Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10  

Photek said:

To be honest I dabbed a bit into it but I didn't realize how powerful it really is, its perfect! I guess if I end up hired (I'm on internship right now) I will probably start working on that solution. Thank you very much!

Only too glad to be able to help!

@ bakethtech, first, welcome to TenForums!

I know that you were asking for a response from Kari, so I hope that you do not mind my jumping in, but I've tested your autounattend.xml and it works just fine. The one exception is the first screen where language needs to be selected was displayed for me because your language settings were set to German and I am using an English copy of Windows. Other than that, the entire setup was completely automatic. I'm confident that if I changed the language settings that screen would not be shown.

I do have a question for you:

After you ran sysprep, you should have then booted from recovery media or Windows install media and created the image from there. After doing that, when you then booted the **reference system** normally (the system that you ran sysprep on and that you created the image on), did it complete installation automatically or did it prompt you for any information? If it did not complete installation automatically, that indicates that you likely have a problem with the unattend.xml answer file.

Could you post a copy of that answer file here as well?

One more thing: You expressed a concern about changing the name in the dism /capture-image command. That is not a problem, changing the name is perfectly fine.

Hello hsehestedt,

Greetings of the day, I am very glad you stepped in to help me :)
To answer your question, you are right the setup after the sysprep was not automated and I figured it out at that point that, something is wrong. You gave me a very good pointer about the language, perhaps I should download the ISO in German.
My concern is also about downloading the right ISO and I am using the latest one, I feel something is not right. I use the WSIM to create the answer files but I am beginning to imagine that the ISO is incorrect. Could you point me in the right direction for that ?

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>0c07:00000407</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>de-AT</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>de-AT</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>de-AT</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>de-AT</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="wow64" 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>cwBvAG4AbwByAHkAcwBQAGEAcwBzAHcAbwByAGQA</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <DisplayName>root</DisplayName>
                        <Group>root</Group>
                        <Name>root</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
            <TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>
            <RegisteredOrganization>Sonorys</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>Swetank</RegisteredOwner>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="wow64" 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>
                <Manufacturer>Sonorys</Manufacturer>
                <SupportURL>https.//www.sonorys.at</SupportURL>
            </OEMInformation>
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
            <OEMName>Sonorys</OEMName>
            <RegisteredOrganization>Sonorys</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>Swetank</RegisteredOwner>
            <TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim://kekule/diso/sources/install.wim#Windows 10 Pro" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

EDIT: Below, I described how to download ISO image with an INSTALL.WIM rather than an INSTALL.ESD. Option Five in the same tutorial will give you the same results and is actually easier. You may want to try that rather than option three.


The main concern with the ISO image is that it should have an INSTALL.WIM file in the \sources folder and NOT an INSTALL.ESD file. If you need to download an ISO image, follow Option Three in this tutorial. That will get you an ISO image that has an INSTALL.WIM:

Download Windows 10 ISO File

NOTE: If you have any difficulties with the steps in that tutorial, let me know and I will try to help.

Also, I took a look at you unattend.xml. The only thing that I noticed was that you are not creating any users in the ADMINISTRATORS group. You need to create at least one user in the ADMINISTRATORS group.

I see that you are trying to create a user named "root" in a group that is also named "root". I'll have to test to see if that works since there is no group called "root" by default.

It's only about 5:45 in the morning for me now so I'm not really ready to do any testing yet, but I will test this in a few hours and let you know what I find.

@bakethtech, I spotted another rather major issue that slipped past me before...

In the UNATTEND.XML, you selected a couple of completely incorrect sections. Take a look at this screenshot:



Both of the sections that start with WOW64 should be AMD64.

So here is what I suggest:

Recreate the unattend.xml file exactly as you did before but with these changes:

1) Select the sections that begin with AMD64 and not WOW64.
2) Add your user named "root" to the "Administrators" group rather than a group named "root".

Once you have created that new answer file, feel free to post a copy back here. I'm all set to test it and I could test it in a matter of only a few minutes if you like.

Hello Again hsehestedt,

More I read from you, more the things get clearer to me. I am using now the Fifth step in the tutorial and Downloading the German ISO 1903. Last time, I downloaded the one with .esd and i was able to convert it to .wim without any problem. I will download this now and also create atleast one user account and also change the name of the admin account to Administrator. I will test it as well as soon as I find time and will report back to you. Thank you for the great pointers.

NO - DO NOT create a user account called "Administrator"!!!

There is already a user account named administrator. That account is used while you are in audit mode and then gets disabled when sysprep is run.

You want to create a user name using something OTHER than "administrator" but you do want to put it in the "Administrators" group.

Hope that helps!