MDT New Computer Scenario - Include a standard account in the build

Question

I am a developer, but as part of my development workflow I am regularly setting up new virtual machines for testing, etc. I've been trying to automate the build process for some time, but as I'm not a deployment specialist it's all a bit new to me. I recently
discovered MDT, and it looks like it is the tool I should have found ages ago, but there's one aspect of my requirements that doesn't seem to get mentioned in any of the tutorials or scenarios I've seen so far.
When I set up a deployment image, I'd like to include in it a standard local user account ("Tester") that will be available on all the builds. I don't have a domain in my environment, so using a domain account isn't possible.
Is it possible to do this? None of the "New Computer" scenario descriptions talk about setting up accounts - account management seems to be in the "Replace" or "Refresh" scenarios, where the emphasis is on retaining existing
accounts on the target computer, not adding accounts to the image. Is it as simple as pausing the image build and creating the account manually on the image?
I'm not sure how relevant it is, but my environment doesn't have anything like PXE boot, so I'll be expecting to ultimately create an offline install ISO image for the target computer deployment, and I'd like everything needed to be present in that ISO.
Thanks for any help.
Paul

Answer 1

Hi,
Considering your description in this link:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/6c1c41df-63bb-464d-8aa7-5a092f30c06a/setting-up-a-sysprepped-image-with-user-account-customisations?forum=w8itproinstall
I think this link can be helpful for you (I already pasted in the link above)
Windows 8 Start Screen Customization with MDT
http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymentguys/archive/2012/10/26/start-screen-customization-with-mdt.aspx
It can help you understand how to customize the start screen with MDT.
Regardsing to the "Setting up your Apps", it is first Sign-in Animation, usually for new users, you can disable it
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\EnableFirstLogonAnimation , set its value
to 0,
here's an example you can refer to
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/91839d35-49da-4ba2-b6b2-7b448e5f22a4/can-we-skip-the-long-windows-8-intro-video-each-time-a-new-user-logs-onto-a-machine?forum=w8itproinstall
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support