Preserving all settings when creating an image
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Hello,
I was wondering if there is anyway I can preserve all settings in Windows, programs, etc. When creating an image? Or is there something I have missed?
I have about 30 computers used for school, all need to be set up the same way.
When I for example login to chrome with an account to test, it isn’t logged in after deploying on another pc.
Have I missed something or is this not possible?Any help appreciated
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First off, this is essentially the basic premise behind “imaging” or “ghosting” or “cloning” (You choose your term.
Second, this is heavily dependent on the way you build your image. For example, if you’re sysprepping the image before capturing, any “logged in user” would be reset. All accounts, domain, etc… would be no longer valid as the system has been set to an out of box state. (OOBE = Out Of Box Experience).
Third, just because Chrome has a profile logged in on one account does not mean anybody who logs in will have that same account logged in. It is possible to do such a thing, but that’s outside the scope of FOG. Specifically regarding Chrome, information on achieving what you’re looking for is available through relatively simple google search. For example here’s one “default” configuration layout: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/187948?hl=en
Don’t forget that many programs have a user specific storage spot (usually under the user’s account) which you could copy to all users to maintain that configuration.
What do I mean by this?
If you are logged in as user “Administrator” and setup your Chrome settings here, the information won’t automatically be populated to all users who later on log in. It also won’t automatically copy to to users who have already logged in.
With Windows unattend, there’s an option called “CopyProfile” which kind of does this, but may not do exactly as you’d expect. This is all heavily dependent on your setup too.
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@tom-elliott
Thank you for the very helpful information!
About sysprep;
If I don’t sysprep, will the os be compatible with the same model of for example a laptop, or does that solely depend on the hardware? -
@ndjurno it should be, but hardware on a model can be swapped out. Things like hdd and ram maybe different.