The sysprep automation within Virtual Machine Manger 2008 is a really nice feature which can help you deploy machines quickly and in a “set and forget” manner. If however you are unfortunate enough to not run your servers in the US locale you may have noticed that even if you change all the regional settings on your template target, after the sysprep has completed and produced a template any machine generated from it will be in the US locale. Luckily there is a solution, however its fairly difficult to find so I thought I would post it for reference:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
            <InputLocale>0809:00000809</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-GB</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-GB</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-GB</UserLocale>
        </component>
    </settings>
</unattend>

The above example of an unattend.xml file (answer file) is targeted at x64/amd64 architecture and english/UK. If you are using 32 bit architecture you need to replace “amd64” with “x86”. Similarly if you need a different locale a list of the locales and codes can be found on the following msdn link Once you have generated your unattended.xml file add it manually to your library server, once it has been added you can browse to the file as part of the answer file setting in the Guest OS Profile.