MagellanTX

I have an answer file associated with a Windows image that resides on a WDS server and them a custom answer file that I pass to setup.exe for a more refined installation. If the custom answer file is passed to setup.exe then I want the answers in that to be processed and not the one on the server....This seems to be a problem for WDS. I am installing Windows by calling setup.exe /unattend:{my.xml} but the answer file on the server always wins. If I disable the anser file on on the server then only the windowsPE section of my custom answer file is processed and nothing else. I also noticed then when I PXE into WindowsPE, setup.exe seems to ignore the /InstallFrom parameter and heads straight for the WDS server regardless of what my answer file says. Is there some way I can get this to process my answer file instead of the one on the server? Thanks!!!

I am booting to WinPE from the WAIK and I need to be able to start the installation passing an unattend.xml. I can get the installation to start just fine but the licensing screen won't take my MAK key and I cannot continue without entering a key. If I boot using to Boot.WIM from the CD the key works just fine but I cannot use this WIM file because it automatically wants to go right into Windows setup. Is there any way to edit the Boot.WIM so it drops me to a command prompt? If not, what is the best approach to launching setup using the WinPE or any other image that I can use the .NET framework on? Thanks!!

I think I found it. I copied the setup.exe (and all other files) from the source cd to the server.

How do I start the installation of a .wim file from a network share? I have a WDS server setup and I want to pass a custom unattend.xml from the command line rather than from the WDS manager. The client has booted from a WinPE image and I can map a drive to the WDS server and get to the Install.wim Thanks!

Thanks for the answers everyone, unfortunately I'll have to make due for now and just hope they come out with an API, or WMI provider

Thanks for the response. I'll check out the SDK; all I need to do is get a list of available images and was hoping they had a WMI namespace for it.

I hope this is the right group for this question, I couldn't find one dealing with the WDS server itself. Is there a WMI provider for the WDS server? I need to manage the WDS images remotely and I can't seemd to find a WMI namespace. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply, that definitly answers that question. I guess I'll have to take another approach.

Drivers are loaded during the auditSystem pass but this pass is skipped during a normal unattended build. You need to add the Microsoft-Windows-Deployment_neutral / Reseal option in your oobeSystem pass and set the value to 'audit' which will cause the computer to reboot into audit mode. Then your drivers (any anything else in the auditSystem or auditUser) will be processed. Remember to add Reseal with a value of 'oobe' in your auditUser pass otherwise the system will bring up the Sysprep dialog and not reboot when the auditUser is completed. HTH

I am joining a machine to the domain via a script in the auditUser pass and it is working the way it should. The problem is that when I sysprep /oobe to get back into OOBE mode and to process my OOBE.XML I keep losing the domain membership. I am not running a generalize with my sysprep just sysprep /oobe /reboot /unattend:c:\windows\panther\oobe.xml. Is there some trick I need to know in order to keep the machine in the domain? Thanks!!