i've tried all day and the solution is described above and all the conditions you mentioned are met. ; Generated by nLite 1.4.9.1 [Data] AutomaticUpdates="Yes" Autopartition=0 MsDosInitiated=0 UnattendedInstall="Yes" [Unattended] UnattendMode=DefaultHide UnattendSwitch="No" OemPreinstall="No" OemSkipEula="Yes" FileSystem=* WaitForReboot="No" NoWaitAfterTextMode=1 NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1 DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore NonDriverSigningPolicy=Ignore [SystemRestore] DisableSR=1 CreateFirstRunRp=0 [GuiUnattended] OemSkipWelcome=1 [Components] [UserData] ProductKey="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" [RegionalSettings] LanguageGroup=2 Language= "040e" [Identification] JoinWorkgroup="WORKGROUP" [Networking] InstallDefaultComponents="Yes" [GuiRunOnce] "%SystemRoot%\System32\nLite.cmd" this is the current one. the failing one differs only in the lines described earlier. i can't attach my session file coz i always delete it; otherwise it would make it into the iso which i really don't want. i may be able to reproduce it, but i see no point, coz the manual editing was that solved it, no other modification was made.