Sysprep window appears after each reboot

I received a new desktop from <insert name of whitebox manufacturer here>
with Vista Home Premium pre-installed. Unfortunately every time I reboot the
machine, the System Preparation Tool window pops up. I grow weary of
canceling the window after every reboot. If I hit 'OK' and try to let it run,
it fails with a fatal error.

I went into the registry to see if I could find the culprit in the Run or
RunOnce entries but to no avail. I am obviously new to sysprep and from what
I can tell I do not need to run it right now. Any hints on how to remove
this PITA?

Thanks in advance!
-Rob

Look in the startup folder or use msconfig to locate "sysprep.exe" and delete the entry.

I received a new desktop from <insert name of whitebox manufacturer here>
with Vista Home Premium pre-installed. Unfortunately every time I reboot the
machine, the System Preparation Tool window pops up. I grow weary of
canceling the window after every reboot. If I hit 'OK' and try to let it run,
it fails with a fatal error.

I went into the registry to see if I could find the culprit in the Run or
RunOnce entries but to no avail. I am obviously new to sysprep and from what
I can tell I do not need to run it right now. Any hints on how to remove
this PITA?

I don't blame you! I can't even begin to answer your question except to
say: send the machine back to <whitebox manufacturer> ASAP! There is
no excuse for this kind of nonsense.

(Yes, I know, the price was right...)

I hear you but to return the computer is more of a hassle than anything
else. I am hoping to find a solution...

Thanks for the quick reply. Unfortunately the two startup folders I found
are empty and I cannot find sysprep anywhere using msconfig. The only
suspect entry in the startup tab in msconfig is "auditadmin.cmd" (which does
not appear to be in its location in c:\windows\temp\auditadmin.cmd).

Any other ideas? Globally searching for sysprep found a file sysprep.bat in
c:\windows\system32\sysprep
"@echo off
pushd c:\windows\system32\sysprep
sysprep /oobe /quiet /quit "

Although I am unsure what would be kicking this off this bat file if it is
indeed the culprit (do they still use autoexec.bat in Vista...painful
flashbacks....)

Is this "sysprep window" appearing before or after the login prompt? Where
do you see the word "SYSPREP"?

If the reference appears prior to the login prompt, I would suspect that the
original (in your case, OEM-configured) installation never completed, and
you're getting an unwanted repeat performance of the "mini-setup" process
that should run the first time you boot the system and never again.

I've not done a thorough investigation of the implementation of the new,
allegedly improved (hah!) BCD process (the replacement for BOOT.INI) but
presumably a system sealed with SYSPREP has a one-time boot sequence
recorded in the BCD file. Either the one-time logic is being re-created at
each boot, or perhaps whoever created the image on your system accidentally
used the /default (permanent change) instead of /bootsequence (single-use
change) in editing the BCD.

Arguing against this, I wouldn't expect the name "SYSPREP" to appear during
the mini-setup displays.

[Caveat: I've not had the chance to play with any vendor's OEM version of
Vista.]

If the reference to sysprep appears as an execution of the sysprep command
after login, then you are right to be looking for something that's invoking
the SYSPREP utility, which by default (why?) gets automagically installed on
your system when Vista is loaded. You could as suggested elsewhere just
delete the sysprep executable (better yet: rename it to something else, like
"sysprep.exe.foobar"), but assuming this is an OEM distribution of Vista I
would demand that the OEM's customer support people provide you with a
distribution that correctly installs itself and doesn't get hung up on
invoking sysprep when there's no reason to do so.

Getting rid of "sysprep.exe" would fix the immediate symptom, but if the
OEM's image build is botched with respect to the reinvokation of sysprep,
you don't know what else was botched. Elsewhere you indicate that MSCONFIG
reports that the system is automatically running a file "auditadmin". It
could, of course, be almost anything but since sysprep has an "audit" mode
that users should not be seeing, that's another reason to suspect that the
image wasn't correctly built.

Joe Morris

Rob,

Sysprep.exe is a tool used to prepare an operating system for distribution.
It is not intended to remain behind for an end user. In fact, if it is run
again, it can essentially disrupt an otherwise working system.

Over the years, the sysprep.exe tool has been revised, it sounds as if the
OEM who built the computer did not (perhaps) fully understand the changes in
Vista with sysprep.

Without actually seeing the computer, it is difficult to say precisely what
the complete configuration is. Since you already indicated that you have
used regedit to view the contents of the registry, I feel comfortable saying
this much. There are many more places in Windows beyond "run" and "runonce"
in the registry, and the startup folders, which cause code to be executed at
startup. It could potentially be any combination (considering sysprep is
misbehaving).

Certainly, since you paid good money for a new PC, the vendor has a
responsibility. Perhaps a phone call, or email outlining the problem, will
get you an answer.

If that does not work, then, if the PC is otherwise working, sysprep is no
longer required. Essentially what sysprep does is to allow a manufacturer to
build a new PC, test it, then prepare it for shipment to the customer. The
sysprep.bat file can certainly be deleted. If sysprep is running on each
boot, then it certainly is still there. For performing a search, be certain
that it is capable of seeing system and hidden files.

There is a utility available on the Microsoft web site called "autoruns"
which can show what to set to run at startup. NOTE: While it shows
everything, that is also the potential danger... it shows everything. It can
be used to disable code from running at startup, in such a way that it can
be reenabled later. Please... the vast majority of what is set to run is
required, if an important program is disabled, or deleted, then Windows may
not work correctly, or even start at all. Extreme care is required.

For what it is worth, I have used sysprep.exe for the last decade in my
business, and not had any problems. It is one tool used in a much larger
process. I have never used the files auditadmin.cmd or sysprep.bat, so can
only guess that they were created by the vendor for some internal purpose.
Certainly from what you posted, sysprep.bat is just a wrapper around the
tool.

Best of luck,
John Baker

Wow. Autoruns is a heck of a program. I had no idea how much stuff was run
at each boot time.

After hunting around I uncovered a bit more about the botched installation
and decided to reinstall Vista. It was much easier than I thought it was
going to be.

Thanks for the help!!

As you might have seen from my previous post, I decided to reinstall Vista.
I am glad that I did since there appear to be a couple other subtle
differences between what I was left with from the botched Vista install and
my clean version. In particular the admin account had some strange behavior
(like not being activated when trying to share files, etc).

Thanks for your guidance!

I did see the previous posting. John Baker and I were saying much the same
thing about sysprep; it look like John had a better response (try autoruns)
and in any case the reinstall seems to have cleaned things up for you.

As a note: over the years I've established a long-term policy that when I
get a new computer I make a Ghost backup of whatever the OEM vendor
delivered on the disk before I ever allow it to boot, then after figuring
out what the vendor did to customize it, reformat the disk and do a clean
installation from original media -- and repeat the process every 18 months
or so. I do this both for my personal machines and the ones that I use at
the office (eight total real boxes, plus numerous virtual systems); it does
wonders (at the expense of the time required) for performance and stability,
not to mention getting rid of the cruft that the vendor insists that the end
user wade through. (It also ensures that I know where the installation
disks are for the packages I've added to the system, should a box suddenly
drop dead and I have to rebuild it on an emergency schedule.)

The system was still running in post-SYSPREP audit mode. MS requires PC makers to complete staging using the /OOBE switch so the end-user gets the EULA, username prompts, etc.


Thanks for sharing. Seriously, did you have a question about this? To
shorten the question/answer process, if your computer is showing a sysprep
prompt at boot, contact the computer mftr.'s tech support. This happens in
rare cases and they can give you the specific fix for their machine.



I read thru the post, but can not find the solution to fix the issue. I
had the same issue for Windows Vista 64-bit on an HP computer. Whenever
i restart the pc, the message of System Preparation Tool appears, and I
could not turn it off. I checked in RegEdit, msconfig, Services to find
the entry for this message, i could not find it.

Is there anyone knows how to solve it issue (e.i. to turn off this
message).


If you see any options *except* for putting in your username and a password,
leave them alone! You don't need to choose an OOBE option or any other
options. Just walk away and let the recovery process finish.

After the recovery process is really, really over - and seriously, it can
take *hours* - if you're still having problems that would be the time to
call HP tech support.

When you post a message that is a followup to another thread, please include
a precis of the earlier message. I have no idea what prior discussion
you're referring to.

What did you do to trigger sysprep?

How did you dismiss the Sysprep boot-time message? If you cancel it (and
I'm assuming that it's announcing that you're in audit mode) the system
continues to run in audit mode, and every boot will display the message
until you let it reboot into OOBE mode.

Joe Morris

Thank you very much for your reply!
Sorry, i did not summarize the topic. I think i should describe the
situation in details.

I have a HP computer. My x64 Vista did not work property and i have a
separate partition containing Recovery information, so i decided to run
System Recovery to put my Vista back to the original version (as
shipped); as the result, i have a fresh version of Vista; however,
whenever from that moment, the computer takes a long time (~10') to
restart and when i see the desktop, a message of "System Preparation
Tool 3.14" appears. At first i chose OOBE and reboot the computer, the
message is still there, later I also tried Audit Mode, but it could not
help either.

So the problems remains: long time to restart and a message of System
Preparation Tool. I can not re-install a new Vista as i don't have a
separate Windows Vista DVD, i have to depend on System Recovery.

Thanks for any help to dismiss the message and/or stop the Sysprep (as
i think the computer restarts very slowly due to Sysprep running).

OK, so you have a consumer-level HP laptop which you returned to factory
condition. It isn't a situation where you were imaging lots of computers
and messed up with your Sysprep.

What has happened is that you didn't let the factory restore process finish.
I have done dozens of these on HP Vista laptops and completely understand
your mistake. I made it myself on the first HP Vista recovery.

Do the factory restore again. The first part will be over fairly quickly and
it will *seem* like the restore is done. It isn't! The laptop will work for
possibly 1-1/2 hrs. more - I've had some machines take up to 3 hrs. for the
restore - rebooting and busily installing stuff. Do not interrupt this
process! Do not give into the temptation to touch it! Go away and do
something else and when you finally get to the generic user's desktop with
nothing running in the Taskbar, you'll be done.

Caveat: I have exactly zero experience with HP machines running Vista; the
last HP box I've touched was an OmniBook 510 (my POE dropped HP as a vendor
after it bought Compaq and abandoned the excellent OmniBook product line in
favor of Compaq boxes).

If you followed the HP instructions for restoring the machine from the
on-disk files and you're getting a Sysprep mesasge, that sounds like the
restore image is bad. When used by a manufacturer or integrator to prepare
a system for delivery to an end user, Sysprep's (somewhat simplified) job is
to strip out all of the hardware-related configuration information, set a
flag saying that it needs to be given control at the next boot, and then
shut the system down. When the process ends the disk image is ready to be
shipped.

When the system (or a system with a disk imaged from the manufacturer's
sysprepped machine) is first booted by the end user, Sysprep again gets
control but this time in OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) mode. It runs what's
called the "mini-setup" which locates all the hardware devices on the box
and installs drivers for them and steps the user through initial account
setup. What it does NOT do (or at least SHOULD NOT do) is raise a dialog
that refers to itself.

Since this is an HP system with an OEM distribution of Vista, and apparently
some kind of screwup in the HP restore image, you need to talk to the HP
support people. Microsoft won't offer help since in return for getting the
Vista license at a significant discount HP has committed itself to providing
the end-user with appropriate support.

Joe Morris

Hi, Joe - Your post is excellent but while the recovery disk set could be
bad it is far more likely that the OP just didn't let the recovery process
finish. See my reply to him.

I had the same experience the very first time I did a factory restore on an
HP Vista laptop. Since then I've done more of these than I like to think
about (subcontracting work for a local school's laptop program) and all the
HPs take forever to finish the factory restore. If you interrupt the
process before it's done, you'll get exactly the same behavior as the OP's
computer is having. The only thing to do is redo the recovery process and
this time be patient.

Hi Malke and Joe,
Thank you very much for your help.
I could not recall anything i did to interrupt the recovery process,
but i gave it a try, i am now restoring my Vista system with more
caution. If this time i still see the message i will choose the OOBE
option and restart the computer, then i will have to call HP.
I will update the situation later.
Thanks again,
Epi