autounattend.xml AutoDeploy Stuck at OS Selection

I'll look into the possibilites and go with the good ol' trial and error method with the partitioning.

Get some good rest, I know you won't ignore me after this thread! :)

I'm back. If you need any help, let me know.

Hope you had some quality sleep!

I am currently struggling.
The WinPE part is working, but the OOBE part of the autounattend.xml does not get processed by the install and every time it asks for the Region, keyboard layout etc etc.
I have read that the unattend.xml under the sysprep can be substituted for the autounattend in the root of the .iso too.
Is that wrong?
I didn't try to recreate the .wim yet, but if I have to, I will

You can override some of the settings in the unattend.xml answer file with the autounattend.xml. In other words, if you have certain settings in both places, then the autounattend will be what is used during the actual unattended installation.

Since you mention the unattend.xml answer file, I'm assuming that you sysprepped your custom installation. After sysprep, you boot from some alternate media (like Windows setup media) and create an image WITHOUT allowing that sysprepped copy of Windows to boot from the HDD. Is that correct?

After creating the WIM image, you probably allowed it to boot from HDD. When doing so, did it boot successfully all the way to Windows or did it prompt you for anything along the way? If it prompted you for anything, then you may be missing something in your unattend.xml answer file.

For reference, I'm going to place a copy of my unattend.xml answer file below as well as my autounattend.xml answer file. In this case, I am doing what you are by not specifying a location to which Windows should be installed. That causes you to be prompted for that information but everything else will be unattended. Since you are having difficulties with OOBE, I would especially focus on looking at the OOBE section in that answer file to see if you find anything you are missing in your answer file.

I hope that helps, but if not, here is what I suggest:

Go through the entire tutorial that I had linked to before from start to finish. For the Reference system, consider using a VM. This gives you the advantage of being able to create snapshots (as VMware calls them) or checkpoints (using Hyper-V terminology). You can then easily go back to critical points if you make a mistake somewhere along the line.

While that may seem like a lot of work, it may be a whole lot less work than trying to untangle what you have now.

Also, from my perspective, I have no idea what steps you took to create your custom image so by having a common point of reference (the tutorial) you could easily say "I'm having problems at this step".

BTW, this tutorial from @Kari (like all of his tutorials) are absolutely bullet proof. If you see his name attached to anything, I guarantee that he spent many hours testing it 100 different ways .

My unattend.xml answer file:

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>en-US</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>en-US</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>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
                <UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>UABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <DisplayName>Windows User</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>WinUser</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
            <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>UABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Enabled>true</Enabled>
                <LogonCount>1</LogonCount>
                <Username>WinUser</Username>
            </AutoLogon>
            <FirstLogonCommands>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <CommandLine>reg add &quot;HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon&quot; /v AutoLogonCount /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f</CommandLine>
                    <Order>1</Order>
                </SynchronousCommand>
            </FirstLogonCommands>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <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">
            <OEMInformation>
                <Logo>C:|Windows\System32\oemlogo.bmp</Logo>
            </OEMInformation>
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
            <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/iso_files/sources/install.wim#Windows 10 Pro" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Here is my autounattend.xml (with no installation destination specified):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" 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">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <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>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/iso_files/sources/install.wim#Win 10 Pro" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

Hi duell
It is quite Simple to get a working autounattend.xml
Download Winreducer
Install it And Winreduce Simply the autounattend portion of it
With Winrar or Ultraiso or analog program Ypu can get the autounattend.xml out of the created Winreducer iso
Use Rufus to crate an iso of an untouched Windos 10 iso onto an USB stick
Copy the autounattend.xml from the Winreducer into the USB stick and install
There are many manuals to create an autounattend.xml , but most of the time it does not work.
So Let Winreducer do this job for You, It will work
icy