Unattended Vista with WDS

[tazmaniandevil]

OK folks, be gentle with me please.......

We currently use RIS to deploy XP, very successfully. Our current setup deploys XP with no user intervention - Auto named machines, OU is selected in RIS menu, etc.

I am trying to get Vista to deploy unattended using WDS, but try as I might, it just does not seem to read the answer file. The install launches quite happily, but stops on the language screen, and every other screen thereafter. i.e. attended install.

If I run through the setup manually, none of the settings I want to use seem to have been picked up. I find the MS documentation to be sketchy at best, just like it was with RIS. I have followed the steps in this document, but still no joy.

I copied the text from this post, changing credentials etc., but it still does not seem to read the answer file. I have even tried copying the answer file into %reminst%\Images\%Group%\install\Unattend\ImageUnattend.xml

What am I doing wrong?

edit: I have also tried the answer file from this thread. Still nothing.

Edited May 31, 2007 by tazmaniandevil

[jfmartel]

I had the same problem on my setup.

Basically, you need 2 XML file. One should be the unattend Vista one, and the other one should be for the "boot". Just like the blue screen with RIS.

That one should be linked inside the "Client" tab inside the properties of your main. Look under your MMC in WDS, right-click your server and go in properties.

There link a XML file in the x86 architecture. Inside that file you should put all the WinPE config.

For example mine include the language (I use french in my case) and this is where i delete the partition where i want to install Vista.

x86-Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE-Neutral

SetupUILanguage

x86-Microsoft-Windows-Setup-Neutral

DiskConfiguration

WindowsDeployementService

Good luck.

Once this work, you should be able to smile a little before the week-end