In attendance:  Celeste Dyer (CUM), Lillie Ann Ricci (WAR), Bonnie Cottle (TIV), Deborah Homer (JAM), Mike Barrette (JOH), Lisa Davis (OSL), Georgene Luttman (COV/LIN), Renée Borden (OSL), Jenn Cournoyer (OSL), Christine Jeffers (PAW), Chaichen Chen (OLIS), Ray Hetherington (GVL)

Minutes of July 22, 2010: Mike motioned to accept the minutes; Chris seconded.  Motion approved.

Sysprep for Windows 7 PCs: Rick demonstrated sysprepping a PC with Windows 7 in order to image it and restore to other PCs.  [See handout distributed at meeting]. Sysprep with Windows 7 is quite different from sysprep with Windows XP.

Symantec Ghost is more powerful tool than ImageX, an imaging tool that comes with Windows.  You also need the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).  It can be downloaded or Rick has copies on DVD.

Before beginning the sysprep process, you must create an answer file.  WAIK will look for a file from the Windows 7 install disk called install.wim.  This file must be copied to the technician computer (computer used to create the answer file.  Once the answer file is created it can be tweaked with Notepad, but you should be careful to retain the .xml file ending.

Answer files are created with the components found in the WAIK.  Rick has created two sample answer files that we can tweak. One is for workgroups and one is for domains.  When modifying these files look for capital letters and bold face type.  The "passes" in the answer file are like the questions Windows would ask in the setup.  For example, you can set up IE so that it won't go through the annoying First Run Wizard, set the homepage, etc.

You must sysprep a machine logged in as the local administrator, not the domain admin.  Also, sysprep will NOT work if you do not tell it to modify a local user account on the machine in Pass 4 and 7.  Setup your local administrator the way you want the default user to look before running sysprep.  Set copy profile to true and it will copy that profile to default user.

Also in Pass 7, set the display option to the highest option possible.  Windows will figure out the correct display option and will go to a lower setting if needed.  It will not, however, go to a higher setting if the monitor is capable and you did not enter that option in the answer file.

Answer files should be saved with an .xml file extension.

On the master computer (the one you are imaging) put the sysprep folder in C:\Windows\system32.  Login as a local admin.  Open an Elevated Command Prompt (right-click the command prompt and choose Run as Administrator).  Change to the sysprep directory and type in the command on the handout.

After sysprep has finished you must capture the image to use as the master to restore on other PCs.  A bootable hard drive works great for this or use a networked PC.  After you copy the image, reboot the master computer and it will go through a normal setup.
Other:  Rick has an updated 780 video driver available on the FTP support server.

There is a critical Adobe Flash update that should be installed on all staff PCs.  Next week there will be an update for Adobe Reader.  Patron PCs can wait for these updates when you have time.

Lisa Davis did a demo of the new Content Management System that will be replacing the support pages, OSL message, the LIT forum, etc. come November.