Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10

peter58ha · 04 May 2018

for Janothin:

here is my tested and working part for your "wipe" problem.
It is configured for UEFI and GPT. Feel free to share and use it!

Best regards

Peter

<DiskConfiguration>
<Disk wcm:action="add">
<CreatePartitions>
<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
<Order>1</Order>
<Size>450</Size>
<Type>Primary</Type>
</CreatePartition>
<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
<Order>2</Order>
<Size>100</Size>
<Type>EFI</Type>
</CreatePartition>
<CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
<Order>3</Order>
<Size>16</Size>
<Type>MSR</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>
</DiskConfiguration>

peter58ha · 04 May 2018

Question about the W10 install-product-key:

I will (re-)build a bunch of DELL Laptops and Desktops. All machines have a valid W10 pro licence (updated from Win7)
Is it nesseccery to enter the W10 install-product-key to the autounattend.xml or any chance to leave it "blank", because the digital licence will activate the machines.

Best regards

Peter

Kari · 04 May 2018

Janothin said:

Hello everyone, I'm having a issue where the unattended partition section does not wipe the entire drive, and leaves the partitions. Also, by default we have secure boot and using dism to put the installer on a flash drive prompts me that there is no signature. Does anyone have any suggestions?

The hard disk will be wiped empty if WillWipeDisk value is set to true (tutorial step 3.11).

About signature issue, I have not a a clue what you mean. If you follow this tutorial step by step, when you have finished capturing your customized install.wim, everything needed to create a bootable USB drive is in folder ISO_Files (or whatever folder you selected in step 2.2).

I use then my own PowerShell script to create bootable USB from ISO_Files folder as shown in this tutorial: PowerShell Scripting - Create USB Install Media for Windows 10 - Windows 10 Tutorials

peter58ha said:

Question about the W10 install-product-key:

I will (re-)build a bunch of DELL Laptops and Desktops. All machines have a valid W10 pro licence (updated from Win7)
Is it nesseccery to enter the W10 install-product-key to the autounattend.xml or any chance to leave it "blank", because the digital licence will activate the machines.

If you want to make Windows Setup completely automatic, "hands-free", then yes, a generic key is required. If not given, setup will stop asking the key.

Generic keys are not activation keys, they are only used to skip product key prompt in Windows Setup, and in case of install media containing multiple editions, to select edition. Activation will then be based on existing digital license, or must be done using a product or volume licensing key.

Kari

peter58ha · 05 May 2018

Hello Kari,

installing W10 with the "install-key-only" works fine. Windows is activated after the setup process.

Im still running in another problem:
after finishing the Audit-Mode and running the sysprep command:

C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe

the window "Sysprep is working... appers and is running without result for more than 3 hours...
What to do in this case?

Best regards

Peter

peter58ha · 06 May 2018

got it up and running!
thx to Kari!

Best regards

Peter

peter58ha · 06 May 2018

@Kari...

one more thing for autounattend.xml (or unaddend.xml, Im not sure):

1) in Windows 7 sources folder was an extra folder named $OEM$ plus a couple of sub-folders like this:

\$oem$\$$\Setup\scripts

scripts folder contains:
- Certificates folder
- MultiBrand_OEM's folder
- OOBE.cmd batch-file

the OOBE.cmd is very tricky: it detects the vendor/brand, inserts the cert from cetificates folder and uses the correct OEM:SLP key for the Win 7 version you like to install. I only copied the relevant script parts for "DELL" and blurred the OEM:SLP keys ;-)

Is there a chance to use this script (additional?) for W10 installation completly hands-free?

OOBE.cmd contains:

@echo off

::setup parameters::
SET RQR=REG QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion" /v "EditionID"
SET INL=IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1

REM: W10 returns "Professional", so can insert the "generic install-only-W10-key" after detection?

::manufacturer brand check/set::
WMIC CSPRODUCT | findstr /I "XPS" >nul
%I:NL% SET MAN=DELLXPS&goto :dell
WMIC BASEBOARD | findstr /I "DELL" >nul
%INL% SET MAN=DELL&goto :dell
WMIC BIOS | findstr /I "DELL" >nul
%INL% SET MAN=DELL&goto :dell
WMIC COMPUTERSYSTEM | findstr /I "DELL" >nul
%INL% SET MAN=DELL&goto :dell
WMIC CSPRODUCT | findstr /I "DELL" >nul
%INL% SET MAN=DELL&goto :dell

:dell
%RQR% | findstr /I "STARTER" && %INL% SET PIDKEY=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
%RQR% | findstr /I "HOMEBASIC" && %INL% SET PIDKEY=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
%RQR% | findstr /I "HOMEPREMIUM" && %INL% SET PIDKEY=TX9XD-98N7V-6WMQ6-BX7FG-H8Q99
%RQR% | findstr /I "PROFESSIONAL" && %INL% SET PIDKEY=VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T
%RQR% | findstr /I "ULTIMATE" && %INL% SET PIDKEY=XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
goto :FINISH

::complete process for normal activation::
:FINISH
::manufacturer brand logos/theme::
IF EXIST "%windir%\system32\oobe\info\*.*" DEL /F /Q "%windir%\system32\oobe\info\*.*" >nul
IF EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds RD /S /Q %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds >nul

IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\DEFAULT\Theme_Default.txt (
DEL /F /Q %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\DEFAULT\Theme_Default.txt >nul
goto :CUSTOM
)

goto :NORMAL

:NORMAL
IF NOT EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds MD %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds >nul
IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\%MAN%\Backgrounds MOVE /Y "%windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\%MAN%\Backgrounds\*.*" %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds >nul

IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\%MAN% (
MOVE /Y "%windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\%MAN%\*.*" %windir%\system32\oobe\info >nul
start /w regedit /s %windir%\system32\oobe\info\%MAN%.reg >nul
RD /S /Q %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's >nul
)

goto :CONTINUE

:CUSTOM
IF NOT EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds MD %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds >nul
IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\DEFAULT\Backgrounds MOVE /Y "%windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\DEFAULT\\Backgrounds\*.*" %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds >nul

IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\DEFAULT (
MOVE /Y "%windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's\DEFAULT\*.*" %windir%\system32\oobe\info >nul
start /w regedit /s %windir%\system32\oobe\info\DEFAULT.reg >nul
RD /S /Q %windir%\Setup\scripts\MultiBrand_OEM's >nul
)

:CONTINUE
IF EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\USER.bmp (
Attrib -h %systemdrive%\ProgramData >nul
DEL /F /Q "%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp" >nul
COPY /Y %windir%\system32\oobe\info\USER.bmp "%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp" >nul
Attrib +h %systemdrive%\ProgramData >nul
)

IF EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\WALLPAPER.jpg MOVE /Y %windir%\system32\oobe\info\WALLPAPER.jpg %windir%\Web\Wallpaper >nul
IF EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\Brand.theme MOVE /Y %windir%\system32\oobe\info\Brand.theme %windir%\Resources\Themes >nul

IF EXIST %windir%\system32\oobe\info\%MAN%.reg (
cd /d "%windir%\system32\oobe\info" >nul
for %%i in (*.reg) do if /I not "%%i"=="%MAN%.reg" DEL /F /Q "%%i" >nul
)

::certs::
IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts\Certificates\%MAN%.xrm-ms (
cscript //nologo %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ilc %windir%\Setup\scripts\Certificates\%MAN%.xrm-ms >nul
RD /S /Q %windir%\Setup\scripts\Certificates >nul
)

::serial::
cscript //nologo %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk %PIDKEY% >nul

::all processing finished, delete used files, and EXIT::
:CLEANUP
IF EXIST %windir%\Setup\scripts RD /S /Q %windir%\Setup\scripts >nul
DEL /F /Q %0% >nul

Feel free to drop me a line if you need the complete content of the $OEM" folder and the OOBE.cm script

Best regards

Peter

Kari · 06 May 2018

peter58ha said:

Is there a chance to use this script (additional?) for W10 installation completly hands-free?

Why on earth would you like to do that?

peter58ha · 06 May 2018

Kari said:

Why on earth would you like to do that?

The goal is, to have the correct vendor theme installed automatically. Right now, with your well working script, only one theme is always installed. And I dont want a DELL XPS theme on an Toshiba or HP machine... ;-)

slicendice · 06 May 2018

peter58ha said:

The goal is, to have the correct vendor theme installed automatically. Right now, with your well working script, only one theme is always installed. And I dont want a DELL XPS theme on an Toshiba or HP machine... ;-)

This makes sense as an universal script, that contains it all. :)

peter58ha · 06 May 2018

@slicendice...

absolutely!
I used this script to (re-)install all different kinds of laptops and desktops from different vendors. Works like a charme and with the OEM:SLP keys and the digital cert, all machines are activated (when a valid SLIC 2.1 found at BIOS). Safes lot of time...