Capturing a Computer's Personality

Deployment Solution lets you capture a computer's personality. A computer personality includes user data and application settings.
Starting from Deployment Solution 8.5 RU4, a Windows personality image that you have captured with Deployment Solution 8.5 RU3 or earlier is a legacy image.
To capture Windows personality images in a manageable format, ensure that you use the Deployment plug-in 8.5 RU4 or later.
If you have legacy images and want to benefit from the enhanced image management that Deployment Solution provides, you need to convert a legacy image to a manageable format on the
Image Management
page.
Personality Packages are stored in the
(install_directory)\Altiris\NSCap\bin\Deployment\Packages\PCTPackages
directory.
This directory contains several folders that are named with GUIDs. After you create a personality, the package is located in one of these folders. You can capture a computer’s personality by executing the
Capture Personality
task.
You must use a template to specify the details that are to be captured in a computer's personality. Deployment Solution includes templates for many common applications and provides the tools that help you create and modify templates for new and custom applications.
  1. To capture user settings
  2. In the Symantec Management Console, navigate to either of the following:
    • From the
      Actions
      menu, select
      Deployment > Capture Personality
      .
    • Select the
      Manage > Jobs and Tasks
      menu
      In the left pane do either of the following:
      • Right-click
        System Jobs and Tasks
        folder and select
        New > Task
        .
      • Expand the
        System Jobs and Tasks
        folder and right-click
        Deployment
        folder to select
        New > Task
        .
  3. In the
    Create New Task
    dialog box, from the left pane select
    Deployment > Capture Personality
    task.
  4. The fields and the descriptions are as follows:
    Task name
    icon
    Displays the default task name as Capture Personality. You can edit the default task name to specify a relevant task name. For example, Personality_WinXP.
    Personality name
    Lets you specify a unique personality name.
    You can specify a description for the personality that you capture. If you capture multiple personalities, you can use the %COMPNAME% token as the personality name. This token creates a unique name for each personality based on managed client computer name .
    Select template
    Lets you browse and select a template for the personality that you want to capture.
    Select the
    Create Vista compatible file (pkg)
    check box if you want to distribute personality to a computer with Windows Vista and above operating system.
    Personality Credentials
    Lets you specify the credentials to secure the personality.
  5. Click
    OK
    .