Quickprep Or Sysprep – What's the difference? I got this question the other day via e-mail, whether there is a big difference between Quickprep and Sysprep. Yes there is, but not as significative as you might think a s both tools can change computer name or join a computer into a domain, but one of the main differences is that Quickprep does not generate new SID. And this might be interesting if in your environment you have an application which is designed to rely on SIDs to identify the machine on the network or to perform some other operations.
Quickprep and sysprep are both available when it comes for using them in VDI environment while creating desktop pool. You can't use both (it's a radio button) which gives you clear choice – one or the other. But which one?
Quickprep works out of the box when you're in the middle of the assistant of creating destkop pool. Sysprep needs some config before the button become not grayed out. You must first go to the vcenter and at the home screen you need to click on the Customization Specification Manager > New > follow wizard to create customization answer file for your system…..
And to be able to do that you must first copy guest customization files on a specific location in vCenter server (only for older OS however which are less and less used as Microsoft does not support those systems any longer (XP, W2k, W2003) … Here is how to do it in VCSA 6 (Linux based ) or Windows based vCenter, where the sysprep files must be placed in c:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\vmware-vpx
(if the vCenter server is installed on the default installation path)
- Creates a new computer account in Active Directory for each desktop.
- Gives the linked-clone desktop a new name.
- Joins the desktop to the appropriate domain.
- Optionally, mounts a new volume that contains the user profile information.
Here is the screenshot giving you an option to use Quickprep or Sysprep while creating Linked Cloned desktop pool ….
Main difference between Quickprep and Sysprep
| Function | Quickprep | Sysprep |
| Changing Security Identifiers (SID) | No | Yes |
| Generating New SID | No | Yes |
| Removing Parent from domain | No | Yes |
| Removing Local accounts | No | Yes |
| Changing computer name | Yes | Yes |
| Joining new computer do domain | Yes | Yes |
| Language, reg. settings, date & time | No | Yes |
| Number of reboots | 0 | 1 (seal & mini setup) |
| Requires config file and Sysprep | No | Yes |
So this is it. Basically if you want to use sysprep and you don't have older systems than Windows 7 you just need to create the customization file via Customization Specification Manager > New > follow wizard and that's it.
Hopefully this is just a small thing to remember which help you out in your Horizon View projects.
If case needed: Location of sysprep files for older systems
