Windows 8.1 Refresh Issues with CustomRefresh using recimg

The organization for which I work has many representatives across the nation, all of which use a machine that they purchase.  After they purchase their system, it comes directly to us, where we re-image them with our Windows 8.1 Enterprise.  The issue we are facing is that in the event of a representatives termination, we would like to remove Enterprise and all of the applications we install, while leaving their files alone.

What we would like to do, and have been testing, is immediately upon arrival of a representative's machine, we create a CustomRefresh on an external drive using the following:

mkdir z:\RefreshImage

recimg -CreateImage z:\RefreshImage

After we create the image, we blast our version of Windows Enterprise on and send the machine out.  Our own image changes the partitions, taking them down from five to two.  In our testing, we have tried to Refresh using our original CustomRefresh from when we received the machine.  In order to use our CustomRefresh, we have been doing the following:

recimg /setcurrent z:\RefreshImage

We have then proceeded to complete a refresh as normal.  The refresh appears to be completing normally until we log back in and it tells us that there was a problem refreshing the machine and no changes were made.

We have tried the external drive method, as well copying the .wim directly onto the C:\ and setting it to that location, but we have been unsuccessful thus far and it has left us with a few questions:

  • Is it possible to use Refresh to install the factory version of Windows 8.1 Pro after we have re-imaged with Windows Enterprise?
  • Is the changing of the partitions what has affected our ability to successfully Refresh our machines?
  • Is there something with the Refresh process that requires that the image used to Refresh the PC come from the same hardware? Same version of Windows? Same domain?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read through my question and I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide.

May 21st, 2015 1:15pm

Hi,

If you set UAC to Always notify me, then you will not be able to use the refresh and reset Windows 8 features. These features require UAC to be set to the default or lower level to work.

As I known, following information will be preserved after refresh:

   All user accounts.

   Files in all users' C:\Users\(user-name) folders. (ex: Desktop, My Documents, My Music, etc...)

   Wireless network connections

   Apps from the Windows Store will be kept.

   Mobile broadband connections

   BitLocker and BitLocker To Go settings

   Drive letter assignments

   Personalization settings such as lock screen background and desktop wallpaper

   Choices you made during Windows Welcome, such as computer name and user accounts, will not change.

  Network, Libraries, and Windows Update settings will not change.

  Customer Experience Improvement Program settings will not change.

  Windows Error Reporting settings will not change.

So, we cannot use the customized refresh image onto different computers.

If you would like to do the customized installation, you can try to make the installation media by using DISM tool or deployment tool.

Deploy a Custom Image

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825131.aspx

Hope these could be helpful.

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May 22nd, 2015 3:23am

Hi,

If you set UAC to Always notify me, then you will not be able to use the refresh and reset Windows 8 features. These features require UAC to be set to the default or lower level to work.

As I known, following information will be preserved after refresh:

   All user accounts.

   Files in all users' C:\Users\(user-name) folders. (ex: Desktop, My Documents, My Music, etc...)

   Wireless network connections

   Apps from the Windows Store will be kept.

   Mobile broadband connections

   BitLocker and BitLocker To Go settings

   Drive letter assignments

   Personalization settings such as lock screen background and desktop wallpaper

   Choices you made during Windows Welcome, such as computer name and user accounts, will not change.

  Network, Libraries, and Windows Update settings will not change.

  Customer Experience Improvement Program settings will not change.

  Windows Error Reporting settings will not change.

So, we can use the customized refresh image onto different computers.

You can also try to make the installation media by using DISM tool or deployment tool for the customized installation.

Deploy a Custom Image

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825131.aspx

Hope these could be he

May 22nd, 2015 7:21am

Hi Kate,

After doing some testing, we have determined that the Refresh function actually does work on multiple PCs using one image.

However, we are still having issues.  We believe the issue to be that Windows refuses to downgrade to 8.1 Pro from Enterprise when using the Refresh function and that is why it is failing.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 27th, 2015 1:03pm

Hi Johnson, 

You are the right that the downgrade cannot be done by refresh. 

We can also check the setupact.log and setuperr.log to see if we can find any other clues. 

May 30th, 2015 10:25am

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