Create Windows 10 ISO image from Existing Installation  

GBH said:

So is there something obviously wrong with it please?

Apart from two deprecated, no longer working and therefore ignored settings in your answer file (SkipMachineOOBE and SkipUserOOBE), it is totally OK and will work as it is. It will make OOBE phase of Windows Setup completely automatic, unattended.

Really, there are no errors in your answer file.

However, as unattend.xml only automates OOBE, not the installation itself, Windows Setup will of course ask about region and keyboard, which partition Windows will be installed, and so on. Your answer file only automates the phase that starts after initial Windows installation, after first reboot in setting up Windows.

If you want a completely unattended Windows Setup, automatic partitioning and installation followed by automated OOBE, see this tutorial for instructions: Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

Quote from beginning of above mentioned tutorial:

Installing Windows 10 is done in three phases:

1. Boot from install media, run Windows Setup
2. Configure hardware devices
3. Windows Welcome (OOBE)

In normal install, user interaction is required in phases 1 and 3, phase 2 being run automatically without user interaction. In phase 1 user selects language and keyboard layout settings for system accounts, enters product key for specific edition or selects edition manually if product key is not entered at this stage, and selects disk and partition to install Windows. When phase 1 is done, Windows restarts to phase 2 which is done without user interaction and when ready automatically restarts to phase 3.

In phase 3 user selects region and language settings for user accounts, creates initial admin user account, chooses OneDrive and privacy settings and finally boots to desktop.

Your answer file takes care of that phase 3, but for phase 1 you need another answer file. How to create it is told in the tutorial.

Kari

Baserwe said:

Have you successfully created iSO ?

About the ISO and making a USB installer, I posted this in another thread:

Kari said:

emmapeel6490 said:

I have some issues with creating a USB-Flashdrive. I did it with your Powershell script. But whatever I do it doesn't work.

The problem is that FAT32 file system used in USB install media has a file size limit of 4 GB. The custom WIM images are usually bigger, so they cannot be copied to FAT32 formatted USB flash drive.

Luckily, there are workarounds. For instance, you can create a USB flash drive which contains a FAT32 formatted bootable partition, and an NTFS formatted partition to store Windows installation files. See this tutorial for instructions: Create bootable USB installer if install.wim is greater than 4GB | Windows 10 Tutorials

Another option is to split large install.wim file to smaller files, and install / deploy Windows 10 using DISM. More in this tutorial: DISM - Split install.wim file | Windows 10 Tutorials

Kari

Cr00zng said:

Can I use the "Part Two" generated ISO to install W10 in the Oracle VirtualBox running on Linux? And if that is doable, what are the license implications for Windows and other software running in the virtual machine?

The problem is, Windows loses activation if you use that ISO to install on any other machine, be it a physical or virtual machine. Installing to same machine from which the image was captured, activation is OK, on any other machine you need a valid license.

If your current, activated physical Windows has been activated with a retail license, it is relatively easy to activate it on another machine with original product key, or by transferring the license. Notice that transferring a license requires digital license tied to an existing Microsoft account.

Kari