Unattended XP Installation

How to create an unattended XP install disk

What?

An unattended install or silent install is as the name suggests a way to install without actually having to do much, no questions, just choose the partition/disk wait a while and you have a fresh install.

There’s a little more to it than that though for instance you can integrate service packs (slipstream), hot fixes and patches, applications etc. I will only be going into service packs, hot fixes and drivers in this tutorial to try and keep it brief, I will however include a few links where you can learn a little more about unattended installs and the benefits of it.

Ok, I’m convinced, what do I need?!

You will need a few applications and the service packs/fixes you wish to integrate and of course an XP disk install disk (NOT THE RESTORE DISK THAT CAME WITH YOUR COMPUTER)

The things you will need are:

1. nLite [Required]
2. Service Pack 2* [Required]
3. Post SP2 updates* [Optional]
4. Driver Backup Utility* [Optional]
5. VM Software* [Optional]

2 You will need this if you’re XP disk has anything less than Service Pack 2.
3 This is optional but recommended; it saves you having to download all the updates
4 Again, this is optional but it will save you having to hunt down the drivers for your system.
5 This is optional but i recommend it, it’s always good to check what you created works before installing it!

Let’s get to it!

Ok, the first step is copying your files from the disk to your drive so you have something to work with, copy them however you wish and to wherever you wish.

Now, when you’re sure you have everything, fire up nLite and you will be greeted with a window like this:



Select your language and click next then select the location of your XP files and yup, you got it, click next then when it asks about selecting presets just click next.



It will then bring you to a task selection window, you can select as much or as little as you wish here, nLite is very useful for adding/removing components misc tweaks etc, but for now we just want ‘Service pack’, ‘Hot fixes...’, ‘Drivers’, ‘Unattended’ and ‘Bootable ISO’



Now click next and it will bring you to the service pack window, click the select button and browse to your service pack 2 file it will then start slipstreaming, stick some music on, have a cup of tea or do whatever it is you do, it may take a while.

When it has finished, click next and it will bring you to the hot fix integration window, click on the insert button and browse to your post sp2 update pack and select it [note: you do not need to extract it] you may also select any hot fixes you downloaded.



Now click next which will bring you to the driver integration window, one easy way to get all of your system drivers and insure they are correct is to back them up with the linked utility, open the driver backup utility and click ‘Scan System’ then click ‘Select All’ to select the found drivers then click ‘Backup Now’ to backup the drivers to specified location.



Now, with nLite click ‘insert’ then ‘multiple driver folder’ and browse to where you saved the backed up drivers. The ‘select multiple drivers’ window will pop up and ask you which of the found drivers to integrate, click ‘All’ then click ‘OK’ now click next. Here comes the fun, unattended!



Under the general tab where it says ‘Unattended mode’ select ‘Fully automated’ from the dropdown, enter a product key and the rest in general is up to you. From there you must set up users which is pretty self explanatory and you must configure the computer name etc under ‘Owner and Network ID’ there’s not really much else that’s required but I like to add my display settings, regional info and automatic update settings, remember time spent now is time save later. When you are satisfied, click next.

It will ask you if you wish to start the process, go on, you know you wanna!



It will then run through doing everything you asked it to, it can be quite a lengthy process and compressing the cabinet files etc can take a while, so, again do whatever it is you do.

When it’s finished it will give you a report, this is not important info but it’s just useful to know:



Now that’s done with we can get on with the final step, creating/burning an image, click next and you will get a window like this:



From here you have a few options, you can choose to save the image for later burning or burn the image directly, I tend to do both. Put in your label and click ‘Make ISO’ and save where ever you want, to burn just select ‘Direct Burn’ from the ‘Mode’ drop down.

Next step: Well, there isn’t one, just enjoy the easy re-installs or if you wish get a little more info on how to integrate applications, apply tweaks etc, here’s a few links:

MSFN's Unattended Windows : Unattended Windows Introduction
Slipstreaming Windows Service Packs
Integrate software into your Win install CD - Neowin Forums
Google


As a small side note, creating an unattended install DOES NOT mean you bypass the legalities of using windows or the license and handing it out to a couple of dozen friends will still cause activation issues!



I was writing something like this but a bit less in depth for a friend and thought why not expand on it a little and post it up for your [dis]pleasure, it was written at 5-AM so please excuse all the grammatical errors, hehehe.

I'll also attach a pdf version which is a bit better formatted and a bit prettier etc.

PDF Version [till i find a more permanent host]

Wiki Upload - Free File Hosting. Video, mp3, image host.

EDIT: The file hosting messed up the pdf, it stripped the extension so when you download please add .pdf to the file until i get better hosting

Hope this is of some use to somebody

- Lebowski