Windows 8.1 Copyprofile Issue (SCCM 2012R2 MDT 2013)

Question

Hi,
We're experiencing several issues during creation of our base Windows 8.1 image.
Running SCCM 2012 R2 with MDT 2013 Integration.
Admin user customizations (a couple of simple UI settings and a wallpaper) are done to the Windows 8.1 image in audit mode. The OS is then sysprepped and captured via SCCM capture media.
We are using a standard MDT integrated task sequence for a zero touch deployment.
We are adding copyprofile to unattend.xml in the relevant MDT settings package.
Sequence completes without error and customizations appear in the image.
However, desktop IE11 immediately crashes unless it's run as administrator. This can be fixed by disabling protected mode (not ideal)
All Metro/Modern apps (including IE) are also initially broken. They immediately crash and drop you back to the desktop when you run them.
After a reboot the modern/metro apps (apart from IE) seem to reinstall and function correctly.
Has anyone else got copyprofile working correctly for 8.1 in a SCCM/MDT task sequence?
thanks
James

Answer 1

Hi James,
We were able to work around this issue in the following way using SCCM 2012 R2. I know this is not how the process is documented or has worked previously but it is what worked for us.
1. Create an unattend.xml with the copy profile setting (and whatever other settings) enabled.
2. On the image which will be captured run all of our regular steps to customize on the administrator profile (I always set administrator pw at this point to have blank pw, don't know if still required), copy that unattend.xml locally.
3. Do not run a standard capture using SCCM capture ISO, instead manually run sysprep specifying the unattend.xml. I.e. sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:C:\Unattend.xml .
4. Boot to either the SCCM PXE or some other environment on that computer that has network access, and access to imagex.
5. Run an imagex capture to a network location (in our case the C: was all that was needed).
6. Import that WIM into SCCM as part of task sequence. Also added same unattend.xml used for sysprep into the task sequence to apply settings during first boot after image.
7. Validated our start menu icons and layout are there on the image.
Until the behaviour changes in Windows 8.1 or SCCM, then this should get you by. Little bit of extra work in the capture but we had positive, consistent results using this method.
Thank you! This was driving me crazy! Now it works on the first try.
Just a side note: You should not use ImageX with Windows 8.1. Create a new WinPE Bootmedia and use DISM! ImageX is outdated.