Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10  

Taly said:

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Has this issue been resolved? I had similar experiences, looks like this microsoft kb addresses what could be underlying cause.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/tro...t-user-profile

Because the cache database is designed to be generated per-user at the time of initial log on to an individual computer, Microsoft does not recommend or support the inclusion of the cache database in the default or any other user profile that is intended to be used as a template.

The issue that you reference is something entirely different. Thankfully, this issue has been resolved. If you are working with Win 10 20H2 you should not encounter this issue.

Let me know if you have any questions.

I have followed Kari Finn excellent sysprep tutorial guide without errors but there are 2 issues. I have checked my answers file 10 times and since I can't find the reason, I would really appreciate help.

What I have: physical machine with 250GB SSD, setup is UEFI/GPT only.

Reference machine install process: booted from original USB with Windows 10 Ent 20h2 fresh from VLSC. Created 110GB partition, installed Windows. After install and first reboot, there is a language selection screen. I pressed the combination with F3 and rebooted into Audit mode. Made minor changes, like wallpaper, installed some soft and Office 2019. Did not run any system updates. Did not put any license key and did not try to activate Windows. Did not format empty space on disk leaving just default partitions. Most of the time machine was offline, excluding the time I downloaded some soft and installed Office.


Sysprep process: I followed the tutorial in this thread to create answers file - attached at the bottom.
Run the oobe generalize shutdown command providing answers file from USB path.
Booted from WinPE with Acronis and backed up entire disk, getting a 8.6 GB .tib file.

I recovered the .tib to new same size SSD on this same machine. No errors during entire process. Now I need help with 2 issues on a test machine:

1. Windows is not activated, key was swapped to generic Ent. key with 2YT43 at the end. I know for sure my image from VLSC and its key are correct, all works fine on regular installs. I used the very same key from my answers file to activate, worked right away without issues. So how come during sysprep not only it did not activate, it also switched key to generic? The sysprep process was online, with LAN cable attached.

2. Partition number 4 with Windows is the same size reference machine. There is a remaining unformatted space on the disk. There is an extend option in answers file for partition 4, how come it was not created for entire remaining space? I can't have unformatted space after deployment, partition 4 must be for remaining space.

It might be a clue, when I open disk manager I see the following order of partitions:

DISK0: [100MB EFI] [106GB C WINDOWS] [500MB WINRE ] [116GB UNFORMATTED]

There is a 500mb partition between Windows partition and unformatted space. Can it be the reason it can't extend because there is a partition in the middle? I know I followed the proper partitions order from tutorial.

Any help/ideas would be appreciated. The image will be deployed on thousands of new machines, must be 0 user interaction.

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>he-IL</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>he-IL</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>he-IL</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>he-IL</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>he-IL</UserLocale>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
        </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">
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Size>500</Size>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <Size>16</Size>
                            <Type>MSR</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Size>100</Size>
                            <Type>EFI</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>WinRE</Label>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <TypeID>DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC</TypeID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>FAT32</Format>
                            <Label>System</Label>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>Windows</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>JNOTT-XREAL-JJKEY-DF32C-RCFJH</Key>
                </ProductKey>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <Organization>MYORG</Organization>
            </UserData>
        </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>
                <Manufacturer>MYORG</Manufacturer>
                <SupportURL>http://myorg.org</SupportURL>
                <SupportProvider>IT</SupportProvider>
            </OEMInformation>
            <CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
            <ComputerName>*</ComputerName>
            <RegisteredOrganization>MYORG</RegisteredOrganization>
            <RegisteredOwner>MYORG</RegisteredOwner>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <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>he-IL</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>he-IL</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>he-IL</UILanguage>
            <UserLocale>he-IL</UserLocale>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
        </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>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Description>default local</Description>
                        <DisplayName>user</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>user</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:d:/20h2/sources/install.wim#Windows 10 Enterprise" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

First, let's note that there is a HUGE difference between what you are doing and what Kari's tutorial prescribes. After running sysprep you are creating an image of the reference system with Acronis disk imaging software. The intent of the tutorial is that you use the Microsoft DISM tool to create a new INSTALL.WIM file which is then used to replace the INSTALL.WIM on your existing Windows 10 Enterprise media.

In addition, you would then want to have the 2nd answer file (the autounattend.xml) on the root of that media during installation. You would then start Windows installation. During the installation process, Windows will use all the space on the disk and use your supplied license key from the answer file.

Let's put this another way:

The procedure should look something like this...

Setup and configure the reference system.
Sysprep the system to generalize Windows.
Create a new INSTALL.WIM image and replace the existing INSTALL.WIM on your install media with it.
Add the AUTOUNATTEND.XML anser file to your media to automate setup.
Perform installation from your newly updated media.

The key difference is that you should be performing an INSTALLATION of Windows from updated media whereas you are simply RESTORING an image of a syspreped system. You are never allowing Windows to perform a proper installation so it has no opportunity to properly size partitions or make other changes such as applying your license key.

Does all of this make sense? Please feel free to let us know if you have additional questions. Also, I would love to hear what your results are. I'd like to make sure it all works smoothly for you!

@DustyClaus,

One more point to make here...

Suppose you created your image of the syspreped system using the Acronis software.

After this, go ahead and boot your reference system again. Note the process that occurs on the reference system.

That process is exactly what will happen if you restore that image to another system. After all, it is an exact image of that system. Note that there is no installation of Windows occurring, you are simply taking an already existing installation and going through the OOBE but you are not performing an installation per se. Since no installation is occurring, how can it possibly change the partition sizes? They have already been created!

I hope that this maybe clarifies a little more what is happening.

Good questions. I admit that I don't really have experience doing exactly what you are trying to accomplish. I know that there are solutions specifically geared toward mass deployments such as Ghost Solution Suite (don't know how current that is but it was an example of one that I know of). I believe Acronis makes something like that as well. I don't know specifically what Acronis product the folks you are working with use but you are looking for something that can take your image and then move it to dissimilar hardware doing things like adjusting the main Windows partition to fit different sized disks.

Maybe someone else here on the Forum with more experience in that regard can comment.

Hello,

Create answer file via WSIM for Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019.
I wanna the answer file to "Enable build-in Administrator account" and bypass "Create User Account" during Windows OOBE.

After editing answer file as follows, Windows OOBE still appear "Create User Account" and ask for three security questions.
Would you please tell me how to solve this problem ? Thanks.

Code:

Pass 4
Microsoft-Windows-Deployment/RunAsynchronous/RunAsynchronousCommand
Description = EnableAdmin
Order = 1
Path = cmd /c net user Administrator /active:yes

Pass 7
Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup/OOBE
HideLocalAccountScreen = true

Pass 7
Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup/UserAccounts/AdministratorPassword
Value = Password

hsehestedt said:

Good questions. I admit that I don't really have experience doing exactly what you are trying to accomplish. I know that there are solutions specifically geared toward mass deployments such as Ghost Solution Suite (don't know how current that is but it was an example of one that I know of). I believe Acronis makes something like that as well. I don't know specifically what Acronis product the folks you are working with use but you are looking for something that can take your image and then move it to dissimilar hardware doing things like adjusting the main Windows partition to fit different sized disks.

Maybe someone else here on the Forum with more experience in that regard can comment.

Indeed, converting is not going to be an option. As I said, I must provide this firm a .tib file, and they only use Acronis.
BUT here is what I thought... After recovering with Acronis, the sysprep is loading up fine, no errors although I am not doing it the proper way. To solve the 2 problems I have:

1. Partition issue. I remove this part from answers file pass 1completelely. I then add PowerShell script, I think in pass 4, just to format the unallocated space on a disk. All unallocated will be used, doesn't matter disk size. Letter and name for the partition will also be added.

2. Key and activation. I remove it from pass 1, add to pass 4. Not sure what thread but Kari mentioned MAK key can be added in Specialize pass.

Does it sound like I`m doing something wrong here? Possible problems?

- - - Updated - - -

johngalt said:

I haven't any experience converting from one product to another, but I did use CloneZIlla to make SID clean backups of a reference system that I was then able to push out to laptops of our sales force via PXE boot and full disk restore in CloneZilla. it was easy - using a pair of 24 port switches, I was able to re-image 40+ laptops in under 35 minutes, and the reference image was easily updatable. We ended up making a VM to throw onto an HP rack server that was running CZ server edition, so it was available as needed for imaging individual machines after the initial rollout of 78 (?) laptops) to our various salespersons across the nation.

Plenty of other products that also do full disk, but, again, as I said, I have 0 experience in 'converting' from one product to another. Would be nice to know about, though.

Yeap, can't convert and don't want to waste time on this, to be honest. Personally I am using Clonedeploy, amazing product, super easy compared to WDS/MDT. But this firm requires Acronis backup to deploy. The solution I mentioned above is going to do the job I think.

One issue springs to mind right off the bat:

What is the order of your partitions? If your recovery partition comes after your Windows partition as per latest guidance from Microsoft, then you may have free space after the recovery partition and not adjacent to the Windows partition. This means that you won't be able to simply expand the Windows partition into that space. You would need some third party app to move the recovery partition.