Is it OK to clone dell operating system parbreastion

We do it all the time. We use the following process:

Set up the image =========== 1) Create a Ghost boot disk with appropriate network drivers. We use the Corporate Edition and it has a nice set up for creating Ghost diskettes. 2) Do a clean install (wiping out the installed data) booting from the Dell provided XP CD. 3) Install all Windows updates, corporate apps, AV software, etc. 4) Join the workstation to the domain. We do this because the "final" workstation will do only domain logons and we have to set it up so that any "Domain Users" id will get the desktop and applications they need. 5) Verify that everything works as expected 6) Remove any user profiles (domain and otherwise) other than the local administrator 7) Remove the workstation from the domain. We have found that Ghost Walker (used to change the SID) is not happy if the workstation is part of a domain. 8) Create a ghost image and put it on a network drive

Rolling out a workstation: ================= 1) Boot the Ghost diskette 2) Copy the Ghost image from the server to the workstation 3) Exit Ghost 4) Run GHSTWALK (Ghost Walker) and reset the SID 5) Boot the workstation 6) finalize the WSUS settings 7) Join the domain 8) Test with a standard "Users" domain userid. 9) delete the profile just created 10) Roll it out.

Cloning a workstation takes about 20-30 minutes.....

Obviously, this process buttumes that each workstation has a valid key for XP. None have ever required activation. If you set it up with other than a Dell XP CD or don't boot from CD, you will get prompted for the activation key.

-- Regards, Hank Arnold