[mikerowsopht]

Hi All,

I am having a couple of issue's with WDS and XP.
WDS is setup and working correctly with no problems. I can deploy windows 7 to a pc and it shows up in pending devices which I can then approve and name the pc.

When I deploy XP the pc does not show up in pending devices and instead gets a random name.

The WDS server does not have an unattended.xml file for the boot image, only for the install images.
Before capturing the image of XP I did sysprep and created a sysprep.inf file on the root of the C drive.

I have opened this sysprep.inf file and see a computername option with a * in it for ramdom naming.
I have removed this line from the sysprep.inf file so there is now no computername in the sysprep file.

When I deploy it again it still gives itself a random pc name and does not show up in pending devices.
I am confused at this point as I have removed the naming from the sysprep.inf file.

I know everything is setup correctly on the WDS side because I can deploy vista and Win7 with no problems and they show on pending devices.
When I deploy XP it doesn't show up on pending devices on the WDS server.

Does anyone know what I have to do to resolve this ?

Do i need to create a unattend.txt for xp instead of sysprep as when I click on sysprep.exe I have a choice of xml file or sysprep.inf

Basically all I want is for my xp image to show on pending devices so I can name and approve it, then I would be a happy man.

Thnx All you Wise Folks

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editied by me :

Just to note I have sysprep'd the xp machine and it is added to the domain, then I did the capture.
Should I have removed it from the domain before capturing and that is why it is not showing up in pending devices, not sure ???

This post has been edited by mikerowsopht: 31 December 2010 - 08:05 AM

[mikerowsopht]

Got it working for xp in pending devices now
I can name & approve the image from WDS
deploy xp
again I get a random name even though I named it in WDS console
during sysprep I can only select 2 answers for the name which is a random name or somethng else which doesn't apply
it's obviously getting the name from the sysprerp file, I have even removed the code from the sysprerp file to give the pc a random name
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 06 January 2011 - 11:27 AM
Reason for edit: user used wrong reply button

[mikerowsopht]

Ok I have figured it out so might as well share it with everyone.

Don't name the pc in pending devices on the WDS console, it doesn't work if it's XP. Just approve the image.

While sysprepping the XP maching select generate a random computer name during setupmgr.
Once you have finished creating your sysprep.inf file open it with notepad and remove the * from computer name

was :

computername=*

now

computername=

this confuses sysprep during the deployment and it pops up and asks for the PC name and local admin password at the client.
Once you enter these details your pc will continue to install automatically with the pc name you have given.

You are however able to approve and name the pc for vista / win 7

I wasn't really bothered created mysysprep2 ..............