SysPrep is a tool designed for corporate system administrators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and other personnel who need to deploy Microsoft® Windows® 2000 on multiple computers. After performing the initial setup steps on a single system, you can run SysPrep to prepare the sample computer for cloning. SysPrep assigns a unique security identifier (SID) to each target computer the first time the computer is restarted. SysPrep also creates a Mini-Setup wizard that runs the first time the target user reboots the computer. This shortened GUI-mode setup takes five to six minutes instead of 45 to 60 minutes and prompts the user only for required and user-specific information, such as the End User License Agreement, Product ID, and user name and company.
SysPrep is a valuable tool even if you donÆt use disk duplication. You can run SysPrep with the -nosidgen switch to create a shortened Mini-Setup on a single computer. In this case, SysPrep allows for auditing that might have been done, automates the Mini-Setup portion of the process so that users can still enter user-specific information such as regional options and Telephony API (TAPI) information, and bypasses setting up unique SIDs since the SIDs will already be unique when Setup is actually run on the computer.
Note
The combination of Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe replaces the Rollback.exe tool used in automating deployment of Microsoft® Windows NT® version 4.0.
SysPrep Topics
Files Required