Clean cleans up the phantom device tree:
Removing Phantom Devices
To remove references to devices that were present in the master computer, run Sysprep -clean. This requires a valid [Cleanup] section in Sysprep.inf. Running this command cleans out unused mass-storage drivers added by the [SysprepMassStorage] section of Sysprep.inf and removes references to phantom devices created by Plug and Play. Otherwise, these entries can cause problems when you attempt to install new devices. Sysprep -clean removes all phantom devices except:
Removing Phantom Devices
To remove references to devices that were present in the master computer, run Sysprep -clean. This requires a valid [Cleanup] section in Sysprep.inf. Running this command cleans out unused mass-storage drivers added by the [SysprepMassStorage] section of Sysprep.inf and removes references to phantom devices created by Plug and Play. Otherwise, these entries can cause problems when you attempt to install new devices. Sysprep -clean removes all phantom devices except:
- HTREE\ROOT\0 (the root of the Plug and Play tree)
- SWENUM devices (software-enumerated devices that don't have any hardware backing them). Because these are not installed from the presence of hardware, it is best not to remove them.
- Legacy devnodes (devnodes created by the presence of legacy services).
- If the [SysprepMassStorage] section already exists in your Sysprep.inf file, and you run Sysprep -factory, then Sysprep -reseal automatically cleans Device Manager. (That is, Sysprep removes references to devices that are no longer present.) This saves you the extra step of running Sysprep -clean in the Cmdlines.txt file.