Reference for myself (and anyone else that’s interested) – here’s my unattend.xml file for installing Windows XP SP2 completely unattended. Using this in conjunction with a sysprep.inf file, you can achieve a completely unattended XP install using Windows Deployment Services.

Firstly, you need an unattend.xml file. This tells the Windows PE boot device what to do – what language to use, what credentials to use connecting to the WDS server, how to partition the disk and which image to deploy. You specify this at the server level – in the WDS console, right-click on your server name, choose properties and the client tab. Tick the Enable unattended installation check box and browse to your unattend.xml file – good practice dictates storing this in your WDSClientUnnatend folder under the RemoteInstall share.

My XP unattended file (called, inventively, xp_unattend.xml) looks like this:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"&gt;
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Active>true</Active>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>WinXP</Label>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <WindowsDeploymentServices>
                <Login>
                    <Credentials>
                        <Domain>your domain</Domain>
                        <Username>domain username</Username>
                        <Password>password</Password>
                    </Credentials>
                </Login>
                <ImageSelection>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                    <InstallImage>
                        <ImageName>Image Name as displayed in WDS</ImageName>
                        <ImageGroup>Image Group</ImageGroup>
                        <FileName>WIM Image Filename</FileName>
                    </InstallImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                </ImageSelection>
            </WindowsDeploymentServices>
        </component>
    </settings>
</unattend>


The next part of our completely unattended setup is an XP sysprep.inf file. Again you can store this on the WDS server – navigate to your RemoteInstall share again and under the Images folder you’ll see your WDS Image Groups. As my image is called "winxpsp2.wim", I’ll create a folder called winxpsp2. In this folder, I’ll create the $OEM$ directory structure, within which I’ll put a folder called $1, within which I’ll make a folder called sysprep, which is where the sysprep.inf file will go. Phew! For reference, in my enviroment, this means that we’re looking at D:\RemoteInstall\Images\Windows XP\winxpsp2\$OEM$\$1\sysprep\sysprep.inf.

Here’s my XP sysprep.inf file:


;SetupMgrTag
[Unattended]
OemSkipEula=Yes
InstallFilesPath=C:\sysprep\i386

[GuiUnattended]
AdminPassword="Your Admin Password Here"
EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
OEMSkipRegional=1
TimeZone=85
OemSkipWelcome=1

[UserData]
ProductKey=Your Product Key Here
FullName="Your Name Here"
OrgName="Your Company Name Here"
ComputerName=%MACHINENAME%

[TapiLocation]
CountryCode=44
Dialing=Tone
AreaCode=020
LongDistanceAccess="9"

[RegionalSettings]
LanguageGroup=1

[SetupMgr]
DistFolder=C:\sysprep\i386
DistShare=windist

[Identification]
JoinDomain=%MACHINEDOMAIN%
DoOldStyleDomainJoin=Yes

[Networking]
InstallDefaultComponents=Yes


Using these two files and Windows Deployment Services on Windows Server 2003 SP2, I’m instaling PC’s in a completely unattended fashion from the network. Easy!