I like to see file extensions, and I like to get rid of some of the extra cruft in the All Programs area. But to each his own. Plus, when the testing confirms both the template, and the customization spec are good, I will clone the template for View use. I suspect everyone knows how to deploy from this new template but remember that any passwords put into the customization script should be done using the vSphere Client and not the vSphere Web Client this is a bug and I am sure it will fixed.
Any day now. I also suggest using the following commands in the Run Once part of the customization specification. I have seen a lot of different things done via Run Once.
Scripts for example that install applications, or do inventory related tasks, so remember that and you can use it as you need. Always test your deploy from template before you use the template in VDI or automated anything. In particular make sure the joining the domain works. Troubleshooting template issues inside View or VRA operations is much tougher then it needs to be. Here is a very nice article that is about the guest customization script in case that helps.
Now that we have deployed a VM from our template we need to make sure it all works. This is testing our VM but also the custom specification. Some things to check include:. Here is some miscellaneous things to think about if you have troubles. You should update your template approximately once every month or so.
This will allow you to catch any outstanding patches for the OS as well as application patches. Just convert the template to virtual machine, turn it on, patch, than restart it, and convert it to template. You may consider joining it to your domain to catch new GPO type stuff that may be sticky but remember to remove it from the domain before you turn it back into the template.
I know people that do this using VRO and how cool is that! Here are the links that may be helpful or useful somehow. They contributed to this article or may be helpful. I plan on keeping this page updated with what I am using and what works well! I will use this section to update you with what I updated when I do updates.
Thanks for checking out my article — I hope it helps. I will keep this article current and that means updates so revisit if you use it for help. Questions and comments are always welcome. Thank you for your post on this! I am using a custom wim, but whenever I deploy from this template — the lock screen reverts back to default wallpaper. Any ideas? I am not sure about this. It does sound familar, next time I updated my template, I will check for this and see what I can find.
It does run, but not where you see it. Wondering If it could save you some time for the fine tuning of the OS and being able to repeat it at will. Yes, I am familiar with that fling. It takes a bit of getting use to,and it can easily make too many changes. I also think we need to know the manual way before going automated. If you put some good time into learning the fling, and test it carefully, it will do well for you. Hello, thank you, thank you.
This is exactly what i was looking for. Good question. I have not used this info on building out a physical Win10 machine but I do believe most or all of it would work. And yes, the defprof does work on physical.
Open a command prompt with local administrative privileges. This will install VMWare tools with the default settings and reboot the VM when the install is complete. I have configure a Windows 10 template as you describe in this fine article.
Unfortunately, my customization specification does not get applied when I create a new virtual machine from the template. The same spec applied properly before I applied your recommended template settings. Any idea what might be interrupting this? This is not a common issue. I would suggest you check your temp folder for a file that starts imc and see if there are clues in there. If nothing helps there, I would suggest talking to VMware Support.
If you ever figure it out please let me know. As well, when I updated my Win10 template I will see if I can learn anything and add to the article to help with problems. I found the problem. I resolved these by uninstalling Office from the template and adding batch files for the install in the Utils folder.
I can have the users IT folks run the batch files. I am using vCSA 6. It works for me, at least a while back. I will try again soon. Try talking to VMware support and let me know how it goes. Awesome article, thank you! Might be worth mentioning how to remove the defprof tool to save a google search.
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Skip to content. Home About Other Stuff! Napa and Sonoma recommended Wine destinations Recommended Restaurants. I really do like templates. I can very easily create a working — and yet customized how I like — virtual machine in a very short amount of time And with no decisions or configuration to worry about. BTW, my Win2K12 template article is popular and I had put more then the normal amount of detail I like to do in it so I will do that in this one too.
I hope you find it useful. I know that some of what I am going to show you can be done in GPO but I like to do it the way I am going to show you as I think it is more flexible. You were prompted to create an account.
A template gets lots of attention, and they enable fast and tuned provisioning. I customize a template a lot so it is around for a long time so it needs a license. The next screen gives you a choice between installing with a Desktop Experience or not.
I suggest that you make an informed decision. What is this template going to be used for? Unlike in Win2K12 you cannot change your mind later. Next to continue. In the next screen you will be prompted to select a Type of Installation. I see as in Win2K12 the wrong choice is see selected here in Win2K Not sure why so make sure to use the Custom choice. The next screen will ask you about where to install Windows. We can actually hit Next. Now we wait, and watch. It takes a while.
We will need to add a password to the administrator account. Once you are logged in, you will be in the Server Manager. You will see the option for that on the Summary tab for the VM. See both of these options below. Once you select you will see the option below. I wrote up this issue in this article.
Normal install now, and you can Restart when prompted. We need to log in again so we can start making changes. So first do the Time Zone. When we first started all of this you may have noticed that the time of the VM was way off. But now with the right Timezone it should be the right time. If not, your ESXi host may have the wrong time. See below what it will look like after the change to 24 hour clock. We should be back in the Server Manager now. Use the Local Server setting in the top left corner and you will see something like below.
We will make a number of changes here. Literally only one thing to change. We want to select the check-box for Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon. Now we want to get fully patched. Again in the top right, we can see Windows Update. Configure it as necessary. Now update until there is no more patches. Reboot as necessary. It feels like to me that patching has taken longer then the darn install.
Than use Shut down or sign out and select Restart. This is a very powerful Right Click! See all of the choice on this menu? Very handy. You can also remove the CD now from the VM.
Once you restart, and log back in, please start up the Server Manager again. If necessary it is the first tile on the desktop. Select Local Server again. You should start with Computer name and change it to match your VM name. You will be limited to 15 characters and that is a little tight so there may be a change.
Restart later. Also on the Advanced tab you can change the Startup and Recovery settings so that the Time to display is changed from 30 to 5. Some people will deselect the option to Automatically restart here but it is something rather to think about. Now tweak the Firewall if necessary.
Do you need to change the Remote Management option — I suggest not if you are not sure. You very likely need to change the Remote Desktop option. To add users or even better groups it is a little hard if you are not in the domain. If you cannot, during deployment from the template when the server is added to the domain you can manage the users using for example Restricted Groups.
We will tweak the network now. We likely do not need QoS Packet Scheduler. By the way, when you are back in Server Manager if you do not see what you think you should, than use the Refresh button at the top of the screen and it will update things so they look more appropriate. You can click on the IPv4 in Ethernet0. Windows Update should show that we have done updates. I actually select Full as I know how good for me it is for them to have that info.
I am turning it off for Administrators. Now we should add features. Scroll to the bottom of the Server Manager page. Now you can select Add Roles and Features from under the Tasks menu. Roles is where you would add things like IIS. I like to add Telnet Client as a feature to help with testing. This is where you might add things like. Now leave Server Manager. We want to use High performance in the power plan.
You can also set the Turn off Display here to never. Now start IE and save the home page as About:blank. We need to make a change at the command line before we restart. It will take a few minutes to complete this. Now we should defragment the drive. This option is on the Tools tab.
Yes, it does take a while. While you are here you should disable the weekly optimize option as it is not necessary. Often people will want to lower or disable the User Account Settings. Chose the setting that is best for you. I go into Settings and search for Turn System icons on or off and turn off the Volume. Now we should restart. Configuration — Installing software We only install software here that we really need and is useful for most users. Bginfo — see this for help.
Google Chrome Autoruns — a great tool to make sure you know what starts with your server. Process Explorer — a great tool for troubleshooting. Thanks to StuartM I now suggest thinking about installing the Sysmon utility which you can find here. You may not want it running all of the time but you might. It is a very powerful tool and can help educate and investigate. Generally by now I am prompted to activate the Microsoft license. I do let it activate. You can see more about this in this article.
Ready to make it a template? Enable the swap file. Now select Advanced and select Change in the Virtual Memory section. You can select Automatically manage paging file size for all drives if that works for your organization. I should mention that I like to have a separate drive and put the paging file on it — when it makes sense. If necessary remove this VM from the domain and restart. I always like to check Windows Update before I finish and yes, today I did find a bunch of updates that I did not find earlier.
So I update and restart as necessary. Update : this has caused issues from one of my readers. It depends on what patches are installed. The issue is serious enough to not do this. It will look something like: Empty the trash. A new idea is to empty the event logs.
Which is a good idea. Use PowerShell and the following snippet. This is done so new users will get the configuration you have done as yourself. When that is done we remove the tool in the latest version it seems to do that itself , Delete the temp account you created — if appropriate.
And shut the VM down. Once the VM is shut down we are ready to turn it into a template. I generally now do an update in the Notes section to account for what I have done. We now have a Windows template. Deploy from Template I suspect everyone knows how to deploy from this new template?
See the screen below: As you can see this is the default option. Test You should test by deploying from your template. Some other things to check include: Do you see the wallpaper as you think you should?
Meaning BGinfo information should be seen. Do you see the Utilities folder that you created and including the things inside it like BGInfo and Autoruns? Things to think about I believe that if the User Profile Manager tool works for you that it should be purchased. If you are doing a template that has a bunch of drive letters — like a SQL server, you will lose the order of those drive letters after you deploy.
It can be fixed — problem avoided — if you use the info in this article. Thanks Michael for this! Updating your Template You should update your template approximately once every month or so. Links I found useful information in a variety of places. In particular at the links below.
History I plan on keeping this page updated with what I am using and what works well! So added it in here.
Added another code snippet that clears some logs. Frustrating, even asked around for help but no luck with a magic script to clear all the logs. It is not an issue that hits everyone, but it is not good so we are playing it safe. I think that people miss the custom spec option so I added a few words around that — do use a custom spec. That has not been true for so many years I was shocked, but since two people have said that I need to do something. Here below is a screenshot in the custom spec that reassures those people — I hope.
Like this: Like Loading Tagged Templates Windows Published December 11, May 12, Previous Post Newsletter: December 10, Next Post iOS Hi Magnus, Can you provide a little more detail for me? Very good info Lars. I did not know you could do that. Very interesting so thanks for sharing! I have to read more about it before i decide.
It has been a big help — even on Win2K I have not seen this issue, but I will watch for it. Thanks, good to know. Will spend time on this next time I updated the template. That is great info John, thanks for sharing. Do you have any suggestion? Hi Michel, I can see how this is frustrating.
Sorry not more help, Michael. I have found a script that I use to reset the SID. Hi Tony, Yes, I often use the rune once. Best regards, Tobias. Great suggestions, I do the disable one too.
Hi Michael, nice write-up — thanks a lot. This makes life a lot easier…. Most excellent to hear Dominik, thanks very much for sharing. Great info! HI Marcel, You are not missing sysprep. Hi there, No, I do not use sysprep manually. That is in fact a good idea.
I know several very smart people that do that. Thanks, Michael. When I update the template article I will probably add that in. As people as already said, thanks for this article. List of Tutorials. First, you need to create the original Windows virtual machine.
Access the Vmware web interface. On the prompt screen, enter the administrative login information. After a successful login, the Vmware dashboard will be displayed. Next, select the datastore where the virtual machine should be created. Finish the Virtual machine creation assistant. Turn on the new Virtual Machine.
The system should start automatically a new operating system installation. Perform a regular Windows installation. After finishing the customization, restart the Windows virtual machine. Tutorial - Create the Windows Template using Sysprep. After finishing all the customizations desired, you need to Run the Sysprep Application. Sysprep is a tool created by Microsoft to prepare a Windows installation to become a template.
We are going to use the Sysprep tool to prepare this computer to become a Windows template. The Sysprep tool has the potential to cause loss of data. After finishing the process, your computer will shutdown automatically.
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