Registry Hacking Against Sysprep Errors

NOTE: This article is meant for system administrators only. DO NOT CHANGE YOUR REGISTRY if you administer your PRIVATE PC!

If you want to create images and execute Sysprep, sometimes you may see the following error message displayed when the computer is restarted:The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation can not proceed. To install windows click "OK" to restart the computer, and then restart the installation.After restarting the computer, an error message appears every time you restart the system, which prevents Windows from starting properly. But you've already prepared the system for the image creation, so you don't want to reinstall the system.In this article, I'll show you how to save your image without reinstalling the system.

Solving Sysprep Reboot Loop

To escape the continuous reboot loop without losing the preparated image, you have to adjust only one parameter in the registry:

1. If the error message appears, don't confirm with "OK" immediately. Press Shift + F10 to open the command line.
2. In the newly opened command line, type in regedit. The Registry Editor opens.
3. In the Registry Editor navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion
4. Change the value setup.exe from 0x00000001 (1) to 0x00000003 (3)
5. After restarting the system, Windows starts again - in the Out of Box Experience mode. A new user must be set up. The user name of the new user must not exist yet.

Trapped in Audit Mode

If you've configured the system to start in audit mode after the generalization, you may see the following error message:Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation.To escape the reboot loop, adjusting the value setup.exe only is not the solution. Saving the prepared image seems impossible at first. But even for this case, there's a remedy:

1. When the error message appears, press Shift + F10 to open the command line.
2. In the newly opened command line, type in regedit. The Registry Editor opens.
3. In the Registry Editor navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status
4. Adjust the following values if they don't match the following:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\AuditBoot
     • 0x00000000 (0)
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion\setup.exe
     • 0x00000003 (3)
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion\audit.exe
     • 0x00000000 (0)
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus\CleanupState
     • 0x00000002 (2)
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus\GeneralizationState
     • 0x00000007 (7)
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\SetupStatus\UnattendPasses\auditSystem
     • 0x00000000 (0)
5. After a reboot, the audit mode is aborted and Windows starts regularly - in the Out of Box Experience mode.

-xyrahttp://miriamxyra.com - Miriam Wiesner