Error Doing Sysprep with Generalize for Windows 10 Enterprise VM inside hyper-v on Windows 2008R2

Question

Doing a sysprep on a brand new Windows 10 Enterprise RTM machine on Hyper-V 2012R2 works fine, however if you create a brand new Windows 10 VM on Hyper-V 2008R2, go into audit mode and immediately try to sysprep with "Generalize" checked, it will fail. It doesn't matter if you try to Generalize to OOBE or Audit mode. It will work fine if you don't try to Generalize.

Have read every guide I could find online, most importantly this one: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3020-windows-10-image-customize-audit-mode-sysprep.html

Per that article, there are problems if you do the install with the network card connected, or if you try to use CopyProfile=true in the answer file. I tried not using an answer file, which has a default of CopyProfile=false, and tried to make an answer file with CopyProfile specifically set to false with no avail. Also made sure that the network card was disconnected on the hyper-v level while doing the install.

I think this has something to do with Hyper-V on 2008R2 or something to do with some virtual hardware hardware, according to what we found in the sysprep error logs. I'll dig for those later and update the question when I find them.

Answer 1

There must be some problem generalizing with the network card in hyper-v 2008r2. Even if you've done an entire install and used the network card, if you shut the machine down and remove the network card completely from the machine (don't just disconnect), then by removing the network card virtual hardware, the sysprep with generalize works fine.

To do this, Shut the VM down. In Hyper-V manager, right click on the VM and click "Settings" Click the network adapter and click the "Remove" button.

After sysprep you can add the network card back.