I have prepared a Windows XP Installation cdrom with SP2 and hotfixes integrated. Now I want to automate some (but not all) of the settings during installation. I'm using this winnt.sif file:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=0
    MsDosInitiated=0
    UnattendedInstall=Yes

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=DefaultHide
    FileSystem=*
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    OemPreinstall=No

[GuiUnattended]
    OEMSkipRegional=0

[UserData]
    ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

[Components]
    msmsgs=off
    msnexplr=off

[Shell]
    DefaultThemesOff=Yes
    DefaultStartPanelOff=Yes

But now I can't customize the regional settings and the network settings during installation. How can I fix that?

If I understand you question correctly, you can customize your network settings because you have already filled it out partialy in the [userData]?

if so you might want to UnattendMode=ProvideDefault to quote deom the Deployment tools user guide.

Specifies default answers in the answer file. In this case, Setup displays these default answers to the end user, who can change them if they are not appropriate.

Use UnattendMode = ProvideDefault in preinstallation scenarios where the OEM or administrator wants to give the person setting up the computer the option to change the predefined default answers (especially network options).

But also if you download the deployment kit, you can then access the help files. To get the deployment kit go to. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...=en&Hash=8KP7FL This should be the direct download link.

Good luck. fun learning.

If I understand you question correctly, you can customize your network settings because you have already filled it out partialy in the [userData]?

if so you might want to UnattendMode=ProvideDefault to quote deom the Deployment tools user guide.

I want to be able to customize almost all settings during installation (not in the winnt.sif file), except for some obvious settings like accept eula, product key and remove some components. But with the settings in my current winnt.sif file, regional and network settings are skipped during setup. I did choose UnattendMode=DefaultHide, because I wanted to hide the productkey during installation. I'll try ProvideDefault, but I don't expect different results.

But also if you download the deployment kit, you can then access the help files.  To get the deployment kit go to. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...=en&Hash=8KP7FL This should be the direct download link.

I already have read those documents. Maybe I'm interpreting them incorrect? Or something else is wrong?

With ProvideDefault, the installation hangs at T-37 (with vmware). That is definitly not what I want :-)

The following winnt.sif solves my problem. UnattendMode=ProvideDefault and OemPreinstall=Yes was the fix. Only the workgroup screen is missing during installation. Any suggestion to fix this last problem?

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
    AutoPartition=0
    MsDosInitiated=0
    UnattendedInstall=Yes

[Unattended]
    UnattendMode=ProvideDefault
    FileSystem=*
    OemPreinstall=Yes
    OemSkipEula=Yes
    WaitForReboot=No
    UnattendSwitch=Yes 

[GuiUnattended]
    OEMSkipRegional=0
    OEMSkipWelcome=1
    TimeZone=105

[UserData]
    ProductKey=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
    FullName=""
    OrgName=""

[Components]
    msmsgs=off
    msnexplr=off

[Shell]
    DefaultThemesOff=Yes
    DefaultStartPanelOff=Yes

Adding

[Identification]
	JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]
	InstallDefaultComponents=Yes

solved the workgroup problem. Only the Timezone information and the components section is not applied with the setting UnattendMode=ProvideDefault. Seems like many people reported the same problem.

[RegionalSettings]

LanguageGroup=13,1

SystemLocale=00000813

UserLocale=00000813

InputLocale=0813:00000813

Providing the RegionalSettings section does not solve the timezone problem.

But I found a nice solution to apply the components settings using cmdlines.txt:

[COMMANDS] 
"sysocmgr /q /r /i:%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf /u:..\I386\winnt.sif"

This trick was suggested in this post: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&sho...ndpost&p=430038

More information about Sysocmgr.exe: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=222444