Hi all. I run a home computer buiness and have currently made an UXP disk that installs the Antispy and Virus protection and anything else that a customer will need out of the box.

What I am not sure how to do is what mode do I need to set the unattend option in so I can have the option of entering the customers Windows Serial and enter their username and company name etc.

Also I have heard of being able to set windows to reboot in factory mode etc. What modes are their and how can I set those modes (for building a new PC for eg.)

Thanks in advanced for any help given.

UnattendedMode=DefaultHide

SO what does that exactly do?

If I answer something in the SIF it will hide it and if I don't answer it it will show that option?

I think you want to use ProvideDefault. Unfortunately if a valid ProductKey is specified in winnt.sif ProvideDefault will skip that page

ProvideDefault specifies that answers in the answer file are defaults. In this case, Setup displays these default answers to the user, who may change them if desired. This approach is useful 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).

DefaultHide specifies that answers in the answer file are defaults. Unlike the ProvideDefault value, Setup does not display the user interface to end users if all the answers relating to a particular wizard page are specified in the answer file. If only subsets of the answers on a page are specified, the page is displayed with the provided answers. The user can modify any of the answers on the displayed page. This approach is useful in deployment scenarios where an administrator may only want end users to provide the administrator password on the computer. This behavior is the default if unattended Setup mode is not specified.

I haven't used the ProvideDefault mode. It seems like a completely attended setup, though, with the advantage to the user being the option to prefill the fields with your suggested setttings. Default/Hide is a silent process, except for required fields that are left unfilled (though any mode will stop at at unfilled/erroneous entry). Your call as to the final product you wish to provide.

take a look at winxp cd

support\tools\deploy.cab sysprep app

some of your answers may be found there.

support\tools\deploy.cab setupmgr app

to create an unntendded.txt file

then do some searching through help menus using unttended.txt file on a floppy disk and winxp cd installation.

Edited January 10, 200620 yr by boggen