[howto] Attended and Unattended on the same disc

[jaws75]

OK after reading the info HERE I thought what if I inject my Autounattend.xml into my image what will happen.

After a little trial and error I got it to work.

This guide will tell you how to make a disc with an unmodified install and an unattened install.

In order to inject your Autounattend.xml into your image it must be named Unattend.xml. It will not work if named Autounattend.xml.

After mounting the image I put it in the %systemroot%\system32\sysprep folder of the mounted image. At this point the Unattend.xml will not be available until the image is uncompressed and rebooted. Therefore the windowsPE pass is ignored. We will fix that in a bit. If you made an iso now and tried it it would be fully attended until after you select the drive to install then it will be unattened after that. Lets fix that.....

First make sure you have the waik installed. Learn here.

Now lets assume your working folder is at

C:\build

and your mounted folder will be at

C:\mount

Now split your Autounattend.xml file into two files

Autounattend.xml will only have the windowsPE pass. IMPORTANT

Unattend.xml will have all other passes.

Copy the DVD to the C:\build folder.

Put the Autounattend.xml file in C:\build.

Note: remove the <InstallFrom> section if you have it because you want to be able to select later.

Now because I only use one type of Vista, HomePremium I will extract that one to use only that one. All other versions will be gone. Note: you can vlite your DVD at this point to add hotfixes as well so when you extract your Vista version all versions on your new disc will be updated. Make sure vlite doesn't change your Autounattend.xml.

In the Windows PE command tool prompt run...

imagex /export C:\build\sources\install.wim 3 C:\build\install.wim "Windows Vista HOMEPREMIUM original"

This will extract Vista premium to a new file at C:\build\install.wim.

When done run the same line again but changing the name. Note: the second time you do this it is almost instant because both installs are identical.

imagex /export C:\build\sources\install.wim 3 C:\build\install.wim "Windows Vista HOMEPREMIUM modified"

You can do this as many times as you like so your install disc has as many versions as you like. Just make new names for each one.

Now the C:\build\install.wim image will have two identical versions of Premium in it with only the name being different. You can use any names you want or export any version. To change versions just change the "3" to...

1 for Business

2 for Home basic

3 for Home premium

4 for ultimate

5 or 6 for the n versions

Now Move the C:\build\install.wim to the C:\build\sources folder. This will overwrite the original install.wim but you don't need it.

Now we want to modify our "modified" version. Mount it with...

imagex /mountrw C:\build\sources\install.wim 2 C:\mount

Changing the 2 to 1 will mount the first image in install.wim (original). But we want to leave it alone so we use 2 (modified).

Now take your Unattend.xml and put in the C:\mount\windows\system32\sysprep folder. Make whatever changes you like to this install and when done modifying it unmount it with...

imagex /unmount /commit C:\mount

You should be able to load this into vlite now and tweak it there too. I didn't test it but there is no reason why it won't work. You could use vlite to integrate hotfixes first before you export the image with "imagex /export..." above. That way both your versions "original" and "modified" are updated with hotfixes.

Now if you make an iso with oscdimg and boot it (use vmware to test first) the windowsPE pass will be unattended (except selecting a version) with your Autounattend.xml. Then selecting the "original" version it will be fully attended and selecting the "modified" version the rest will be fully unattended after the destination drive is set.

My Unattend.xml skips oobe adding my user info and then install my apps using <FirstLogonCommands>.

So your Autounattend.xml handles everything til you select a drive to install to. Which can be unattended or not.

Your Unattend.xml that you inject into the sysprep folder handles all other unattended after that.

I hope my description is error free. Any questions just ask.

For reference my Autounattend.xml is below. This will allow me to select where to install Vista to and prompt me to select which version to install "original" or "modified". You must add your key for the version you are using.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
  <settings pass="windowsPE">
	<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" 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">
	  <SetupUILanguage>
		<UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
	  </SetupUILanguage>
	  <InputLocale>00040408</InputLocale>
	  <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
	  <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
	  <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
	</component>
	<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">
	  <Diagnostics>
		<OptIn>false</OptIn>
	  </Diagnostics>
	  <DiskConfiguration>
		<WillShowUI>Always</WillShowUI>
	  </DiskConfiguration>
	  <DynamicUpdate>
		<Enable>false</Enable>
	  </DynamicUpdate>
	  <UserData>
		<ProductKey>
		  <Key>put your key for the version of Vista you are installing</Key>
		  <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
		</ProductKey>
		<Organization>your organization</Organization>
		<FullName>your name</FullName>
		<AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
	  </UserData>
	  <ImageInstall>
		<OSImage>
		  <InstallTo>
			<DiskID>0</DiskID>
			<PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
		  </InstallTo>
		  <InstallToAvailablePartition>false</InstallToAvailablePartition>
		  <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
		</OSImage>
	  </ImageInstall>
	</component>
  </settings>
  <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:D:\Vista\Build\Image\premium.wim#Windows Vista HOMEPREMIUM" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Edited August 28, 2007 by jaws75

[MAVERICKS CHOICE]

@ Jaws, nice Tute & very interesting.

[maxXPsoft]

uhh why?

throw your full Autounattend.xml on a floppy or usb stick and you can do both ways can't you? simply remove the removeable and its full attended

[jaws75]

uhh why?

throw your full Autounattend.xml on a floppy or usb stick and you can do both ways can't you? simply remove the removeable and its full attended

Ya sure but then you still only have one image to use. Modified or unmodified. vlited or not vlited.

This info was provided as an alternative method of doing things. I like being different. It's all about learning, baby!

"uhh why?"

Just because.

[sp00f]

I was looking for sommething like this, but then wit x64 and x86 on 1 disk.

I merged the install.wim's into 1

But now i need them both unattended, so 2 xmls , but that would be impossible to do.

Cause i dont want to use the xml from floppy etc.

[jaws75]

You could try just using one Autounattend.xml in the root of the DVD but with separate entries for

processorArchitecture="amd64"

and

processorArchitecture="x86"

It may work but I have not tried it.