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romatlo32
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Windows 10 Pro 1709 Customization Spec does not run!!

Hello folks,

I am struggling for days with getting VMware Horizon 7.3.1 (agent 7.4.0) customization (which kicks off sysprep) to function in Windows 10.  I have tried running removeappx commands to remove apps and provisioning, but still errors after deploying a clone.  Could someone please give me a clue as to how I may prepare a reference image to deploy my VMs from?  Screenshot of my latest sysprep error below.

I've been trying this article but still not working right.  Anyone have a clear path?

syspreperror.jpg

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PaulMurphyCO
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I had the same issue.  MS KB2769827 helps to explain the problem - it has to do with apps updating during the build process.

One fix is to disable Windows Store Updates and the Microsoft Consumer Experience before your VM hits the internet. Depending on how you create/deploy your vm, there are several ways to do this. I just created a vm without a NIC, installed Win10, disabled Windows Store Updates and the Microsoft Consumer Experience via a registry entry that comes from running a Powershell script that sets several configurations on the VM right after Windows loads (or you can use the local group policy editor), added a NIC to the VM, and proceeded with the build. 

Powershell Reg entries in my script:

# Disable Microsoft Consumer Experience

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows" -Name CloudContent -Force

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent" -Name DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures -PropertyType DWORD -Value 1 -Force

# Disable Windows Store Updates

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft" -Name WindowsStore -Force

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore" -Name AutoDownload -PropertyType DWORD -Value 2 -Force

A few good articles that helped me are:

https://deploymentresearch.com/Research/Post/615/Fixing-why-Sysprep-fails-in-Windows-10-due-to-Windo...

https://lvdhorst.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/capture-windows-10-failure-while-pre-validate-sysprep-fail...

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PaulMurphyCO
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I had the same issue.  MS KB2769827 helps to explain the problem - it has to do with apps updating during the build process.

One fix is to disable Windows Store Updates and the Microsoft Consumer Experience before your VM hits the internet. Depending on how you create/deploy your vm, there are several ways to do this. I just created a vm without a NIC, installed Win10, disabled Windows Store Updates and the Microsoft Consumer Experience via a registry entry that comes from running a Powershell script that sets several configurations on the VM right after Windows loads (or you can use the local group policy editor), added a NIC to the VM, and proceeded with the build. 

Powershell Reg entries in my script:

# Disable Microsoft Consumer Experience

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows" -Name CloudContent -Force

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent" -Name DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures -PropertyType DWORD -Value 1 -Force

# Disable Windows Store Updates

New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft" -Name WindowsStore -Force

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore" -Name AutoDownload -PropertyType DWORD -Value 2 -Force

A few good articles that helped me are:

https://deploymentresearch.com/Research/Post/615/Fixing-why-Sysprep-fails-in-Windows-10-due-to-Windo...

https://lvdhorst.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/capture-windows-10-failure-while-pre-validate-sysprep-fail...

romatlo32
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Thank you PaulMurphyCO so much!!  Would you say that this also applies to creating a template for Horizon Linked Clone deployment?

I will include your suggestions in my next development.  By the way, I finally got something to work after running the "Kill it with Fire" commands from this article.

https://www.htguk.com/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about_12/

Thanks again.

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PaulMurphyCO
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I did it on my template VMs, then created parent VMs for our linked clone pools. Sysprep ran successfully on creation of the parent vm.

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romatlo32
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Sorry for my delayed response.  Excellent feedback.  So helpful.

I did manage to get a Win10 1709 with the Horizon Win10 optimization sling utility.

It works, but for some reason IE is not in the start menu, therefore does not show up when typing in Search.

Its fine in the template.

Now I have to go back test it without the optimizations I guess.

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