FYI Win10 1903 sysprep possible bug

[fry_p]

Hi All,
Just had a lovely experience with sysprepping a 1903 image that may be a bug and how to fix it. I made 3 model specific images prior to this and just ran into this on my 4th.

I attempted to run the command: sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml

I instantly received a sysprep error regarding the dll located at C:\Windows\System32\spopk.dll. The error is found in the C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.txt and the C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setuperr.txt logs. I do not remember the specific error.

My workaround is to copy the C:\Windows\System32\spopk.dll file from a working 1903 PC and replace the existing spopk.dll file on the computer you are trying to sysprep. You will need to take ownership and give full control of the existing spopk.dll file in order to modify it. Once permissions were set and I copied the “good” dll to my desktop, I ran the following command:

xcopy "C:\users\fry_p\Desktop\spopk.dll" "C:\Windows\system32" /y

I was able to successfully run sysprep after that. Once uploaded, the PC went into OOBE mode and failed. I redeployed the just captured image and it seems to be working now.

EDIT: Microsoft Forum post about similar situation: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/0dcbdf32-05a1-4edc-8f22-287998d30de5/sysprep-problem-audit-mode-canamp39t-be-turned-on-if-there-is-an-active-scenario?forum=win10itprosetup

[A Former User]

Pausing updates then unpausing then allowed me to sysprep without this error.

[george1421]

In addition to what @Shad0wguy posted, your golden image should be developed on an isolated network, or at least one that doesn’t have internet access for just that reason. You don’t want windows updates to help you “fix” your system while you are preparing for it. If you are doing this in audit mode, for sure disable the windows update service until just before sysprepping it. I myself use MDT to build the golden image so one of the task sequences is to update the windows updates from our WSUS server and not to use direct internet updates. That way the updates are applied and completed in a known state before MDT exits. We will typically sysprep and capture with FOG right after MDT finishes.

But its great you are documenting the problem here and the potential solution. Because if you have the issue there are 100 other folks that will have it in the future. So thank you for helping them out too.