How do manufacturers roll back windows to User Account Setup?

[Reeper187]

When you buy a computer from any manufacturer (Dell, HP, etc.) the first time you turn on the computer you start at the final installation steps of windows xp where you can register with microsoft, create user accounts, etc. Obviously they have already completed this step themseleves because they had to log in to windows, install your dirvers, etc. So how exactly do they roll back the computer to that screen on it's next reboot? Is there some magical registry tweak?

If anyone knows I would be very appreciative!

[ultrasolve]

They use an image which has been prepared using the tool "sysprep" this tool removes all the personal data from the image and can give you selection of options at next boot up.

The stage you are talking about is the mini setup which asks you to enter cd key, users and area.

You can find this tool on the XP install cd under SUPPORT\TOOLS\DEPLOY.CAB

To find out how to use this use the help files which give quite a detailed explanation of use sysprep and the other tools.