New to 7 unattended (and kinda perfectionist)

[evlo]

Hello,

i'm new to making of win 7 unattended installation and i'm quite perfectionist - i don't like third party tools like nlite/vlite etc.

So what are possibilities to make custom installation? I found out:

1. third party tools that i don't know how do they work (i think they are altering install image file to do some stuff after first run?) - i can see that these are much more preferred now than it was in XP times, when there was still many user seeking for "pure" way

2. custom installation file - i don't like this way since that will probably still left some crap content in image and then in installed system

any other way i missing?

[uid0]

Get the WAIK, let it build an autounattend.xml for you.

You don't have to use an altered wim, $oem$ is deprecated but still works.

[Tripredacus]

Here are some same XML files:

[evlo]

I did some research and tries and i beginning to understand AIK, but i still did not find way to run my installer for applications after install.wim is installed on HDD and windows is booted for first time. Preferably i would like to run it as default user.

[cluberti]

Look into the RunSynchronous command in the XML, or use setupcomplete.cmd to do it.

[evlo]

So i have this part

    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <ComputerName></ComputerName>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <RunSynchronous>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>10</Order>
                    <Path>cmd /c "FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\installation.media SETX installationMedium=%%i: -m"</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>20</Order>
                    <Path>%installationMedium%\install_specialize.cmd</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
            </RunSynchronous>
        </component>
    </settings>

in my xml. Unfortunately it does not work. I have found some threads with similar issue here, but no working solution. Do you know what error i made?

It don't fail with error, but no environment variable is set.

Edit: fixed installationMedium %%i is correct, not installationMedium=%%i (no =)

Edited October 10, 2010 by evlo

[evlo]

I'm still not clear about audit and oobe modes of installation - if i set up user in auditmode (audituser pass), will the same user and its data visible in oobemode?

Edited October 10, 2010 by evlo

[maxXPsoft]

I'm still not clear about audit and oobe modes of installation - if i set up user in auditmode (audituser pass), will the same user and its data visible in oobemode?

yes but you will set it up to logon as that user in oobe like posted here

EDIT: You really don't need to do audit, it is intended for oem's do add some stuff then sysprep shutdown and image a PC. It works but not needed

Edited October 11, 2010 by maxXPsoft

[evlo]

I know that i don't need it, but i tought it would be more "clean" to use it, but as i tried it with ctrl+shift+f2 and saw what it really is i now don't see a point in using it.

BTW i found that thread before i asked, but i still did not understand how it works, because reseal is set to audit (i also looked on reaseal info on technet), but then in auditmode there is no boot(sysprep) to oobe.

[Tripredacus]

Audit Mode is for creating images. It is not suited for every day use. Also, when you use Audit Mode, (in most Win7 distros) you use the Administrator account. When you sysprep to OOBE, that account gets disabled. So if you were to install Google Chrome in 7PRO and sysprep to Audit, you'd have to reinstall it.

[maxXPsoft]

You can install anything to any account in Audit like I done with my application. Then

sysprep.exe /oobe /reboot /unattend:%DVDroot%\OOBEAudit.xml

Thats a 2nd xml I create to run in oobe.

But not really worth the effort, I only done as a 'yes you can do it thing'

Setupcomplete the gui is not loaded yet but I run the exe Windows updates from there.

Look at the first xml from above

You can add <Firstlogoncommands> to oobeSystem and run a runoncex style .cmd file to install applications.

More here on that

[ZileXa]

Sorry for reviving an old topic, I hope evlo is still around somewhere because I like the way he installs stuff... if I understand it correctly:

- Add a command to autounattend.xml that wil run a batchfile BEFORE user creation and contains all the commands to install your apps.

- Both the batchfile and the apps can be stored on the Win7 disc or usb stick, no need to copy these files to harddrive first.

- For applying regtweaks, simply add a command to the batch file wich will execute your regtweaks.reg file.

So this is a part of my autounattend.xml (full file attached), I only added the third <component, the first two were already there:

  <settings pass="specialize">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" />
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC-UX" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="NonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
    </component>
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
      <RunSynchronous>
        <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
          <Order>10</Order>
            <Path>cmd /c "FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\installation.media SETX installationMedium %%i: -m"</Path>
        </RunSynchronousCommand>
        <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
          <Order>20</Order>
            <Path>%installationMedium%\InstallApps.cmd</Path>
           </RunSynchronousCommand>
        </RunSynchronous>
    </component>
  </settings>
</unattend>

And in my InstallApps.cmd file I also start by setting a local variable for InstallationMedium and then all the commands to run office setup, firefox, 7zip etc. etc. Ending with the command to run my regtweaks file.

I hope this works! Installing apps and add regtweaks only once and they will apply for all users created in the future without having to run these tweaks seperately for every user (that would be via Firstlogoncommands).

Going to test this.

autounattend.xml

Edited February 7, 2011 by ZileXa

[evlo]

Unfortunately i don't remember how it was, but you can try it. I know i run into issue that even hklm registry did not take effect somewhere in the process, but i don't know where it was

[ZileXa]

OK well I finished creating my InstallApps.cmd and tweaks.reg so I am going to test this method now and otherwise I'll switch to Setupcomplete.cmd method.

[ricktendo]

If you add HKCU regtweaks to SetupComplete.cmd they will not take