Win10 time zone during setup?

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  1. Posts : 4,173
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #21

    @win10freak,

    I'm going to just take a moment to expand upon something I said in my last post above.

    Now that you know that you can place the answer file on any drive accessible during startup, here is an example of how versatile this can be.

    I have created for myself a single ISO image that has 25 editions of Windows. This includes all the x64 consumer editions and all the x86 consumer editions as well as several sysprep images, again, both x64 and x86.

    When I boot a VM from that image I have choose whether I want to install an x64 or x86 image, then choose the specific edition that I want to install. From there, installation proceeds manually as with any other Windows installation.

    However, by simply creating another ISO image that has nothing but an answer file on it, I can fully automate the installation without needing a single bit of input from me, not even the selection of x64 or x86 edition.

    The point is simply this: You can make an answer file(s) for yourself, but if you want to install manually, you can still do so, or you can easily choose to go fully automated without needing to even place the answer file on your install media.

    If you need any further info, please do let me know.
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 812
    Win10
    Thread Starter
       #22

    Thanks for the file! I appreciate this.

    I just do not understand the fact that MS has removed the Time Zone selection from their setup...It is silly. I know maybe its not a big deal for some people, but come on? Really?

    Anyways, I have Hyper-V VM machine setup to practice some of the more advanced installations.

    Maybe off topic and I am sorry for this -

    But once the Windows ISO is downloaded, I can mount the ISO file and place the Answer file to it and then creating the ISO again. But what tool do you use to create the ISO again in order for the VM to setup?

    Windows 10 does not have a built-in tool for creating ISO files, only mounting them.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4,173
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #23

    Your question is not off topic at all. Never hesitate to ask if you have a question. I've asked lots of questions here! After all, we are all here to help each other and share knowledge wherever we can.

    There are a number of 3rd party tools available, but I prefer to use the free stuff available from Microsoft where I can.

    If you install the Windows ADK for creating answer files (meaning that only the deployment tools option needs to be installed), it will install OSCDIMG.EXE.

    First, just copy all the files from your original ISO to a folder. In the example below I use d:\ISO_Files. Then, drop the autounattend.xml right into that folder as well.

    Use the following syntax to create a bootable ISO image using the Microsoft OSCDIMG utility:

    Code:
    oscdimg -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -l"VolumeName" -bootdata:2#p0,e,b"d:\ISO_Files\boot\etfsboot.com"#pEF,e,b"d:\ISO_Files\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin" "d:\ISO_Files" "d:\destination\image.iso"
    Please be careful with the above syntax. There are no spaces in a lot of the areas you might normally expect spaces.

    In the above syntax, note the following:

    VolumeName - This is the volume name to assign to the image. When burned to a DVD or Blu-Ray disc, the disc would show this name for the volume name. The maximum length of the volume name is 32 characters. To omit a volume name, you can use -l"" or you can leave off the -l parameter altogether.

    d:\ISO_Files - this is the location where the Windows files are located.

    d:\destination\image.iso - This is the full path and file name of the ISO image you want to create.

    Any more questions? Let me know!
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 17,661
    Windows 10 Pro
       #24

    hsehestedt said:
    Below is an example with only the timezone set.
    This is totally trivial information, but your short answer file can be made even shorter; the second to last line (cpi:offlineImage) is only a reference to catalog file used when creating the answer file. It is not required, for instance I will always remove that line from my answer files.

    It does not cause any issues when left there, it really is just a reference which will be ignored when answer file is applied.


    hsehestedt said:
    If you install the Windows ADK for creating answer files (meaning that only the deployment tools option needs to be installed), it will install OSCDIMG.EXE.
    Exactly, OSCDIMG is in my opinion the best tool to create ISO images. Full, illustrated instructions in Part Five in this tutorial: Create Windows 10 ISO image from Existing Installation

    Kari
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 4,173
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #25

    @Kari, thanks for that. FYI, I don't find that information trivial. It never hurts to know what various pieces are for and whether they are truly needed or not. I appreciate the information.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 812
    Win10
    Thread Starter
       #26

    I’ll still use the Windows Answer File Generator as a basic start until I setup a VM using HyperV.

    I would guess most people who had issues with the Windows Answer File Generator, is that there are two Windows 10 generators. MBR and UEFI, and I think that’s one of the problems. People might be choosing MBR while their boot USB ISO is formatted to GPT partitions. Or the other way around. And that’s what most of the issues are from. But, I maybe wrong.

    If you used to format your USB sticks to GPT then the Windows 10 UEFI is the one to choose and so far I had no issues on my other laptop.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 4,173
    Windows 11 Pro, 22H2
       #27

    @win10freak and I were working together to figure out why my sample autounattend.xml in post # 20 of this thread was not working for them.

    I finally realized that my testing was faulty. Here is what I learned:

    1) Windows 10 Setup will default to Pacific Time.
    2) When I tested, I specified Central Time (my time zone) in my answer file.
    3) Because Windows showed my time to be Central Time after installation, I assumed that my answer file worked.

    That was faulty logic. In fact, my answer file was NOT working BUT the Time Zone got set to Central Time automatically because I had networking enabled and Windows was able to automatically determine my time zone so it looked like it was working.

    In my testing, I should have either disabled networking during setup and / or tested with a time zone that was NOT my actual time zone.

    Further, I found that by adding the generic Windows 10 Pro installation key to the answer file, the answer file would then work as expected.

    Last of all, just a minor point - the line starting with " <cpifflineImage cpi:source=" is not needed in the answer file.

    So, finally, with all that said, here is an updated answer file for Windows 10 Pro x64 that does work to set the default time zone to "UTC". You can easily modify the "UTC" to any desired time zone as listed when the command "tzutil /L" command is run.



    Code:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
        <settings pass="windowsPE">
            <component name="Microsoft-Windows-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">
                <UserData>
                    <ProductKey>
                        <Key>VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T</Key>
                    </ProductKey>
                    <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                </UserData>
            </component>
        </settings>
        <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">
                <TimeZone>UTC</TimeZone>
            </component>
        </settings>
    </unattend>
      My Computers


 

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