Can I sysprep a system running Windows 8.1 that has been upgraded from 8.0?

[daviddunford]

I plan to upgrade my mobo and CPU. Though both old and new systems are Intel, they are 5 generations apart so I know I should do a fresh install. But I'd like to try to avoid the problem by running sysprep. Windows 8 was a clean install, but I've upgraded that to 8.1. Does that make sysprep unworkable?

 

[TEFjLONjDON]

I plan to upgrade my mobo and CPU. Though both old and new systems are Intel, they are 5 generations apart so I know I should do a fresh install. But I'd like to try to avoid the problem by running sysprep. Windows 8 was a clean install, but I've upgraded that to 8.1. Does that make sysprep unworkable?

This is almost exactly the same situation I'm attempting with my build.
My Haswell PSU should arrive later today. So if you can wait? I'll tell you how it goes for me on my end.

I have a few different variables however. For one, my system is in UEFI mode, not BIOS.
I too Updated to 8.1 through the windows store, & 8.0 was a clean install to my SSD.
I turned off bitlocker on all drives just to simplify things a bit more.

I had a multi boot config where I had options to Native boot my .VHDX(s) from the Boot Menu. However I went ahead and restored my boot menu to normal using BCDBoot, and BCDedit command-line tools. "EASYBCD" works just as well but i like knowing the ins and outs... All is running normal right now and windows assesment services reports no errors. Event log is clean.

I'm Letting the system create a new System Backup Image. for now (just in case)
I'll start the sysprep generalize right after work later today.

From what i understand the System should sysprep in to 8.1's OOBE and not revert to 8.0 but either way its only 3.4GB DL .

My goal is to dump the drivers and frimware from my efi config and let oobe run to pickup new EFI Firmware and Drivers for the new CPU and Chipset. Without having to re update the OS or re install all the Programs.

Shame cause I love having a clean install but Microsoft isnt playing nice this go. Upgrade key is my crutch right now. maybe if it all tanks on me I'll buy a full 8.1 Lic. but budgets tight.

 

[daviddunford]

I plan to upgrade my mobo and CPU. Though both old and new systems are Intel, they are 5 generations apart so I know I should do a fresh install. But I'd like to try to avoid the problem by running sysprep. Windows 8 was a clean install, but I've upgraded that to 8.1. Does that make sysprep unworkable?

This is almost exactly the same situation I'm attempting with my build.
My Haswell PSU should arrive later today. So if you can wait? I'll tell you how it goes for me on my end.

I have a few different variables however. For one, my system is in UEFI mode, not BIOS.
I too Updated to 8.1 through the windows store, & 8.0 was a clean install to my SSD.
I turned off bitlocker on all drives just to simplify things a bit more.

I had a multi boot config where I had options to Native boot my .VHDX(s) from the Boot Menu. However I went ahead and restored my boot menu to normal using BCDBoot, and BCDedit command-line tools. "EASYBCD" works just as well but i like knowing the ins and outs... All is running normal right now and windows assesment services reports no errors. Event log is clean.

I'm Letting the system create a new System Backup Image. for now (just in case)
I'll start the sysprep generalize right after work later today.

From what i understand the System should sysprep in to 8.1's OOBE and not revert to 8.0 but either way its only 3.4GB DL .

My goal is to dump the drivers and frimware from my efi config and let oobe run to pickup new EFI Firmware and Drivers for the new CPU and Chipset. Without having to re update the OS or re install all the Programs.

Shame cause I love having a clean install but Microsoft isnt playing nice this go. Upgrade key is my crutch right now. maybe if it all tanks on me I'll buy a full 8.1 Lic. but budgets tight.

 

[daviddunford]

Hi

Thanks for your message.

In fact, I went ahead with the re-build and just hoped for the best. I thought there was at least a chance that with an Intel to Intel upgrade and a mobo from the same manufacturer (Gigabyte) Windows might be able to cope. I was right: after a quick system repair (about a minute) everything worked perfectly - all I needed to do was re-activate Windows by phone (fully automatic, takes a minute) and uninstall and re-install my Modern UI apps.

More surprisingly, the re-build from an ancient AMD chip to the now relegated Core 2 Duo mobo and CPU went even more smoothly. Again Windows (7) attempted a repair and, despite a message that the repair had not been successful, booted next time without a problem. I didn't even need to phone to re-activate!

So it looks as though recent versions of Windows are more forgiving that we thought - unless I just got lucky!

Good luck with your re-build.

 

[TEFjLONjDON]

Awesome, I'm glad to hear that it went that well.
But for other readers that might still be interested in the possibility of syspreping their drives prior to rebuilding or migrating to new hardware. I have bad news. In fact by default, upgraded OS's are not allowed to successfully perform a sysprep on their drives. This is unsupported by Microsoft. Most likely because sysprep is designed more for capturing the image of a system after removing the hardware specific drivers in order to use the image for deployment purposes. And as we all know they dont want us to have that ability with out first verifying that we have a valid qualifying licence key for the OS and the proper number of licences. I encourage you to research the use of sysprep commands and gui before you continue any further. However there is a method to mitigate the error messages and force run sysprep. This link " https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=aUzCUpbrDO_jsATYpIGQDQ&url=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DRQ-hRyacbp0&cd=5&ved=0CD4QtwIwBA&usg=AFQjCNEunComd61N_Qs-k1xn9IIRk2Myaw&sig2=tz-ckWULrs92I_CQZwrgOw " gives a fairly detailed tutorial of how to accomplish this on a Windows 8.0 OS that has been upgraded to 8.1 THROUGH THE WINDOWS STORE. NOT THE DOWNLOADABLE UPGRADE ISO.
I did successfully strip the drivers from my efi installation of win8 (with win store 8.1 upgrade.) Another note worth mentioning is that the tutorial doesn't mention to viewers that they need to unlock the hidden administrator account and then sign out of their user account, then login to the now unlocked and accessible administrator account, prior to running the sysprep commands.

Here is a link on how to unlock the hidden administrator account.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=FQrFUtP2HKmlsQT9woCADg&url=http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9650-built-administrator-account-enable-disable-windows-8-a.html&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNHFBtnSxnY2rJHlSlCsSnCZukEBNQ&sig2=dWzwbIPOr6NZDXepSNiYNQ

It will make no difference if you unlock the hidden administrator account and perform the tutorials steps before or afterwards as long as you Run sysprep from the administration account. Also it will almost certainly fail with a quote unquote "fatal error" but its okay read on. Make sure you chose shutdown option, not restart. And if your purpose is to generalize for new hardware configurations like in my case the make sure to select generalize.
After you see the error, if the system did shutdown your still good to go. If its still on, try to run it again ( just to be safe) note you will need to go back into regedit and change the system status keys to both sevens again. Like in the video. Now run the second time with the same options. If you see the same "fatal error" message, Then it shutdown manually. If you find a situation where your screen is blank, this is because it removed the hardware driver for your graphics. ie... it was successful at removing the drivers. (I-GPU & or GPU card) simply allow a rational amount of time to pass so the system can complete any necessary tasks then power off manually. Normally just a single press of the power button will do. If after 3-4 minutes the system is still on then hold the power button for about 6-7 seconds and the system will shutdown. At any point after the command has been run and the system shuts down!!!! Do not restart the system!!! Remove the drive for transfer, or perform the swap of what ever components that made this necessary in the first place.

Finally Once you boot the new config you should see the welcome first run screen. Congrats success.... If you do not see the setting things up this might take a minute screens then let the system continue to boot the os. You should now see the new drivers being picked up and scanned for.... If your system gets past its first post and you boot strait back to the OS as normal then congrats. You did it.
If you are directed to startup repair then allow the automated repair. It could take two or more attempts at the repair. If this is your case, it is likely that the sysprep never succeeded but the os will now basically attempt to do it for you.

As always I make no guaranties or warranties as to your individual out come. The steps here are at your own risk. I'm simply telling you what worked for me..
I tried this on 3 extra occasions using slightly different steps and configurations just so that I could help explain different possible outcomes.. please note you will most likely need to reinter your product key for the os. Or restore a backup of tokens you saved to a data disk earlier. I did not at the upload video. And it is worth noting, that the maker if the video did so on a virtual system running in a hypervisor such as hyper-v. As always backup EVERYTHING first. I suggest taking a tokens backup as well. If need be you can always phone activate.

Also, make sure to have All essential hardware drivers like your LAN, WiFi or graphics drivers stored on an accessible media like USB 2.0 or CD or on an internal data disk that is linked directly to the system not on a raid card or driver dependent device. Most USB 2.0 drivers are available to the os by default and will install as needed. It may be possible that you will requiring the os DVD/CD for this, but not in most cases. All manufacturers are different. Good luck, I wish you much success. And "Happy New Year".

 

[TEFjLONjDON]

IMPORTANT!!! note if did not create a throwaway account with admin right or unlock the hidden admin account then you will most likely have only a fraction of the tiles left that you had on your windows start screen after you do this. You will also have an issue with " Metro style PC Setting" force closing. You can solve this by running this at elevated command prompt with administrative rights. "
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml "
If you still have issues read here...
following this link & Go to page six. I'll pate the text below the link.
http://www.eightforums.com/software-apps/33515-windows-8-1-most-metro-apps-crash-immediately-launch-6.html
Copied text bellow.
""""Have been having the same issues since upgrading to Windows 8.1 on Sunday night. Everything in the desktop world works normally but the entire metro world (store, apps, even PC settings) doesn't work. I was able to get my Windows Store app to start working by using the following command in the Command Prompt (Admin):

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml

Once I had the store back and running I was going to try to uninstall and reinstall apps. However, when I tried this, I got an error from the Windows Store of:
Error code 0x8007002

This was for anything I was trying to install.

Next, I was going to try and set-up a new user to see if I would have the same issues. However, I was not able to do this in PC settings as it was not working and Control Panel refers to PC settings to do this. However, I did find the command prompt to do this:
net UserName /add

Once I did this, it showed up in control panel as a User Account I manipulated. I did not assign it administrative rights yet.

I logged off my administrator account and logged into this new account that is a local account only at this point and, what do you know, my Metro apps are working, including PC Settings. This is as far as I have currently gotten but I would love to know why this would be the case. I can go ahead and try to transfer admin rights, and set-up everything that I have now under the new user account but I would love to avoid that if possible since it is like having to setup the computer again.""""

Also one more thing. You do not need to get your SSID as is shown in the video. The uploader did this only to prove that he is using the same virtual operating system running before and after the sysprep is performed.