Sysprep not able to validate Windows Installation

[sta4402]

Attempting Windows 10 offline deployment on two separate machines via USB and getting the following error message on both machines.

Sysprep was not able to validate your Windows installation. Review the log file at %WinDir\system32\sysprep\Panther\setupact.log.......

[SmartDeploySupport]

This error is usually because the installation of Windows has been upgraded. Sysprep will not run on an upgraded installation. With Windows 10, the Threshold 2 (1511) update is being run as an in-place upgrade. If you want to create an image with this update, you must create the VM from slipstreamed 1511 media. I.e. download the updated .iso from MS VL.

[IT Support]

I am also receiving this error after updating the Windows 10 VM. So Microsoft's thinks it's "OK" to have to totally recreate the VM from scratch each time they do a major update?

[marioarce]

Hi,

A recent Windows patch applied on a build 1511 caused issues for us and we ended up installing our VM-for-capture from scratch and re-captured our new image. This was a brand new install of Windows 10 Enterprise build 1703. We refreshed the USB Bootable thumb drive and are still getting this Sysprep error:
 

System Preparation Tool 3.14

Sysprep was not able to validate your Windows installation. Review the
log file at %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.log for
details. After resolving the issue, uses Sysprep to validate your installation.

[ OK ]

What can we do to resolve this? We cannot re-install again.

-Mario

[Flux_2910]

This just happened to us with same circumstances: offline deployment, 2 separate machines, USB bootable image, same error message.  Also, after rebooting and booting Windows, after logging on, the screen would flash, or blink.  The machine wasn't usable and had to be re-imaged.  I was just curious if anyone else experienced this same flashing screen.  I also was curious if this issue can be avoided by performing an online deployment. On a different image, using the same build of Windows 10, we didn't experience the issue when doing an online deployment. 

[wajtech]

Can  you tell me WHAT version is safe to use in December of 2020? I have already tried 1909 AND 2004 versions and still get this error