How to create a windows xp unattended installation

Enter something you can always change it later , or the unattended install will halt here, awaiting you to enter a name. A real simple complex type password, using both upper and lower case letters, numbers, and characters. Whatever you do use, remember it!

And always encrypt the Admin password. If this is your only PC, you can use the defaults, or if you have several computers on your network, configure these settings as needed. Languages page after Regional : Here you can add support for any additional languages you might want. Selecting nothing here will come into play in the next part of this series of articles. On this page, you can configure these settings to where ever you like, and they will be automatically entered as the default for these settings.

On this page, you setup any commands to run when you first log on to the PC after installing usually right after installation finishes.

This will automatically initiate the Windows Disk Defragmenter to run. This brings up the last page of the Setup Wizard;. I simply saved the file s generated by the Wizard to the C:Deploy folder we created at the beginning of this article.

Save it wherever you like; My Documents, Desktop, etc…. Open the C:Deploy folder, and right click the new file unattend. Rename this file to winnt. Depending on what you entered while creating this file, there may be one or two other files in the folder as well. These would be Unattend. Organize the above gathered installation files in folders as we wish for burning to the installation DVD along with XP Setup files.

Then create a few batch files such that each calling two or more of the gathered installation files as you wish. First batch file can be called at first boot after XP Install with a series of commands initiated with a command in cmdlines. At the end of this batch file, give shutdown command with restart option. At the start of this batch file, make a registry "RunOnce" entry to call the 2nd batch file after system restart. Similarly run every batch file after restart fresh.

Note: The "RunOnce" registry entry to call batch files automatically at system start up will be deleted automatically. Sometimes if it doesn't happen automatically, you may take care to delete it using a regedit command in every batch file. Just delete the instance of "RunOnce" entry in every batch file as a first command that called the batch file.

The XDrive directory should be put inside i folder. So burn the DVD, use it and enjoy Abudch02 Thank You for your solution. The idea is good and interesting. One of the links for a help file doesn't open. Just repost it. There are full instructions on the web site, and links to driver packs. To install applications, you will need to create post-install silent installation scripts, which can also be incoporated into the nLite installation.

You might also want to look at installPad installpad. If you want to hide your outgoing caller ID and block your number, here's how to keep people from seeing who's calling. To disable auto partitioning. After the PC reboots, the local Administrator user will automatically login, and the final phase of the unattended install will start.

Run the ofcxp. You put cmdlines. The only drawback to using cmdlines is you can't see what is happening as the commands are run. If there is a problem, it is more difficult to ascertain the source of the problem. Also, I had problems modifying the registry and installing Office using cmdlines. It might be different for you, so it is worth testing if you would rather use it.

The ofcxp. Modify some registry settings on the target PC. This is done by the xpnew. This file copies the files then checks for success. This is done by calling makedisk. The makedisk. Diskpart can create partitions from within Windows.

It is essentially an automated Disk Manager. The file disk. A new partition - E: will be created and the remaining drive space will be used for the E: drive.

This is done with a standard Office install command using a MST file to configure the Office installation. The reason for this step is to create a default user environment for each user that logs on to the PC. If you set up a reference PC to test your unattended install on, you can create a local account called Testuser, login as Testuser, configure the Desktop, Internet Explorer settings, Windows Explorer settings, Display settings and so on.

These settings, which are saved in the Testuser's profile, can be copied to other users by copying the Testuser profile to the Default User profile.

Then, each time a new user logs in for the first time, they will get those settings from the Default User profile. For this install, once I configured my Testuser's settings and copied the Testuser profile to the Default User profile, I used a zip utility, Winzip, and zipped up the Default User profile directory.

I then copied that. During the unattended install of XP, that. In the ofcxp. Then, using an unzip program, unzip. Do a silent install of Recovery Console. This is fairly straight forward. The RC. Reboot the PC for a final time. User logs in. Finally, we are through with the Windows XP install.

It is time to reboot the PC. You can do this with the MS Shutdown. During the unattended install, shutdown. It is called from the ofcxp. Note: Although Shutdown. Oh wait