Release date: July 16th 2020
Welcome to my VMware Horizon series. Recently, when I was in the process of setting up a new Windows 10 build 2004 template for a customer, I ran into an issue after running sysprep from VMware OSOT June 02 2020 version b1160. Once sysprep was done I rebooted as normal, but went into an eternal boot loop with the error message saying: “Why did my PC restart?”
This was, as it turns out after a little googling, solvable with some adjustments in the answer-file. Luckily for me, I had, as I always do before I run VMware OSOT, taken a snapshot. I reverted back to this and added and adjusted the following lines in unattend.xml.
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>After this change the sysprep went through as it was supposed to and the customers template was completed. Lesson learned, always take snapshot before running VMware OSOT! So, if you run into the same issue, this fixed it for me.
VMware Horizon planning, deployment etc.
Disclaimer: Every tips/tricks/posting I have published here, is tried and tested in different it-solutions. It is not guaranteed to work everywhere, but is meant as a tip for other users out there. Remember, Google is your friend and don’t be afraid to steal with pride! Feel free to comment below as needed.
bjosoren's IT-Tech blog 
I have exactly the same problem with v.2004. I added the lines you recommended to my unattend.xml file, but noticed that both settings have been deprecated in the Windows Image (as denoted in the validation section of WSIM). So, theoretically it shouldn’t matter what these options are set to, true or false, they should have no effect on the sysprep process (OR DO THEY???)
I’m going to try sysprepping using these settings tomorrow and will let you know if successful.
LikeLike
Hi John. I haven’t seen this error in other environments, just the one I described in this post. Not sure if it is supported by MS, but this fixed the issue for me there and then. I would make sure to use latest OSOT if he problem persist, as they have made several changes in the latest versions. Cheers.
LikeLike
FYI – I’m using VMWare Workstation 15.5.1
LikeLike
Thanks m8, you saved the day! Worked wonders for our image. Our fresh 2009 (20H2) ISO didn’t need those deprecated options but our old 1909 image did after the upgrade. (upgraded each year instead of a clean install. i know, i know… a very bad idea.)
Cheers!
LikeLike
Excellent, glad to be able to give some back……no need to re-invent everything all by ourselves….:)
LikeLike