Windows 10: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3020-windows-10-image-customize-audit-mode-sysprep.html
Windows Vista/7: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=5114
Windows XP: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457078.aspx
sysprep -reseal -activated
Worked on Windows Server 2012 R2:
In Registry Editor, set the value of GeneralizationState under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus to 7, then run sysprep again.
Don't 'Generalize'.
See also: 'Microsoft-Windows-Pnpsysprep'
Error: “Your grace period limit has been reached and will not be reset”
In Windows XP Professional, Sysprep can reset Windows Product Activation a maximum of three times.
This causes a problem when deploying the image on other pc's as the image is redundant after 30 days of it being created.
e.g. create image on 1st sept - can deploy on other PCs in sept but when deploy the image on a pc in Oct it has expired and wont let me log on.
There is a solution buried in Microsoft KB308554:
sysprep -factory and reboot.sysprep -reseal -activated. No error message about the grace period appears this time!A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine
Error: Sysprep was probably run more than 3 times on the machine.
To show:
slmgr /dlv
Generally speaking, to sysprep the image on a single computer for multiple times, you need to configure the Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP | SkipRearm to 1 in the unattend.xml file.
In Registry Editor
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\SysprepStatus\GeneralizationState = 7
Then run sysprep again.
If the same issue still persists, please uninstall the MSDTC and re-install it
To uninstall MSDTC:
msdtc -uninstall
To reinstall MSDTC:
msdtc -install