Sysprep Fatal Error With IE 10 (FIX)

My fellow system administrators, there is a bug with sysprep and Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 7. My department maintains a Windows 7 image that we use on all our desktops. Today I installed some Windows updates which included Internet Explorer 10. When I tried to sysprep the machine like I usually do I received an error that a fatal error has occurred while trying to sysprep the machine. After looking at the logs (setupact.log and setuperr.log) I discovered what the issue was:

Error      [0x0f0085] SYSPRP LaunchDll:Could not load DLL C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll[gle=0x000000c1]

It turns out that Internet Explorer 10 was the culprit. Strangely, ‘iesysprep.dll’ does exist within C:\Windows\SysWOW64. I have posted about it on the TechNet forums and it appears I am not the only one having this issue. Another user on the TechNet forums, sgennadi, has posted what appears to be a solution. It calls for modifying sysprep registry values and changing them back from SysWOW64 to System32. I personally have not tried his/her solution. I reverted back to a previous image and installed the new updates again, minus Internet Explorer 10, and sysprep works fine. Personally, I will be waiting for Microsoft to address this in a Windows Update before I upgrade to Internet Explorer 10.

EDIT:
I decided to add the proposed solution here in case anyone wants to fix it themselves. Again, credit goes to sgennadi for the solution.

After installing IE10, open the registry editor (regedit). You should make a backup of the registry before making any changes in the event that something goes wrong. You can do this by choosing File > Export and make sure you select ‘All’ under ‘Export range’.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Cleanup

Locate: Value Name {EC9FE15D-99DD-4FB9-90D5-5B56E42A0F80} Value Data C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE
Replace the value with: C:\Windows\System32\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Generalize

Locate: Value Name {EC9FE15D-99DD-4FB9-90D5-CE53C91AB9A1} Value Data C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Generalize_IE
Replace the value with: C:\Windows\System32\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Specialize

Locate: Value Name {EC9FE15D-99DD-4FB9-90D5-676C338DC1DA} Value Data C:\Windows\SysWOW64\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE
Replace the value with: C:\Windows\System32\iesysprep.dll,Sysprep_Cleanup_IE

Now you should be able to run sysprep successfully without receiving the IE10 related error.