t be able to change the desktop background color
Right-click on the .rdp file and select Edit
Click on the Experience tab
Select LAN (10 Mbps or higher)
Make sure the checkbox next to Desktop background is enabled
Click on the General tab
Click Save
Login to the VCL reservation as Administrator
Configure Windows Explorer to show hidden and system file
Open Windows Explorer
Click Organize > Folder and search options
Select the View tab
Select the radio button next to Show hidden files, folders, and drives
Click OK
Create a Profile Setup Account
Create a new local user account named ProfileSetup (Note: the name does not matter but should be something that would not match another string in the stock Windows registry. You will be searching the registry for the name of the user you use to configure the profile. Using a unique name will make this easier.)
Open Control Panel > Add or remove user accounts
If there is already an account named ProfileSetup and you want to start over with a new account, delete the existing account and then create a new one:
Click on the ProfileSetup user
Click Delete the account
Click Delete Files
Click Delete Account
Click Create a new account
Enter the account name: ProfileSetup
Click the radio button next to Administrator
Click Create Account
Set the password for the ProfileSetup account
Click on the ProfileSetup account
Click Create a password
Enter the password and click Create password
Configure the User Profile for the Profile Setup Account
Logout as Administrator and login as ProfileSetup
If you intend to arrange the icons on the desktop, use a screen size of 1024×768 when logged in as ProfileSetup. This is the default screen size that most users will use when they connect to VCL reservations. If you arrange the icons using a custom screen size, the icons most users see will be rearranged when they connect using the default size.
Customize the user profile while logged in as ProfileSetup account (configure the desktop background, arrange icons, etc). The following tips are optional:
Download and run Autoruns. This free utility will show you all of the things that run when the computer boots, a user logs in, etc. There are several things that can probably be disabled such as Windows Mail.
Copy the Customized Profile to Default
Logout as ProfileSetup and login as Administrator
Rename the ProfileSetup user profile folder to Default:
Open a Windows Explorer window and navigate to C:\Users
Rename the original default profile folder: C:\Users\Default -> C:\Users\DefaultOriginal
Rename the customized profile folder: C:\Users\ProfileSetup -> C:\Users\Default Note: if you are unable to rename the ProfileSetup folder, reboot the computer, login as Administrator, and try again. Run the following command from a command prompt to reboot the computer:
shutdown.exe -r -f -t 0
Copy the customized profile folder using the Windows profile copying utility: Note: Windows 7 only allows its built-in profile copying utility to be used to copy the default profile, not profiles of other user accounts. The profile you customized now resides in the default profile location (C:\Users\Default) so the utility can now be used to make a copy of it.
Open Control Panel > System and Security > System
Click Advanced system settings on the left
Click the Settings… button under User Profiles
Highlight Default Profile
Click Copy To…
Copy profile to: C:\Users\DefaultCopy
Click Change under Permitted to use
Enter Everyone and click OK
Click OK
Replace the original customized profile directory with the one created by the Windows profile copying utility Note: C:\Users\Default contains the original customized profile. The same profile also resides in C:\Users\DefaultCopy. The DefaultCopy folder is the one which has had the Windows profile copying utility transformations applied to it.
Open Windows Explorer
Delete the “C:\Users\Default folder
Rename the folder: C:\UsersDefaultCopy -> C:\Users\Default
Delete the ProfileSetup account:
Open Control Panel > Add or remove user accounts
Click on the ProfileSetup account
Click Delete the account
Click Delete Files
Click Delete Account
Clean the Registry for the Customized Profile
While logged in as Administrator
Run regedit.exe
Select the HKEY_USERS hive:
Click the File menu and select Load Hive:
Browse to C:\Users\Default
Enter ntuser.dat in the File name: field (Note: this file is hidden so it normally is not displayed in the list of files)
Enter a Key Name: DU
Navigate to: HKEY_USERS\DU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
You will probably see the path to the ProfileSetup account’s original user profile directory saved in many of the values as highlighted below. This can cause problems with programs which use these values. For example, a user may save a file to the Desktop from within a program, but the saved file doesn’t appear on the user’s desktop.
Delete all of the values under Shell Folders except for (Default) and “!Do not use this registry key”:
Select the DU key in the left pane
Click on the Edit menu and select Find…
Search the DU key for the string ProfileSetup. In general, you want to clean up everything that references the user named ProfileSetupand the C:\Users\ProfileSetup directory. There will probably be several places under DU where these are saved. You will need to analyze each match. Most matches won’t cause problems. Some will such as the Shell Folders key you previously cleaned up.
IMPORTANT: Unload the Default user registry hive:
Select the DU key
Click the File menu and select Unload hive…
Any new local user accounts created on the computer should receive a user profile configured with the customizations you made to the Profile account.
Configure the User Account Picture (Optional)
Navigate to the directory: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures (Note: you will need to enable “Show hidden files” to see this directory)
Rename user.bmp to something such as user-original.bmp
Copy the .bmp file you want used as the account picture to this directory and name it user.bmp
Force the Desktop Background to Appear on Windows 7 & Windows Server 2008 (Optional)
The following procedure should force a desktop wallpaper image to be displayed for all users regardless of whether or not the Desktop Background option is selected in the .rdp file. This could be useful if you want a logo or an image containing instructions for the user to always be displayed. There are some local group policy settings which can be configured to force a wallpaper to be shown and prevent users from changing it. However, this only seems to work if the Desktop Background option is selected in the .rdp file.
You may encounter difficulty getting the wallpaper to be displayed under all situations. One known situation is when a user connects with theDesktop Background option disabled. The wallpaper should be displayed initially. If the user disconnects from the remote computer (but does not log out) and then reconnects, the wallpaper will probably not appear.
Run gpedit.msc
Navigate to User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Logon/Logoff)
Double-click Logon
Click Show Files… The following directory should open: C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\User\Scripts\Logon
Create a new text file with a .cmd extension in this directory
