Windows XP Unattended

[notawizard]

Hello MSFN,

I have an assignment of setting up a windows 2003 server that is able to deploy windows XP on a network, unattended.

At first i thought of using captured images and deploying those but due to the computers having different HAL's i get a blue screen on most of them.

Also the software will require regular updates and i read about images being very difficult to update.

Then i read that this "unattended" method takes more time per computer to deploy, but is able to be done without any supervision with full and updated software.

But your guide uses a CD-Rom to deploy the windows XP's.

Is there a way to deploy the CD made by your guide via PXE boot?

Thanks in advance!

[mkruger]

I'm no expert....but it sounds like what you'd need to do is build the image using the information in this forum, then PXE boot the resulting ISO image file.

Look here for some info on the latter:

http://reboot.pro/3787/

[notawizard]

Dear MSFN,

We currently have a WDS set up for deploying captured XP images on prestaged computers.

We update our image by deploying, installing stuff/updating stuff and recapturing it.

When a computer is getting a (new) image they automatically have the right computer name and such.

But clean installations still need to be done manually, and here is what we want:

1. In our PXE menu add "Clean install" next to our existing "Capture" and "Restore image".

2. Make the "clean install" load an unattended windows XP installation that won't have any questions for the user

I have tried making the unattended iso and using ImageX to capture that iso into a wim file but i can't add it to the WDS because it says its not a valid installation file.

We also tried using WINNER Project's Sysangel DVD generator but somehow it won't make the c.7z file it says its making.

Is there any way to make our unattended Windows XP ISO file bootable through PXE?

We are also using a pxelinux.0 menu to password protect our WDS so if possible we can add your answer in that menu as well (Sysangel DVDgenerator also went there)

Thanks in advance.

TOO LONG; DID NOT READ: Is there any way to make our unattended Windows XP ISO file bootable through PXE?

edit: i failed in typing this website's name correctly. fixed.

Edited March 22, 2011 by notawizard

[notawizard]

We solved this.

We added Winpe to the boot options of WDS, and with WinPE connected to a network share that has the i386 folder of the Windows XP disc. Starting winnt from that folder allowed us to install XP through PXE.