Two issues / questions regarding Guest OS Customization on Windows Server 2022

[Pirukandji]

Hello everyone,

I'm having issues with customization of a Windows Server 2022 template. I've installed and configured Windows as needed and left the Administrator password blank. After that, I converted the VM into a template.

I then continued to specify my VM Customization Specification as follows (I only include settings I changed; things like name etc. are left out):

Guest OS: Generate a new SID

Administrator password is set

Time Zone is set

Commands to run once:

Stop-Service -Name BITS, wuauserv -Force
Remove-ItemProperty -Name AccountDomainSid, PingID, SusClientId, SusClientIDValidation -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-Item "$env:SystemRoot\SoftwareDistribution\" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Start-Service -Name BITS, wuauserv
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow
(New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.AutoUpdate).DetectNow()

 Network: Manually select custom settings

NIC1 set to DHCP and set to 2 DNS servers

Workgroup: Workgroup

I then choose to create a new VM from this template, boot it up and press CTRL + ALT + DEL.

I'm then asked to change the user's password as it needs to be changed before signing in. I just press enter since I set Windows' security policy to not use password complexity. After a short while, the Administrator is logged off and the following command prompt appears:

Logging in C:\Windows\TEMP\vmware-imc\guestcust.log

INFO: The schedule task "VMware Guest OS Customization Task" will be created under user name ("NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM").

WARNING: The task scheduler service is not running. Do you want to start the service now (Y/N)?

If I choose no, the reboot continues and afterwards I am able to log in with the password I set in the OS Customization. All settings are applied (e.g. the NIC).

If I choose yes, nothing happens. After about 15 minutes I pressed CTRL+C out of curiosity and then the reboot continued and I was able to log in as above, after choosing no.

Question is:

1. Why do I need to change the Administrator password?

2. What does this message regarding the task schedulder service mean?

 

If I forgot any details please don't hesitate to ask!

Kind regards and many thanks in advance!

[Carl6]

I noticed this exact same thing recently and was wondering what the cause was.  Even though continuing on by saying "N" seems to not cause any issue, I noticed if you accidentally click pretty much anywhere that prompt disappears and it seems you can't get it back.

The VM/template I was trying this on was in place upgraded from Server 2019 to Server 2022.  I tried to Sysprep the system manually but that failed due to Edge being installed per user not per system.  I'm guessing the Edge install while the system was 2019 was causing the issue.  So I ran powershell and removed all references to Edge using powershell cmdlets.  After that I was able to successfully Sysprep the system (used a specific unattend file so it would technically skip all of the OOBE stuff and just regenerate the SID).  Once that was completed I had to power the system back up and fix a few things (drive letters, etc), converted it back to a template and no longer had this problem where it prompted while creating a new VM from template using a guest customization.