I have now started Imaging our Dell D400's with an XP Image, however I am very new to using SYSPREP, and each time I try and reload the image on to a target laptop, it is always prompting to register the product. The setup I am using, I thought would eliminate this. On setting up SYSPREP I click on the “Use Mini Setup” switch together with the switch do not “Don’t reset grace period for Activation” then to finalize the image I then click on the button “Reseal”. Once these steps have been carried out, I then image it up to our network Image Share, then try and re-image a new target machine, everything goes fine, BUT I am still getting prompted to register with Microsoft. My understanding is that this wouldn’t happen if the “Don’t reset grace period for Activation” had been activated. Any Help would be greatly appreciated; I have gone to Microsoft TechNet and followed all the instructions on how to use SYSPREP, however still getting this major problem. Regards Many Thanks

Ballu: try running sysprep from the command line using; sysprep -activated -reseal when an image that was prepared with sysprep is rebooted, its activation timer will restart with the full grace period. after the third time, however, the activation timers will no longer be reset. Sysprep can be repeated any number of times, but the activation rollback will only occur up to three times. more info at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/wpadepl.mspx#XSLTsection127121120120 unique product keys are required for each of the target computers. a manual telephone call is not necessary as long as the target computers have Internet connectivity and the product keys are valid; in that case, the computer activates online automatically. more info at: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=291997 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299840