God Bless America.

Windows XP Unattended Installation

Run Once - As you can see in the Run Once section it has all ready set up the command to add the printer. There are other commands you could use here also. In the answer file I am creating here I would be setting up the disk partitions manually. If you wanted to have the answer file do it for you, you would add the command for it here also. This would require you to create a new batch file. Once again, you can make this as simple or advanced as you like.

More information can be found at Microsoft TechNet on how to have your answer file format your partitions for you.

Additional Commands - This is somewhat more of an advanced feature. It allows you to have setup install things that you would normally want to install right after Windows XP. If you desire to venture into it and what it can do for you, Creating a Combination Installation is an example of one way to use this. This would require you to choose different options in the setup manager than we did here. For this article we are going to leave it blank. Now click Finish.

Save the Answer File - Now put in your formatted floppy disk into your A drive. Where it says “Location and file name”, type in A:\winnt.sif. It should look just like the image below. Since we are using the CD Boot method, we must name the answer file winnt.sif. Click OK.

If you do not have a Floppy drive or just want to put it on your Windows XP CD - You will need to save the answer file to your hard drive as winnt.sif. You will be required to make a backup of your Windows XP CD. First of all, you will need to extract the contents of your Windows XP CD to your hard drive. Then you must add winnt.sif to the I386 folder. You will not need to use the batch file (winnt.bat).  Don’t forget to add winnt.sif first. After extracting Windows XP from the hard drive you can not just burn it to a CD (it won't be bootable). Follow the instructions at Binks site on How to make your XP bootable. I would also recommend using a CD-RW the first time you try doing this. If you mess something up you will not be wasting your CD-Rs.

Setup Manager Complete - Congratulations! You have now created your first answer file. Here it is telling you that it has created two files for you.

winnt.sif - This is the answer file

winnt.bat - You will also need this batch file on the floppy. It tells the answer file where to find the files needed for Windows Setup.

Now go to where you saved your answer file. Right click on winnt.sif and open with notepad. You should see something similar to what you see below except that it should your answers instead of mine. If you want to make some last minute changes do so now.

If you like to make multiple partitions on your hard drive you will need to make a minor change to the answer file. In the [Data] section have a look at AutoPartition. With the current setting at one it will automatically choose a partition to install to. This will take away your option to make partitions. If you would rather create your own partitions set the 1 to 0. I recommend you do this if you already have an operating system installed on your computer that you would like to start fresh with or if you want XP to create a dual boot for you. You should have a second partition to do a dual boot.

;SetupMgrTag

[Data]

    AutoPartition=1

    MsDosInitiated="0"

    UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]

    UnattendMode=FullUnattended

    OemSkipEula=Yes

    OemPreinstall=No

    TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]

    AdminPassword="password"

    EncryptedAdminPassword=NO

    AutoLogon=Yes

    AutoLogonCount=1

    OEMSkipRegional=1

    TimeZone=20

    OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]

    ProductID=ABC12-3ABC1-23ABC-123AB-C123A

    FullName="Jeramie Lorson"

    OrgName="Hytek Computer"

    ComputerName=JL1

[Display]

    BitsPerPel=32

    Xresolution=1280

    YResolution=1024

    Vrefresh=85

[GuiRunOnce]

    Command0="rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /n \\Jeramie\Printer"

[Identification]

    JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

[Networking]

    InstallDefaultComponents=No

[NetAdapters]

    Adapter1=params.Adapter1

[params.Adapter1]

    INFID=*

[NetClients]

    MS_MSClient=params.MS_MSClient

[NetServices]

    MS_SERVER=params.MS_SERVER

    MS_PSched=params.MS_PSched

[NetProtocols]

    MS_TCPIP=params.MS_TCPIP

[params.MS_TCPIP]

    DNS=No

    UseDomainNameDevolution=No

    EnableLMHosts=Yes

    AdapterSections=params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1

[params.MS_TCPIP.Adapter1]

    SpecificTo=Adapter1

    DHCP=No

    IPAddress=192.168.0.2

    SubnetMask=255.255.255.0

    DefaultGateway=192.168.0.1

    DNSServerSearchOrder=192.168.0.1

    WINS=No

    NetBIOSOptions=0

 Now Right click on your winnt.bat file and in the menu click edit. This is a batch file. A batch file is a file containing instructions that are executed one after the other. Notice that in the batch file it tells you that it may need to be modified. You may need to edit the path for setup to find the files it needs. The batch file here says:

1.                  The answer file is winnt.sif

2.                  Setup files are located on E:\  (My CD-ROM Drive) in the I386 folder.

3.                  Tells Setup to begin using winnt32 with a script to tell it to use the unattended method.

If you’re going to be using this on another computer you may have to change the drive letter to whatever the CD-ROM is set at.

@rem SetupMgrTag

@echo off

rem

rem This is a SAMPLE batch script generated by the Setup Manager Wizard.

rem If this script is moved from the location where it was generated, it may have to be modified.

rem

set AnswerFile=.\winnt.sif

set SetupFiles=E:\i386

E:\i386\winnt32 /s:%SetupFiles% /unattend:%AnswerFile%

Next Page: Start the Instalation/Conclusion

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