Automate just OOBE setup pass of Windows 10 with Autounattend.xml

Dear Community,

I am currently trying to find out if it is possible to automate just the OOBE setup pass of Windows 10 with an Autounattend.xml file.

In this particular use case, the devices are delievered with a preinstalled Windows 10 Pro version 1803. The goal is to use the preinstalled OEM image. When startging the devices for the first time, they start with OOBE. We want to automate these steps. The idea was to create an answer file which just holds parameters for the oobeSystem pass and let the resulting Autounattend.xml file be consumed from a removable USB drive.

Does somebody have experience with a similar use case? Will Windows 10 still search for an Autounattend.xml file just before entering the oobeSystem Pass? Or is an Autounattend .xml just usable when going trough all configurationen passes of Windows?

The Microsoft documentation was no help for me regarding this particular question.

Best regards,
Manuel

Hi Kari

Thank you for your answer.

The pre-installed image is from the device manufacturer.

The initial idea was to use an implicit aswer file placed on a removable media as described in this Microsoft documentation .

According to the documentation, an answer file called Autounattend.xml should be applied when placing it at the root of the removable drive (implicit search order 4 or 5). To test this, I alreay prepared an answer (see bottom of this post). Currently, it looks like the Autounattend.xml file is not consumed when entering the oobeSystem pass.

I also wanted to check the setupact.log at "%windir%\panther\unattendGC" after going trought OOBE manually to check for errors. However, the directory does not exists.

Therefore, I still ask myself if answer files are applicable only for oobeSystem pass when not preparing the image myself.

Manuel


Autounatttend.xml

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <InputLocale>0807:00000807</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>de-CH</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>de-CH</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>de-CH</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>...</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <DisplayName>Admin</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>Admin</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>...</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <DisplayName>Kiosk</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Users</Group>
                        <Name>Kiosk</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/..." xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Hi Kari,

Thank you for the answer.

According to your experience, should the oobeSystem pass automatically discover and consume an answer file called unattend.xml in the root directory of a removable drive?

Manuel

Kari said:

Yes, it should work exactly as you intended, but if any issues when testing, come back and we'll think something else.

I did some testing placing the unattended.xml below on an usb drive. The device starts into manual OOBE as usual. There is no sign that the oobeSystem pass tries to consume the answer file from the usb drive . Do you have any idea how to troubleshoot this?

unattend.xml

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
                <UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>Placeholder</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description>Admin</Description>
                        <DisplayName>Admin</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>Admin</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>Placeholder==</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description>Kiosk</Description>
                        <DisplayName>Kiosk</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>Kiosk</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <InputLocale>0807:00000807</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>de-CH</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>de-CH</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>de-CH</UserLocale>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:c:/..." xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Kari said:

Are these devices shipped to end users directly by manufacturer / vendor, or do you have access to them before they are shipped out?

We do have access to them before they are shipped out.

Kari said:

2.) Are all devices going to be deployed to same language region, your answer file showing it to be Swiss German?
Kari

Yes, all devices will use Swiss German as their language region

Kari said:

3.) How many devices we are talking about?
Kari

We need to prepare roughly 300 devices.


Manuel