How to use sysprep for a vhd

Question

We have a vhd copy of physical a windows vista machine. Since we don't want to touch the physical machine, we like to run sysprep on the vhd. Unfortunately this vhd does not boot on hyper-v. Is there a way to sysprep this vhd without booting it?

Answer 1

Sysprep runs in a booted windows environment. No. Click HERE for a thorough sysprep guide.

You could convert the vhd to another type like vmdk and try booting the vmdk instead.