Making disc images

Mike Kallies mike.kallies-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Thu Dec 2 13:54:01 UTC 2010


On 11/23/2010 1:06 PM, Giles Orr wrote:
...
> One thing to keep in mind when cloning Windows is that it does use
> some unique identifiers (the only ones that come to mind right now are
> the IP address if you're not using DHCP and the Windows license
> number) that need to be changed by hand on each install.
> 

The licensing can burn you too.  It's important to go by the book.

If they're really identical and they all have OEM licenses, and you
generated the image from an OEM preload, consider some of the parameters
on sysprep to ensure that the license keys are unique on the machines.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577

If you don't do this, Windows Genuine Advantage(tm) might give your
users serious problems in the near future.  My info might be out of
date, so it might take a bit more research for the latest fixpacks and
WGA stuff.


As an aside... back in the day, Microsoft told me that the OEM licenses
did not permit "advanced" imaging techniques, and that even though a
machine shipped with XP Professional, it was not permissible to blow
away the crap-filled factory image and put a fresh copy on the machine.
 You had to either do a "factory restore" or buy a new corporate
license.  The information about this would come with the original media
Microsoft would have shipped from which the clone master was generated.

Remember too, that it's "piracy" to create more than one backup copy of
the "original media" or to distribute copies to support staff unless
your agreements expressly permit it.

If there are additional complex considerations, opaque licenses to
unravel, artificial costs and artifically inflated efforts involved in
doing things legally, then it should be factored into the cost of the
Microsoft platform.



-Mike
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