HP windows 7 and Unattended depoloyment

[djlax152]

My company is going to upgrade to windows 7 very soon and to test this first we ordered 40 HP Pro 3000 machines that come with windows 7 professional installed and licensed. I normally like to wipe the computer when they come to be sure all of the extra garbage that we don't need is not on the machine. We are considering creating an unattended installation disk for windows 7 to accomplish this. Before when I used to use Dell machines there was a product key found inside the dell install disk in the winnt.sif file. this product key could be used on all the dell machines and never had a problem activating as long as it was a dell machine.

My issue now is HP only comes with a restore disk which does not include the source files to install windows 7. The restore disk is merely a giant .wim file that is kind of similar to a ghost or acronis image. After we unboxed a few machines we used Jellybean keyfinder to take a look at the product key that was on the preinstalled operating system. the product key is different from the sticker on the side of the computer. I am hoping that this means that this key is similar to the dell product key that was universal for all dells.

So my question would be how do I get the correct source files to match this product key, Could I just download the windows 7 OEM files from somewhere and this will work with the key?

Has anyone every created a unattended disk for HPs? What are your experiences or tips? and we can't just get a site license which would be 100 times easier financially it doesn't make sense for us.

[cluberti]

1. The only place you'd be able to download OEM files from would be your own machine - otherwise, that would be redistribution of files that would violate the eula (and of course the forum rules), so let's nip that one in the bud.

2. The making of a "new" OEM pre-activated installation disc / source was just posted about this recently in the Win7 forum - check it out.

[MrJinje]

Mount the .wim file. (HINT: Use DISM) Go into the "MountPoint\Windows\System32\OEM" folder and grab the .XRM-MS file. That is your "OEM Certificate".

Then restore that WIM image (using the recovery disk) onto one of the machines and run a product key checker to obtain your OEM product key.

Once you have both of those items, the it becomes very easy to build your DVD.

Place the Product key in your Autounattend.xml, and place the XRM-MS file in this folder on your DVD.

DVD\Sources\$OEM$\$$\System32\OEM

FYI, if you really want to get good with deploying Windows 7 in your office, you should learn everything you can about DISM.