Optimization Breaks Windows 10

[BarryUWSEFS]

I followed this VMware guide for optimizing Windows images:

Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop | VMware

Everything seemed to be working fine with  until I created a new user profile. The first thing I noticed was that the task bar search quit working. Then I went into Settings - Update and Security, and none of those links worked so I could not run troubleshooter, or anything else for that matter. Who knows what else might be broken.

If I log back into the VM with the original Administrator account, everything still works fine. This makes the image useless for me, after spending most of the day building it. It is a Golden Image for linked clones.

Anyone have an idea about what might be causing the new user profiles to be broken? By the way I did not activate a mandatory profile since we are going to use Persona.

Thanks,

Barry

[sWORDs]

Hi Barry,

The guide doesn't do anything to the default user profile besides copy over the profile of Administrator. So I'm wondering what could cause the issue that you're seeing.

Which version of Windows are you using?

If you're not going to use the Mandatory Profile, you need to apply OSOT to the default profile and there is no point in doing the sysprep/copyprofile. I'm not sure if using Persona is a wise idea, I'd highly recommend using UEM with folder redirection.

[BarryUWSEFS]

Thanks for your suggestions. We do not have the license for UEM and have been using Persona successfully with Horizon 6 and Win 7, so we hope it will work the same with Horizon 7 and Win 10. I am having a hard time finding documentation for Persona with Horizon 7. We are using Win 10 1803.

I am wondering if not using the mandatory profile could be the issue.

I did not setup our Horizon 6 Persona environment so it is a little learning curve for me, but I imagine I could use mandatory profiles with it. But I am tending to agree with you that I may just leave Sysprep out of the equation and follow the guidelines similar to VMware Horizon 7.5.1 – Master Virtual Desktop – Carl Stalhood  which I have done successfully before. Unfortunately I am running up against a deadline and do not have a lot of time left for experimentation.

[sWORDs]

The links that are 'broken' in 'Settings - Update and Security' are broken by Microsoft and have nothing to do with the guide.

You can 'unbreak' them by enabling 'Admin Approval Mode for Built-In Administrator Account'.

User Account Control Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account (Windows 10) | Micro...

If you followed the guide but are not going to use the Mandatory Profile you should run OSOT again and this time don't change the default profile to the mandatory user.

[BarryUWSEFS]

@sWORDs "The links that are 'broken' in 'Settings - Update and Security' are broken by Microsoft and have nothing to do with the guide.

You can 'unbreak' them by enabling 'Admin Approval Mode for Built-In Administrator Account'.

Not sure f that makes sense in this situation. basically I created the image with the local admin account, then when I joined the domain and logged in as a domain user, the search and those links were broken. That has never happened to me before. The Admin Approval Mode just appears to be a security measure for the local admin account.

[BarryUWSEFS]

Just to wrap this up, I could not get Win 10 1803 to work with Persona. The primary issue being the start menu not roaming. This ended up not having anything to do with Optimization. I ended up implementing Windows Roaming, at least for now.

[sWORDs]

While it might not seem logical, it allows the domain account to elevate so the local admin account will execute those tasks.

[MrKG]

Having the same issue. It seems when the CopyProfile copies over the Administrator user into Default User the profile is becoming corrupt somehow.

I thought this might be an 1809 issue as that is what I'm working on building, however I also tried going back to 1803 and the same issue exists.

Going to mail EUC and see if I can get any feedback on this. Confirmed this is an issue with the guide as it stands right now.

ESXi 6.7