We run Landesk, using the HII (Hardware Independent Imaging), which is run within a WinPE environment. I ran into issues where Windows 7 would not auto activate, which was causing issues, as some of the techs were forgetting to activate windows 7. We have a lot of internet restricted users, so once logged in as that use, they would not be able to get activated themselves. What I found was very simple.
The fix :
On your windows 7 image, browse out to : C:\Windows\Setup\Scripts\ and create a file called SetupComplete.cmd. In that file, you want to put in :
cscript C:\Windows\System32\Slmgr.vbs /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
cscript C:\Windows\System32\Slmgr.vbs /ato
You will want to put your CD Key in the area where x’s are. Now sysprep, and roll out a new build!