Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10  

prec said:

I followed this step by step procedure up to the point where you have to launch the dism command, when I launch it the list of options for the dism command appears, as if I am wrong the syntax of the command.

Sorry to tell you, but you had forgotten something. A user caused error. As your screenshot clearly shows, you did not quit DISKPART before entering the DISM command.

See tutorial step 7.11, first paragraph, and the screenshot in said step. You had forgotten the DISKPART EXIT command, shown in screenshot as item #3.

Kari

DustyClaus said:

No OOBE, no new user creation etc. After deployment, it would be best if it felt like it was a regular restart, just new SID and randomized PC name.

That would be impossible.

To create a new SID, you must run sysprep with /generalize switch. When sysprep is run, it always causes the next normal boot (not booting to Audit Mode) to run OOBE.

If no new user is created in answer file, it must be created in OOBE. In OOBE, you cant use any previously existing user accounts,

Kari

That makes it infinitely worse, yeah?

As for advice - I'd really, REALLY advise you to get with @hsehestedt about this, with his methodology it gets it all on a single drive and single .ISO - but I suspect that using it by your collegaue may cause issues.

I haven't done this in a while now, as I only keep images for myself, and having a multitude of images for a single PC is really not worth it.

I will be doing it again soon, but quite possibly in a different manner, as a group of the PCs I'll be imaging will actually be under control of Pearson VUE people so I can't really make mods of those images, just have them ready in the even that a PC needs to be imaged. The other PCs I'll be imaging will be for + study classes, so I need to have set images with set software (versus always downloading and installing hundreds of MB from CompTIA repeatedly - on a 25 Mbit connection, no less). But that is for later. Right now they are broken down into components and being thoroughly cleaned.

Kids need busy work, apparently.

DustyClaus said:

So

Code:

sysprep /generalize /shutdown /unattend:F:\Unattend.xml

is not a valid command?

No, it is not a valid command. You must tell sysprep to boot either to Audit Mode, or OOBE I have highlighted the missing swith in your command sample:

Booting to Audit Mode:

sysprep /generalize /audit /shutdown /unattend:F:\Unattend.xml

Booting to OOBE:

sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:F:\Unattend.xml

DustyClaus said:

There is a user already, I don't need to create a new one.

Yes, you need to create a new user, if it is not created in answer file. After sysprep, any existing user accounts can't be used in OOBE.

DustyClaus said:

Am I missing something here?

Yes. You are missing the fact, that what you want to achieve is impossible, as I already told you.

Kari

Drwaffles90 said:

My main issues is even after running sysprep the OOBE new user cannot select a language; presumable as the MDT unattend.xml specifys languages already.

Drwaffles90 said:

As usual, I stumbled across the answer.
It was the language selection list.. Needed to be force populated.

I have relatively simple, yet totally different approach. This works both for deployment images done as shown in this tutorial, and for MDT deployments.

I always use British English image as my "base" image and language. First, I customize this EN-GB W10 on a reference VM, sysprep, shut down and capture WIM. I then import this WIM image to MDT, run LTI deployment on another reference VM, and when done, run sysprep once more on that VM, restarting to OOBE, this time WITHOUT /generalize switch.

When OOBE starts showing region and language selection screen, I press SHIFT + F10. It opens Command Prompt, and activates -key shortcuts. Typing start ms-settings: in Command Prompt and hitting ENTER, I open the Settings app and install language packs required.

Coming from a bilingual family in a bilingual country, I want my images to include, in addition to "base" EN-GB, my both native languages Finnish (Suomi) and Swedish (Svenska), as well as the language of my adopted home country Germany (Deutsch):

(Click to enlarge.)

In OOBE, after opening Settings, Command Prompt disappears on the background. I ALT + TAB it back to foreground, and enter command %windir%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /oobe /shutdown.

Now capture the image.

When this image is later deployed, user gets this in OOBE:


If doing this without MDT, when finished customizing image on reference machine, use /reboot switch in sysprep, and add language packs in OOBE as told above.

Related tutorial: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - Easy and Fast Windows Deployment

Kari

This should be a mini tutorial all on its own!

hi kari , first i want to say thank you so much for your big effort i learned alot from you. In addition please bear with my low English

so im having a small problem, i followed all your instructions word by word letter by letter but i still got a crazy problem
the problem is when i boot from USB that contain customized windows + autounattend.xml file it show the "select operating system you want to install" and its Blank literally just Blank page and i don't know why this page even show.

btw if i use the customized windows without the autounattend it works fine
and if i use the autounattend with official windows without customizations it also works fine
but if both customized windows and the autounattend file it gets broken and i got the weird Blank Page

Windows 10 Pro 21H1

i attached the image of my problem + the xml file