I've read through a bit of the BDD documentation (it seems like it's a great product, once you've eaten the learning curve).

The impression I get is that Windows SIM needs both a stock Vista CD and a specific ImageX file, before it will allow you to generate an unattended setup. However, what I've got is a VMWare machine with Vista installed and customized. I also have a basic Unattend.xml file that I would like to modify.

Is there any way to run Windows SIM where you give it the Vista product CD and an Unattend.xml file, <without> a machine image, and edit/validate the file?

SIM needs the Vista WIM file to generate the catalog of options available for the unattended file. Without the catalog you SIM is pretty much useless.

What version of Vista is your VMWare session build with? You can take the catalog file that someone else generates and use it in SIM I believe. It'll warn you that it cannot find the corresponding WIM file, but I'm pretty sure that it'll get you going.

I'm using Vista Business.

Is there any way to run Windows SIM where you give it the Vista product CD and an Unattend.xml file, <without> a machine image, and edit/validate the file?

Yes indeed, you can do that, the same procedure works for all editions of Vista.

Just to refresh my own memory, here's what I did:

1. Ran WSIM.

2. Inside WSIM, first load a *.WIM file (you'll find one on the vista disc, inside "sources" folder, named "install.wim")

3. After step2, WSIM will tell you that it wants to create a catalog file, allow it (this catalog file is not needed for anything else, so you can delete the newly created catalog when your XML is ready).

4. For step3 to succeed, you should preferably copy the *.WIM file to hard-disk, and then use it within WSIM.

5. Second, open your existing unattend.xml

6. Make changes as you see fit & save the xml.

7. If you just want to use these customizations directly (without any further action from BDD), then simply name this new file as "autounattend.xml" and place it in the root folder of your disc (that is, make an ISO image of your vista disc to ensure it stays bootable, open it in UltraISO, add the XML file, no other files need to be added or removed, now save the ISO image, burn it to disc).

8. Please note that WSIM might still fail to check a few errors, despite its validation logic. So you'd probably need 5 or 6 trial runs (of installing vista unattended) to iron out the unattended/automated installation and make it exactly the way you want it.

As you'd know, describing all this makes it sound tedious, but its pretty quick actually, hoping this helps.

Please do post back here, to let us know whether it worked or not.

Edited June 6, 200719 yr by prathapml

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AMIT