Windows XP Home Edition - OOBE

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@basherzman14wrote:

Hello there, everyone! I am working on restoring my old Dell Dimension 2400 back to factory condition with Windows XP Home Edition (still using it!), and all of the drivers and software. What I am working on is creating a factory image for myself, so I don't have to reinstall everything. Recently, I heard about the Windows System Preparation Tool (SYSPREP). When I read about it online, I decided to try it myself and ran into some problems when I did. First, SYSPREP did not allow me to run the Mini-Setup, or the Out of box experience. I tried this on a different computer, and it asked for a product key. And finally, the customized Dell logo and the Dell setup screens that appear that are run by specific files in the C:\Windows\system32\oobe directory I don't have anymore. Is there any way to run the Out of Box Experience WITHOUT the product key screen, and have the OEM Dell logo in the top right hand corner, and with all of the OEM setup screens just like Dell would have it? Thanks, everybody!

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I use Clonezilla to create hard drive image.

I don't care about Out of Box Experience or such nonsense. I just want my hard drive image saved so I can restore from it.

Because it is Linux-based, look at Youtube video on how it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41tTudaQb0I

I have personally used it to restore hard drive image when my PC running Windows 7 was infected with malware. 

 

If you prefer to stay in Windows environment use https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/free-backup-software-for-xp.html

 

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@basherzman14wrote:
To be honest, I really don't care about the out-of-the-box experience either. I think I should just wipe my hard drive, reinstall everything, and create my factory image that way. Thank you so much for the help!

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One thing you may encounter after you install XP is that you may not be able to connect to Microsoft to get XP updates. I remember having problems with this a few years ago when doing a fresh install of XP.

So at least start out with XP SP3 CD if you can.

 

Your desktop PC is a good candidate for Linux if you have at least 1 GB of RAM.

Or try CloudReady. It is free software that turns a PC into a Chromebook. Pretty nifty.

 

 

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To be honest, I really don't care about the out-of-the-box experience either. I think I should just wipe my hard drive, reinstall everything, and create my factory image that way. Thank you so much for the help!