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Add-Ons hang after Sysprep of Windows 7

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  • 10 have this problem
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  • Last reply by iamwhoiam

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Building a Windows 7 image and pre-configuring FF 3.6.6 settings. I have two addons installed (IE Tab Plus 1.92.20100607 and Colorful Tabs 4.61). These addons work fine in the Administrator profile. After I run sysprep my plugins no longer work for any new user. If I go to Tools > Addons the two plugins are listed. If I attempt to click on options for either of the plugins the entire Add-ons menu hangs. I have checked to make sure these plugins are compatible with 3.6.6. As a work around, I found by temporarily disabling one of the plugins (does matter which one) allowing FF to restart. Upon restarting FF the remaining plugins will start working. I can re-enable the plugin I temporarily disabled and it will work as well. This seems to only happen after running Sysprep. I had exact problem before back in 3.5.x. The problem disappeared after upgrading FF to a higher version of 3.5.

Building a Windows 7 image and pre-configuring FF 3.6.6 settings. I have two addons installed (IE Tab Plus 1.92.20100607 and Colorful Tabs 4.61). These addons work fine in the Administrator profile. After I run sysprep my plugins no longer work for any new user. If I go to Tools > Addons the two plugins are listed. If I attempt to click on options for either of the plugins the entire Add-ons menu hangs. I have checked to make sure these plugins are compatible with 3.6.6. As a work around, I found by temporarily disabling one of the plugins (does matter which one) allowing FF to restart. Upon restarting FF the remaining plugins will start working. I can re-enable the plugin I temporarily disabled and it will work as well. This seems to only happen after running Sysprep. I had exact problem before back in 3.5.x. The problem disappeared after upgrading FF to a higher version of 3.5.

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Correction: Does NOT matter which plugin you disable.

Also - here is a a screenshot of what the Addons menu looks after the sysprep and logged on as a fresh user (User has Admin rights)

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You need to use an answer file with sysprep that has the CopyProfile setting set to true. I have FF (latest non beta) with various plugins and they all work fine from a syspreped image.

It's also best to do this from a fresh install of Windows and press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 to enter audit mode and configure everything from the admin account there (don't use the sysprep windows that pops up).

My answer file below instructs Windows to copy the administrator account settings to the default user so that when new user accounts are made they inherit the custom settings.

If you're using 32-bit Windows then change all the amd64 strings to x86. Save this to C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.xml, and then run sysprep from a command prompt. c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep /generalize /shutdown /oobe /unattend:sysprep.xml



<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">

   <servicing></servicing>
   <settings pass="specialize">
       <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
           <ShowWindowsLive>false</ShowWindowsLive>
       </component>
   </settings>
   <settings pass="generalize">
       <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
       </component>
   </settings>
   <settings pass="oobeSystem">
       <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
           <OOBE>
               <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
           </OOBE>
       </component>
   </settings>
   <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:/sources/install.wim#Windows 7 ULTIMATE" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />

</unattend>