Can't Delete Windows.old

I had just imaged a windows 7 computer using WDS and then had to do it again...well I forgot to format the drive and upong completion I had a windows.old directory in the root of C: that was taking up a butt load of room...and as you know you can't delete it.

Fix:

All you need to do is use a good old utility named Disk Clean Up

Click on Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disc Cleanup

Then make sure you select Old Windows Installations.



Windows 7 audit mode without creating a new user account

If you are adventuring down the path of creating a base image for your organization and you don't want to create a user account everytime you do a fresh install of windows 7 or after you sysprep just follow the steps below.

Install Windows 7 (Enterprise) from CD, flash drive, or Network when you arrive at the welcome screen and it asks you to create a username, hit ctrl+shift+f3.
This will reboot your machine and put your windows build in ‘audit’ mode.

On reboot, you’ll automatically be logged in under the built-in Administrator account. A sysprep GUI box will appear, but you can close it and NOW begin to customize your profile.

Install any software/drivers, make any profile customizations, etc.
If you need to reboot, the computer will boot you back into the Administrator account. You will be stuck in this audit mode until you run sysprep with the /oobe parameter. After doing so, sysprep will delete/clean up the Administrator account, but if you have copyprofile=true in your unattended answer file, it will copy the customized Admin account to the default profile before deleting it.

Offline Files not working (Only local copy exists)

So you have a laptop that stopped syncing Offline Files for whatever the reason and the users says that there are files missing.  "I just was working on the files at home but when I get to work they're gone"  They're probably right.  So here is what you need to check out.  DO NOT RE-SYNC DATABASE BEFORE CHECKING FILES, YOU WILL LOSE ALL LOCAL ONLY FILES.

• Open Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options >Offline Files Tab > Check Create an Offline Files shortcut on the desktop

• Go to desktop and open Offline Files folder and sort synchronization column.  You should see "file is synchronized" and "only local file exists" These are the file you will need to extract before re-syncing the database.

To extract all the local only files follow the instructions below:

1. Download CSCCMD v1.1: and copy to system32
2. In a command prompt (DOS), type: csccmd.exe /extract:\\server\share  /target:c:\docs /recurse /onlymodified
   All your files with Only local copy exists status will be extracted to c:\docs
3. If you have proper permissions you can copy back onto the network share csccmd.exe /extract:\\server\share  /target:\\server\share  /recurse /onlymodified

You can now Re-sync the Database two ways.

1. Add a Reg Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\NetCache
   Key Name: FormatDatabase
   Key Type: DWORD
   Key Value: 1
2. Go back to Folder Options > Offline Files tab, hold down CTRL+SHIFT and click the Delete Files button.

Both options require a reboot. 

WARNING ALL FILES WILL BE DELETED FROM LOCAL CACHE AND RE-SYNCED AFTER REEBOOT



sysprep cannot run on a computer that has been upgraded from a previous version

Error: "sysprep cannot run on a computer that has been upgraded from a previous version"

For what ever reason like me you need to sysprep a Windows 7 computer or even a 2008 Server that you upgraded from a previous version of Windows\Server but receive the error above.

FIX:

Delete the following Reg Key hklm\system\setup\upgrade