scarneol

Figured it out....almost. I am now able to perform silent unattended installs with Vista 5365 using WDS, a Syspreped captured wim, boot DVD using the autounattend.xml on a USB key or floppy and from a Distribution Point created by the WSIM tool. The main problem was when building the unattend.xml file using the WSIM, I didn't add Component "Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" to Pass 7 oobeSystem. Once you add, "Add Setting to Pass 7 oobeSystem", you will find an OOBE component that needs to have three Settings set to true: HideEULAPage SkipMachineOOBE SkipUserOOBE Once I did that, all of the installs methods I mentioned above installed without any user interaction. There is still one BIG problem. I can't get the unattended installs to Join a Domain. It always Joins a Workgroup. Maybe someone out there knows the answer to this problem?

My unattend.xml tries to answer the few basic questions that are asked during a typical install. I haven't added any Disk Configuration settings yet since I'm not making any disk or partition changes on my test system. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend"> <settings pass="windowsPE"> <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <UserData> <ComputerName> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> <Name>VistaBeta1</Name> </ComputerName> <ProductKey> <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI> <Key>xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx</Key> </ProductKey> <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula> <FullName>Bogus User</FullName> <Organization>Microsoft</Organization> </UserData> <UseConfigurationSet>true</UseConfigurationSet> <Restart>Restart</Restart> <EnableFirewall>true</EnableFirewall> <LogPath>c:\windows\temp</LogPath> </component> </settings> <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="C:\Vista WIM\install_5308_Windows Vista STARTER.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" /> </unattend>

Has anyone managed to install Vista using a unattend.xml? I've created all sorts of unattend.xml files using the WSIM tool from the Feb CTP but none of them seem to work. I'm not having any problems capturing, modifying or applying sypreped wims to new systems but when the minisetup runs (at least that's what we called it in WinXP) it always prompts me for the information I put in the unattend.xml. e.g. Product Key, Org Name, etc..etc...It never takes any of the settings in the unattend.xml. Either I'm not putting the xml file in the right place, I'm not creating it properly or the unattend function isn't working yet with any of the builds 5308 and greater. I've even tried the floppy method where you copy the unattend.xml file to a floppy, rename it to autounattend.xml and use the original Vista boot DVD. Here is the way I am testing the unattend install: 1. Installing Vista on a GX620 (My Master computer) using build 5365. 2. Install the WAIK from the Feb CTP and any other apps or tools you would like on your Master computer. 3. Run the WSIM tool to build a simple unattend.xml. 4. Copy the unattend.xml file to the c:\windows\system32\sysprep folder. 5. Make a shortcut of c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe. 6. Add /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml to the shortcut target properties. e.g. c:\windows\system32\sysprep\syspre.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml 7. Right click on the Sysprep shortcut and "run as administrator". 8. Sysprep runs and the system shuts down. 9. Turn the system back on and watch the install process begin. (Mini-setup) In my case, the mini-setup starts prompting me to enter the same information that I entered when I first installed Vista. It never uses any of the settings in the unattend.xml I also setup a WDS server to perform an unattend install and although I am able to connect using PXE and successfully install the vista.wim on my systems, the unattend.xml never kicks in. If you've been successful at this, please explain in detail how you did it.