Running setupmgr.exe opened the Setup Manager wizard.
When that captured image was pushed to a new physical server or VM and powered on, it would launch the lightweight Windows XP-style blue "Mini-Setup" wizard, read the sysprep.inf file, generate a new SID, and be ready for production in just a few minutes. Windows 2003 R2 Sysprep
Once the reference computer was perfectly configured with all required legacy applications and updates, it was time to run the utility. Running setupmgr
Sysprep did not come pre-installed in the C:\Windows\System32 directory like it does today. You had to extract it manually: Insert the . Navigate to the \SUPPORT\TOOLS\ directory on the disc. Locate the DEPLOY.CAB file. Locate the DEPLOY
To automate the setup process so that you did not have to manually type in settings on 500 different cloned servers, administrators used the setupmgr.exe tool.
The tool would strip the system identifiers, flag the registry for a specialized "Mini-Setup" on the next boot, and shut down the computer. 💾 Step 4: The Golden Image Capture