Question about adding boot critical drivers to an unattended install


  1. Posts : 4,169
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #1

    Question about adding boot critical drivers to an unattended install


    Let's say that I have a storage driver that I need for the successful installation of Windows. During a manual installation of Windows I know that I can manually load additional drivers. However, if I want to perform an unattended install I'm assuming that I would need to inject this driver into my boot.wim. Is that correct?

    My confusion is over what index I need to specify to add my driver. When I look at my boot.wim I see 2 possible indexes:



    C:\Windows\system32>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:c:\iso_files\sources\boot.wim

    Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
    Version: 10.0.17763.1

    Details for image : c:\iso_files\sources\boot.wim

    Index : 1
    Name : Microsoft Windows PE (x64)
    Description : Microsoft Windows PE (x64)
    Size : 1,781,417,248 bytes

    Index : 2
    Name : Microsoft Windows Setup (x64)
    Description : Microsoft Windows Setup (x64)
    Size : 1,941,119,642 bytes

    The operation completed successfully.



    Am I correct in assuming that for an unattended setup I need to inject the driver into the "Microsoft Windows Setup (x64)" which corresponds to index 2?

    If this is the case could someone also just possibly clarify what the purpose of Index 1 (Microsoft Windows PE (x64)) is?
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 3,505
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #2

    Hello!

    Back in Windows XP days, I would use nLite to inject any drivers and service packs into the Windows installation and also reply to some prompts to create an unattended setup. I recently read somewhere in this forum that nLite still exists and it works with Windows 10 also. So I would download it and try it before messing with any hard-to-use Microsoft deployment tool.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4,169
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for the suggestion. I do appreciate it. I just would like to know how to do it using the MS provided tools because I already have a rather detailed procedure down to a science at this point for creating my unattended setups based upon the outstanding tutorials on this forum by Kari. The addition of boot critical drivers is the only tiny missing piece for me at the moment .

    I know I'm being a bit picky, but I may still check out NLite to see if might give me clues into what is doing.
      My Computers


 

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