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Unattended but leave user with OOBE after drivers?


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Hi guys,

 

So assume me an id*** bluffing my way through this. I'm trying to create a Win 7 and Win 8.1 clone that I can deploy on all Macs for customers.

 

I'm nearly there but i'm having problems with my answer files.

 

I have a clone I can roll out - and the situation is that it runs a script called "brigadier" which downloads the correct bootcamp drivers for that Mac (from my internet server for speed) and installs them.

 

It runs during "firstlogoncommands" it doesn't however reboot, and it would seem to need to do this to apply the new display settings etc. 

 

I have my image sysprepped and generalized ready to deploy to any hardware. What I want to do is deploy it to disk and boot have it run the brigadier install, reboot and leave the end customer with the screen to create their account.

 

The problem at the minute is, the command line loads, but for some reason it required me to interact and close the window before it ran the brigadier command (could have been a fault with an earlier file) as mentioned it doesn't reboot...but even more annoying it does all this AFTER the first user account has been created and then doesn't give a user account OOBE again...

 

I thought they were supposed to run before you enter account details? Do I need to make a default admin user logon first? I don't really want any created accounts on the machine so the user sets it up as if its new out of the box, it just already has the drivers installed correctly for them.

 

Finally id really like to run a Powershell script before it reboots to display the user creation screen - would I run this as a final FirstLoginCommand? I'm a Unix guy really so I don't know how to run Power Shell Scripts or even what format they should be in, so if someone could help create this script so that I can send myself a push notification when the Windows setup is finished that would be perfect.

https://pushover.net/faq#library-win32

 

I've attached my currently incorrect file which is as far as i've got, but having read some of your posts, you guys would be able to point me in the right direction instantly really and i'll be poking around in a dark room for about 12 hours trying to guess.

 

So to reiterate i've got my generalized image, I've got it to read my answer file, I just need to get it setup in the right order.

 

Turn on computer, boot into setup, run brigadier, install all the bootcamp drivers, afters its finished, run the powershell script to send a push notification informing me its done, and then shut down. Now when an end users next turns on the computer it should give them the user creation screen - I think it would be best if the CD-Key enter is skipped here too if possible and they can change it later from system settings with "change product key".

 

Hopefully you awesome guys can help me get this sorted quickly! :)

 

 

 

 

test.xml

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The process you want to attempt will not work this way. If at any time, the system is rebooted prior to OOBE being presented, the OS installation will fail and become unusable.

However, Windows does actually do a reboot itself before presenting the OOBE pages. You can try running your command in the Specialize pass. I'm not certain if the specialize pass occurs during the first phase of installation or not.

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Hi thanks for the reply.

 

I was just trying to see if it was possible to add a shell script command to the audituser as that would seem to be the ideal place to run it, but it doesn't appear so.

 

A dirty way of doing it might be to auto login as the built in administrator, do all the work, run all the scripts, delete all the scripts/clean disable the built in administrator and then run sysprep in the bash script and point it to a new unattended.xml which has the end use OOBE setup (if I actually want to change anything there...probably not)

 

Finally I could delete that 2nd unattended.xml on the firstlogincommands when the real end user logs in? It'd work...but I don't know if there's a simplier way of doing it before OOBE starts without any interactions with me - as I say, audituser pass would be idea, but I can't seem to figure out how to automatically run scripts.

 

 

EDIT: Actually I presume I can run it in auditmode with syncronous command and put in path as something like "cmd.exe / c:/script.bat" or whatever?

 

If thats the case I won't need to go quite as long around the houses as previously mentioned and I wouldn't need to run sysprep oobe again or create a separate file. I'll try it.

Edited by realdannys
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As a test, I would try the following:

1. Install Windows.

2. At OOBE screen, use Ctrl+Alt+F3 which will put the OS into Audit Mode

3. Run your program.

4. Sysprep the OS

If it works this way, you can capture the OS after step 4 for redeployment.

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Well - having read all day, I think I may have figured it out.

 

This depends on two things - if I can run the .exe succesfully under the syncronous "path" section in AuditUser and if AuditUser will reboot into OOBE.

 

I've added "reseal - Audit" to the audit system pass so it boots into AuditUser - but reseal OOBE is default on audit and as I remember it doesn't actually reboot into OOBE it'll always reboot back into Audit User - so do I need to add a sysprep command to my second script in AuditUser to get it to shutdown and start in the end user OOBE?

 

If I do this with sysprep.exe /oobe will it go straight to oobe or will it try to read the unattend.xml file again and go through the entire setup process?

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I've got it to work in the end, I went from never hearing of answer files yesterday to figuring out what they all did by last night haha.

 

So it works perfectly, things wouldn't work in specalize so I used audit mode, generalized and shutdown to Audit - captured my image and now when I deploy the image and boot on the Mac it goes into Audit user, runs brigadier which sees the model, and goes to my internal server to download the correct bootcamp setup, expands it and installs it and runs everything, cleans up the tools needed after itself then reboots, then my script runs which deletes any bootcamp logs, runs command line Windows Update tool and installs any critical updates automatically, then when its finished that sends me a push notification to my OS X and iOS devices to let me know its finished before shutting down the computer.

 

Next time a user boots up they're at the OOBE screen and when they sign in everything is up to date and all working perfectly with all the correct drivers.

 

The only downside is that with the clone deploy, and then the lengthy setup Windows requires it takes about 90 minutes to deploy and its got nothing installed on it - where as my OS X image which is packed with apps and games too fully deploys in 5 minutes over Thunderbolt to another SSD ah well.

 

Onto Windows 8.1 next...

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I guess, but either way the initial setup of Windows is painfully slow and laborious even if it has access to the right drivers.

Just curious, and I could be misunderstanding the situation, but couldn't you apply the Windows updates to your image while in Audit mode, so that this step:

 

... runs command line Windows Update tool and installs any critical updates automatically, ...

isn't necessary? Yes, to maintain this up to date status you would have to update your image once a month, and you could still include the command line tool in case any updates occurred in between your distribution and the user's installation, but it seems that might save you some time during Windows installation. AFAIK, you can also install apps during Audit mode so that your deploy experience more closely resembles that of your SO X images. Isn't that the whole idea of sysprep?

Cheers and Regards

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