Good news everybody: I was able to remove the welcome screen with help from Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]: 1. Start Regedit. 2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Run. 3. Right click on the WindowsWelcomeCenter key and select Delete. The next time you restart the Welcome Center will be gone. This did the trick. however i still have the pesky image as above. but guess what if you run sysprep /oobe it all comes back with and ugly vengence