There are times when you would want to Sysprep a Windows image and get it ready to join a domain and start creating user profiles. But what if you want to control the configurations and contents of those future profiles?

Windows offers a location for a Default User Profile. It is a hidden folder normally located in %SystemDrive%\Documents And Settings\Default User. To create a default profile all you need to do is log in to the machine, make all the changes you need and then log off. Once you are done copy all the contents of your profile folder to the Default User folder. You will need to do this offline or by using another account.

Profiles folders contain a file called NTUSER.DAT, this file contains all the configurations that are located in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry entry when the respective user logs on.

In general all of this works for future profiles even if you are not using Sysprep. But when you do use Sysprep there is a particular case that is not contemplated here. When you set the machine to log in the first time using a particular user account, the contents of that local profile will be copied to the Default User Profile that first time. In those cases you should set the defaults using that account.