During a Proof of concept build for a customer, I have run into a issue where the VMware image Customization is in progress on the start or reboot of a Virtual Machine after deploying from Template.

To remove this, you will need to remove the line SysprepDecrypt from the registry.

HKLM\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session Manager\\

](/images/blog/vmware-image-customisation2.png)

Delete SysprepDecrypter.exe

Save and reboot.