This tutorial is a short introduction to the wonderful world of Sysprep.

The built-in Windows System Preparation Tool, Sysprep to put it short, is a tool not very well known outside the geek circles although it is quite easy and simple to use. Alone it can do quite little, basically only two tasks: boot Windows to a so called Audit Mode, and generalize your Windows setup by removing all hardware independent information and drivers to allow the Windows image be transfered to another computer.

Add an Answer File and everything is possible! An Unattended Answer File is an XML script containing settings information to be used during Windows Setup. You can for instance put the product key, your selected username and other such information in answer file, run it with Sysprep and capture the image created. Now when you want to install Windows on a new computer, you can use this image and let Windows install itself completely unattended, without it stopping to ask user information. This is why we call it Unattended Answer File.

Honestly, this will be a long and boring tutorial. I will try to show you how Sysprep works with a few simple self-explanatory examples. It would be impossible to explain sysprepping with an answer file with a few words.

Anyway, don't let funny words and strange acronyms fool you, sysprepping is quite easy as you will see.

This tutorial applies to both Windows 7 and Windows 8.