Solved Rejuvenated old PC to keep as a ready-to-go spare but didn't think through ramifications of restoring system image to it

I recently build a new PC with new motherboard/CPU and migrated my existing drives to it. I had to buy a new activation key as Microsoft wouldn't take the one I'd been using, which was originally a Windows 7 key, IIRC. Anyway, it went fine, but I later thought I'd put the old mobo/CPU in an unused case I have, and then I'd have a spare PC if anything went wrong. I simply restored a system image to it, but there were obviously ramifications I didn't think of with respect to identity of the PCs. Apparently, I was supposed to use sysprep or at least a program like sidchg, per messages I cited in this thread, which concerns rdp and networking between the two machines failing after this most recent Patch Tuesday due to the PCs having the same machine SID:


How best to proceed from here? Have I messed anything up by running the two machines at the same time and using Windows Update on each? I'll buy a new key for the backup computer, but that won't solve the duplicate SID issue.

Apparently you can change the SID with Sysinternals Process Monitor. There's also a commercial program that has a 30 day evaluation that will do it, SIDCHD.

Newsid is no longer supported, and I mentioned sidchg in my OP. The latter seems to have to do an awful lot of stuff. The other program I mentioned, sysprep, seems like it's not really to adapt an image that's been in use like mine has.

I'm thinking the best thing is just to keep the extra PC in reserve and not worry about keeping it up to date. Windows Update and Microsoft Store appear to work fine on my main machine, and sfc doesn't return any errors, so I guess I didn't break anything in the brief time I ran both systems at the same time to set things up. The weird thing is that it really was this Patch Tuesday that broke rdp and networking between them. It was all working fine prior to that.

I would wait a few days to see if my new PC is the way I want it, then clean install Windows 11 on the old PC.

spapakons said:

I would wait a few days to see if my new PC is the way I want it, then clean install Windows 11 on the old PC.

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It is the way I want it. It would take a lot of time and effort to start anew, and I don't want to install a fresh Windows on the old PC as I have no use for it. After upgrading the hardware, I realized I had a mobo/CPU in boxes and a case that was going unused, so I might as well put them together as a backup system. The idea was to be able to quickly substitute the old PC if the need should arise. I guess it's still at least sort of a valid idea, but I didn't think about machine identity beyond the computer name, and in the couple of weeks preceding this Patch Tuesday, I didn't have to, as RDP and networking were working as I set it up for this. I discovered the new problem today as I was making my weekly images. Going forward, I'll just keep this system on ice until needed, but it won't be as up to date as it could have been.

What do you mean? The network name of the new and old computer are the same? If this is the case you can easily rename each one. If you mean the Windows license, in worst case you have to buy a new key for one of them and change the key. I have read in other threads that you can find a Windows key for very low prices, but make sure it is genuine and that you are covered in case it doesn't activate.

In the other thread I linked to, I wrote "In my case, this is a copy of my main machine, that I renamed, and I intended to keep it as a spare," and I alluded to this in my last message in this thread, when I said, "I didn't think about machine identity beyond the computer name". Please review what I've written. It seems clear the problem with RDP and networking is due to the duplicate machine SIDs, and buying a new Windows license isn't going to fix this AFAICT. I'm marking the thread solved now.

I have a copy of NEWSID from a few years back, I'm sure it still works and would do the trick easily.

I attached it to this post.

Thanks, but upon further reflection, it's not that important that I keep this "spare" system up to date.

Reading all the stuff that the supported sidchg program does turned me off anyway, but newsid is interesting in its own right. After reading it was no longer supported, I wondered if it's still even included in Sysinternals Suite, and it is not. More on that below. Going to the Sysinternals web site right now, the last update for newsid was 06/22/2021, and they wrote:

Regarding SIDs, Microsoft does not support images that are prepared using NewSID, we only support images that are prepared using SysPrep. Microsoft has not tested NewSID for all deployment cloning options.

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With all the crap the supported sidchg has to do, I especially would not want to try the long unsupported and officially disavowed newsid.

Why did I say newsid is "interesting"? Well, I have Sysinternals in my PATH, so several hours ago, I typed newsid at the command line to quickly test if it's still supplied. This was the result:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.6584]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

T>newsid
'newsid' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

T>

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That's nothing special, but look at what I got when I typed "exit":



Huh? Pressing Enter results in the following:



The fact it printed the banner again is like it started a new shell to replace the original one, and now typing "exit" has the expected effect.

I googled this, and it turns out, it's by design, but I don't understand the explanation:

This behavior exists to stop an error message printed out by a program from disappearing instantly when it exits. There is a class of applications for which that is extremely important. We're following this behavior because it is the right brhavior to follow, and because you can turn it off with a config option very easily.

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The thing is, if newsid had existed and run, it wouldn't have terminated cmd. Like I said, I don't get it.

barreleye said:

Thanks, but upon further reflection, it's not that important that I keep this "spare" system up to date.

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Interesting... I also have a spare computer, but I keep mine regularly updated If anything happens to my primary computer, I swap a few plugs and I'm back in business.