If you create master installations of virtual machines (VMs) and then sysprep them in order to deploy new destination VMs from your master install, don’t install Virtual Machine Additions on your master prior to sysprepping it. If you do, then when you deploy a new destination VM from your sysprepped image you’ll see that the Additions don’t work on your destination VM—you’ll have to uninstall VM Additions from the destination VM and then reinstall the Additions to get them working again.

The solution? Don’t install VM Additions on a master installation prior to sysprepping it. Then do an unattended installation of Additions by copying the Additions image file to a folder where it can be accessed by the VM and run setup.exe -s -v"/qn [Reboot=ReallySuppress]" to install the Additions.

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Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com.