Quoting from Windows Networking:
This article examines how to use Sysprep to create a library of operating system images which you can then use to deploy virtual machines on Microsoft Virtual PC for testing purposes. Such a library can help you save valuable time when creating test networks using Virtual PC.
In two previous articles on Windows Networking, we looked at how to use Microsoft Virtual PC as a testing and learning platform and how to get the best performance when using Virtual PC. This article discusses how you can use Sysprep to build up a library of virtual machine (VM) images that can make testing/learning even easier.
Sysprep (System Preparation tool) is a Microsoft Windows tool used for preparing reference systems for image-based deployment to target systems. Sysprep is found in the Deploy.cab file in the \Support\Tools folder on your Windows product CD, and the latest version of Sysprep for each Windows platform can also be obtained from the Microsoft Download Center by searching for “deployment tools”.
While the primary use for Sysprep is preparing systems for deployment using disk imaging (you also need a third-party disk imaging tool like Ghost to do this however), another use for Sysprep is simplifying the creation of new VMs for testing and learning purposes using Virtual PC. To see how this works, let’s walk through the process of “sysprepping” a VM running Windows XP and then using it to create additional XP VMs with minimal extra work…
Read the whole article at source.