clh said:
I have a situation related to MSDN Vista activation and I'm at a
complete loss as to how to handle it. I can't believe I'm the only
one in this position and that there isn't a way to deal with it.
I have an MSDN OS subscription and am trying to set up a Vista image
for a PC lab that I do application compatibility testing on for
software that my company develops. The two main problems are that
these PC's get reimaged over and over between tests, and that I need
to be able to update the image periodically to update the image with
current OS patches (so we don't have to take time to update the PC
every time we load an image) and update some other software we keep
on the image.
First, the MSDN FAQ says that MSDN OS subscriptions are supposed to
have a 60 day activation window instead of only 30 days, and that if
a PC will be reimaged in that time they recommend you just don't
bother to activate it. However, my MSDN Vista install still says it's
only a 30 day activation window, not 60. What's the deal? I think
we could work with the 60 period, but not the 30 day.
My second, and bigges problem, is the ability to reset the activation
window so it will start 30 (or 60) days from when the image is
reloaded on a PC, not from when Vista was originally installed on the
or original PC the image was created on. I know I use sysprep
/generalize to do this, but everything I read says I can only do this
up to 3 times. But as I said I need to update these images
periodically and will need to reset the activation timer each time.
So at most I can update this image 3 times?! I've also read some
info about using the SkipRearm registry setting to extend this, but
the documentation I've read on SkipRearm on TechNet says it does the
exact opposite of what these other articles say it does, it PREVENTS
sysprep /generalize from resetting the activation period. And even
if it does work to extend the sysprep /generalize, SkipRearm
apparently still has some limit of 8 or 10. The only way I see
around this is to create a fully activated image, but then I have to
create an image for every PC. That's a ridiculous amount of work.
So any suggestions on how to deal with this situation would be greatly
apprecaited. Thank you!
I don't know if this will help you because I'm not in an enterprise
situation but this is how I handle it and I haven't tried this with Vista
but XP has essentially the same situation you describe with MSDN.
I start with a base image that I create after Windows installation and
activation. I just make sure the system is stable and that there are no
issues with things Windows should recognize on setup before activating.
After that, anything else I do just goes on top of that already activated
image.
In other words, I install my drivers and other hardware, no activation
necessary, new image.
I nstall software and current updates up to that point, no activation
necessary, new image.
Finally, I install my security and any non-essentiall apps, anything not
previously installed, no activation necessary, new image.
Hence, I have 4 basic images that can be updated as I choose or as necessary
and no new activation required. If I want to start over from the bare
essentials, I just restore the first already activated image. As I said, I
haven't tried this in Vista but unless they've changed the activation
scheme, I would think you could continue to restore an already activated
base image and make any changes you wish as the need comes up.
If you have an activated base image, you shouldn't need to reinstall, just
restore the already activated base image that meets your needs and do any
updating from that.
