[maxXPsoft]

Solved Theme
http://www.msfn.org/...-with-your-xml/

AutoUnattend.xml

    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
         <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">
            <Themes>
                <ThemeName>C:\Windows\resources\Themes\landscapes.theme</ThemeName>
                <DefaultThemesOff>false</DefaultThemesOff>
                <DesktopBackground>%WINDIR%\web\wallpaper\Landscapes\img7.jpg</DesktopBackground>
            </Themes>
        </component>

you must select img from <DesktopBackground> within your modded theme
change processorArchitecture="amd64" to your processor

This post has been edited by Tripredacus: 10 September 2010 - 08:32 AM
Reason for edit: fixed link

[kevin34]

I know this has probably been answered, I have read the help files for the WAIK on configuration passes a couple times and am still unclear about something. How do I know where to add specific settings and if I add them in one spot do I need them in others? I understand in what steps the passes run and know that all component settings aren't available for all passes. Any help would be much appreciated.

Kevin

[maxXPsoft]

kevin34, on 10 May 2010 - 03:45 AM, said:

I know this has probably been answered, I have read the help files for the WAIK on configuration passes a couple times and am still unclear about something. How do I know where to add specific settings and if I add them in one spot do I need them in others? I understand in what steps the passes run and know that all component settings aren't available for all passes. Any help would be much appreciated.

Kevin

Look at first post for a X86 example with a lot of settings. X64 in 2nd post. The more you add means less you answer or set for your final system. Then feel free to ask ? from there.

[kevin34]

Hey max, thanks for the reply much appreciated. I have looked through the xml files that you posted quite a few times previously. I understand the part about the more I answer the less I end up doing after the install. My question I suppose is just if there are multiple passes to enter the same component information does it make a difference which pass I supply the information to. This may not make any sense, I have a feeling I am not understanding the passes clearly even though I read the MS help files a number of times. If there is a better resource you know of please let me know. I'm very accustomed to the 2000\XP style unattended setup so please bear with me if possible. Have a good one.

Kevin

[maxXPsoft]

MS gave options to do a lot of different things like dvd or WDS and if you doing anything besides Dvd you will add things a lot in earlier Passes. Setting language you want to see in each pass is straight forward or defaults to dvd default. I built this to serve many languages so giving settings for each pass. Screen also but if you don't set MS defaults to what they do in each. If you're doing a dvd install my examples will get through that no problem with xml on a usb stick or floppy. Not a lot of repetition.
I have more here cause these things also serve to use Auditsystem and Audituser passes.

[kevin34]

For now I'll just use a regular DVD\USB install, but eventually I will run WDS from one of my servers. You mentioned the audit mode as well, that's another one I'm not sure if I am clear on, is that just for setting a system back to default then implementing your xml settings or such? Thanks a bunch for your replies I really appreciate it.

Kevin

[MrJinje]

Well each pass controls a portion of the installation. From an high level XP perspective, the windowsPE pass is very similar to the TextMode portion. Most of the it's settings involve formatting, OS file copy, all the things that happen prior to the first reboot. Other passes control other portions of the install and some passes are only used during special situations. For instance the Audit passes are commonly skipped by vanilla unattended DVD's, but anyone running sysprep will use them.

You mention how some settings are duplicated and on paper it appears that way, but that is not the case. A few days ago a user was having trouble specifying domain cred's for his WDS installation (using the oobeSystem domaincred), but the problem was his error occurred during the windowsPE portion. For his installation we needed to provide the credentials twice, once during the windowsPE pass (to connect to the WDS server), and the second time during oobeSystem pass to join the new machine to the domain. So these are not really duplicates, but two distinct settings with different uses. You will find this is the case with most of the duplicated settings.

Here is quick rundown of what a normal DVD installation goes through . (i'm missing the second reboot, not sure where exactly that happens)

1) windowsPE pass occurs
2) offlineservicing (if enabled) occurs - followed by reboot. - this is end of the boot.wim session
3) After reboot - Specialize pass
4) Finally the oobeSystem
5) SetupComplete.cmd occurs last (if using $OEM$)
6) First login occurs - desktop appears.

on a sysprep installation, two more audit passes can occur between 3 and 4. (there is also a generalize pass that I think occurs before #3)

This is a lot to cram into a little post. Ask questions if you have any.

@ Max, what do you think about hosting a pair of WDS compliant XML's. Arwidmark posted some samples for Vista WDS at this site, but they might need some minor tweaks for W7/WDS

This post has been edited by MrJinje: 11 May 2010 - 07:19 PM

[kevin34]

Hey MrJinje thanks a bunch that clears it up a good bit, especially the part about the WDS login and domain joining. I'll do some more research on sysprep and audit mode. Hopefully I'll finish my unattended tonight. Thank you again to ya'll for replying so quickly.

Kevin

[maxXPsoft]

MrJinje, on 11 May 2010 - 07:13 PM, said:

@ Max, what do you think about hosting a pair of WDS compliant XML's. Arwidmark posted some samples for Vista WDS at this site, but they might need some minor tweaks for W7/WDS

If you want to tweak them up for W7 and answer ? about WDS here. I intended this so anyone could answer and thanks for reply. I'm not up on WDS but looking at them 2 xml I say what? All that could be done simple cause it looks like just all could be added to the autounattend.

kevin34, on 11 May 2010 - 07:23 PM, said:

I'll do some more research on sysprep and audit mode.

Believe Audit mode was mainly built for the OEM actually. You do all your application installing and sysprep with a shutdown and then capture image from a PC. Although you don't have to shutdown which I do and boot again into oobe. When customer gets it will boot does oobe, name, what color underwear and all that.

We tend to take and modify things outside the norm because A. We can B. MS doesn't have clear answers to what and where to use all this stuff, has to be worked out from forum members like MrJinje pointed out.

[stephaniei]

Hi everyone, I did post alone, but I'm sorry, I should have posted it here. I'm also sorry for the double post, but I'm desperate to get this sorted and I've tried so many different things.

I'm successfully deploying an image - although it still asks me which images to install; it doesn't add the PC to the domain and the UI language is still en-US. I got the files from this forum and edited them (I am using both: ImageUnattend and WDSClientUnattend) - but I'm sure I'm missing something simple.

This is my first time using Deployment services etc., so I'm not 100% sure where everything is. It appears to be working for the most part, because I can select an image manually and the installation continues perfectly, with no problems. But as I want to deploy this image to 500 PCs, I can't go around to each one! Also, our domain has a 'long' and 'short' name - I read somewhere on here that you should use the 'short' version, is this correct?

So, I just want it to know which image to install, add it to the domain and change the UI language, if possible.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Attached File(s)

•  ImageUnattend.xml (8.43K)
  Number of downloads: 38
•  WDSClientUnattend.xml (4.74K)
  Number of downloads: 22

[johnhc]

stephaniei, on 18 May 2010 - 07:24 AM, said:

Hi everyone, I did post alone, but I'm sorry, I should have posted it here. I'm also sorry for the double post, but I'm desperate to get this sorted and I've tried so many different things.

I'm successfully deploying an image - although it still asks me which images to install; it doesn't add the PC to the domain and the UI language is still en-US. I got the files from this forum and edited them (I am using both: ImageUnattend and WDSClientUnattend) - but I'm sure I'm missing something simple.

This is my first time using Deployment services etc., so I'm not 100% sure where everything is. It appears to be working for the most part, because I can select an image manually and the installation continues perfectly, with no problems. But as I want to deploy this image to 500 PCs, I can't go around to each one! Also, our domain has a 'long' and 'short' name - I read somewhere on here that you should use the 'short' version, is this correct?

So, I just want it to know which image to install, add it to the domain and change the UI language, if possible.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

stephaniei, I cannot help with your problems, but have you run Windows System Image Manager (WSIM, part of WAIK) against your .xml files? I found it to be very useful in making changes and verifying the .xml. Good luck, John.

EDIT: I looked some more at your .xml and wonder about a couple of things: My .xml has this code and I do not get asked about the image:

Quote

<ImageInstall>
<OSImage>
<InstallFrom>
<MetaData wcm:action="add">
<Key>/IMAGE/NAME</Key>
<Value>Windows 7 ULTIMATE</Value>
</MetaData>
</InstallFrom>
</OSImage>
</ImageInstall>

I also see you have the EN-US code (0409) in several places. Perhaps it should be 0809 - please see here. In the unattend.chm is this code for joining a domain. I do not use this, so don't know if it is relavent, but please look at the unattend.chm for help.

Quote

<Identification>
<Credentials>
<Domain>fabrikam.com</Domain>
<Password>MyPassword</Password>
<Username>MyUserName</Username>
</Credentials>
<JoinDomain>fabrikam.com</JoinDomain>
<MachinePassword>ComputerPassword</MachinePassword>
</Identification>

Hope some of this helps. Oops, looks like the forum quote mechanism has messed up the formatting - sorry about that.

This post has been edited by johnhc: 18 May 2010 - 12:05 PM

[stephaniei]

Thanks for this John, much appreciated. I've now got a seperate issue, so can't see if this is working yet. But I will let you know how I get one once I've solved the other problem.

Steph

[Tripredacus]

Oooo I have some questions! Can these be accomplished with the unattend? CLG for Windows 7 Pro x86. I checked the help file and can't find anything, so I won't be disappointed if no one else knows.

1. Taskbar Style. Let's say a user makes the taskbar half-height, wan't the wide minimized boxes and sets a smaller font size.

2. Desktop icon arrangement. I already have icons in the Public Desktop, and are arranged in certain places on the desktop in Audit Mode. After sysprep, these icons are still there but are now set to auto-arrange by name.

3. Start Panel being blank. Take your regular Windows 7 (not classic) start panel and remove all the recently used and pinned icons and this place is blank. After sysprep, the default items appear.

4. Start Menu items. We know you can manually customize what items are in the Start Menu such as Computer, printers, etc. If you specify a custom arrangement in Audit Mode and sysprep, the default menu items return.

5. Profile Picture. By default, Windows will randomly pick one of the built-in "avatars" for a new user. Can I specify a specific picture instead?

That's it for now!

[maxXPsoft]

All that happens to me when I run Audit so instead I have switched to using either Setupcomplete.cmd or Firstlogoncommands to do some of these things. I have not seen where you can do this with xml

I copy my Start items during Firstlogoncommands

Far as user picture I copy my bmp to 2 places on mounted wim
\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\user.bmp
\ProgramData\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures\usertile0.bmp

Also run my tweaks at Firstlogoncommands and might require a reboot to get them applied to HKLM

[Tripredacus]

I found the only (supported) options for me are the Wallpaper and the User Tile. The other ones I can't change due to licensing restrictions!

For the wallpaper, I used DesktopBackground child of Themes object, but Windows picks the default. Possible reason: ComputerName page in OOBE is set to not display!

Same type deal for User Tile. This is set by OOBE.XML, and I checked the Panther logs and it does show it reads that file and locates the custom user tile. However, documentation says that Windows will choose one of the default icons if User Name page in OOBE is hidden!

User Tile has been confirmed by the documentation, however DesktopBackground isn't as easy to figure out. Here is an example:

User Tile info:

Quote

If this page is not displayed, a user tile will be automatically selected for the user. There is no Unattend.xml setting to set a user tile.

And DesktopBackground:

Quote

This page also controls the initial wallpaper choice. If this page is not displayed, the first Windows desktop wallpaper will be selected by default.
Note
This can be set by specifying a theme in Unattend.xml, but this setting will not influence whether this page is displayed or not.

The first part makes sense, but the Note makes me think you should be able to specify it even if the Computer Name field is hidden....

Quotes from here:
http://technet.micro...28WS.10%29.aspx

[maxXPsoft]

Thanks for the information
I done theme here http://www.msfn.org/...-with-your-xml/

[Tripredacus]

Update: You can specify a wallpaper with DesktopBackground, but that object will not be used unless a ThemeName is also specified. For my purposes, I use "aero" as my ThemeName. So for example, this DOES NOT work:

			<Themes>
				<DesktopBackground>c:\wallpaper.jpg</DesktopBackground>
			</Themes>

But this DOES work:

			<Themes>
				<ThemeName>aero</ThemeName>
				<DesktopBackground>c:\wallpaper.jpg</DesktopBackground>
			</Themes>

[grabben]

hm.. Ive been looking around for myself but i dont seem to be able to find a proper one, or perhaps im alittle dumb;)

I want the unattended setup to create three partitions @ different sizes, format as ntfs and assign three different driveletters. How can i do that?

[maxXPsoft]

You do it similar to this in <settings pass="windowsPE">
This example makes that small System Partition if you want.
Can also make the 2nd partition extend to end of drive

<DiskConfiguration>
  <Disk wcm:action="add">
    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
     <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
     <CreatePartitions>
      <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
        <Order>1</Order>
         <Type>Primary</Type>
         <Size>300</Size>
       </CreatePartition>
      <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
        <Order>2</Order>
         <Type>Primary</Type>
         <Extend>true</Extend>
       </CreatePartition>
    </CreatePartitions>
    <ModifyPartitions>
      <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
        <Order>1</Order>
         <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
         <Label>System</Label>
         <Format>NTFS</Format>
         <Active>true</Active>
       </ModifyPartition>
      <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
        <Order>2</Order>
         <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
         <Label>Windows</Label>
         <Letter>C</Letter>
         <Format>NTFS</Format>
       </ModifyPartition>
    </ModifyPartitions>
  </Disk>
  <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
</DiskConfiguration>

[myselfidem]

Tripredacus, on 27 October 2010 - 08:21 AM, said:

Update: You can specify a wallpaper with DesktopBackground, but that object will not be used unless a ThemeName is also specified. For my purposes, I use "aero" as my ThemeName. So for example, this DOES NOT work:

			<Themes>
				<DesktopBackground>c:\wallpaper.jpg</DesktopBackground>
			</Themes>

But this DOES work:

			<Themes>
				<ThemeName>aero</ThemeName>
				<DesktopBackground>c:\wallpaper.jpg</DesktopBackground>
			</Themes>

Thanks!
This one works fine also:

<settings pass="oobeSystem">

<Themes>
   <ThemeName>aero</ThemeName>
   <DesktopBackground>%WINDIR%\Web\Wallpaper\Landscapes\img7.jpg</DesktopBackground>
   <DefaultThemesOff>false</DefaultThemesOff>
</Themes>

Cheers

This post has been edited by myselfidem: 06 November 2010 - 12:26 AM