Windows XP - Activation in unattended install

[oneking]

Hello everyone,

I am building multiple Windows XP machines on a network. Each machine has it's own licensed full version of Windows XP. I want to use the Windows XP unattended installation from a network distribution point. I want to be able to go to each workstation and boot with a network floppy to begin the installation.

My question is how does the Windows XP unattended installation on multiple machines deal with product activation? I thought that Windows XP requires each product key to be activated. If you are doing an unattend installation to multiple machines, how are you going to activate them all?

Thanks!

Josh

[Aaron]

You can use AutoActivate=On (or Yes) in winnt.sif, check the ref.chm documentation in deploy.cab for specifics.

Although you will need to remove the productkey line from winnt.sif so its input manually for each PC.

Otherwise this is what a Corporate licence is for, it eases deployment across hundreds of PCs by keeping the same product key.