3-3LESSON 1 CREATING UNATTENDED INSTALLATIONS BY USING WINDOWS SETUP M...

3-3Lesson 1 Creating Unattended Installations by Using Windows Setup Manager

Lesson 1: Creating Unattended Installations

by Using Windows Setup Manager

This lesson presents methods that will help you create unattended Windows XP Pro-

fessional installations. When you must install Windows XP Professional on computers

with varying configurations, scripting provides automation with increased flexibility.

You will learn how Windows Setup Manager makes it easy to create the answer files

that are necessary for scripted installations.

After this lesson, you will be able to■

Describe unattended installations.

■

Find the Windows XP deployment tools.

■

Explain what Windows Setup Manager is used for.

■

Use Windows Setup Manager to create an answer file.

■

Explain how to start an unattended installation.

Estimated lesson time: 45 minutes

Overview of Unattended Installations

At several points during a standard installation, Setup requires that the user provide

information, such as the time zone, network settings, and so on. One way to automate

an installation is to create an answer file that supplies the required information.

Answer files are really just text files that contain responses to some, or all, of the ques-

tions that Setup asks during the installation process. After creating an answer file, you

can apply it to as many computers as necessary.

However, there also are certain settings that must be unique to each computer, such as

the computer name. To answer this need, Windows Setup Manager also allows the cre-

ation of a file called a uniqueness database file (UDF), which is used in conjunction

with the standard answer file. The UDF contains the settings that are unique to each

computer.

!

Exam Tip Remember that a standard answer file is used to provide the common configura-

tion settings for all computers that are affected during an unattended installation. A UDF

provides the unique settings that each computer needs to distinguish it from other computers.

How to Find the Windows XP Deployment Tools

Windows Setup Manager is one of the Windows XP deployment tools included on the

Windows XP Professional installation CD-ROM. The tools that concern this chapter are

as follows:

■

Deploy.chm A compiled Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) help named

“Microsoft Windows Corporate Deployment Tools User’s Guide” that provides

detailed information on using all the deployment tools

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Setupmgr.chm Compiled HTML help file for using Windows Setup Manager

■

Setupmgr.exe The Windows Setup Manager Wizard tool

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Sysprep.exe The System Preparation Tool (covered in Lesson 2, “Deploying

Windows XP Professional by Using Disk Duplication”)

To extract the Windows XP deployment tools to your hard disk, use these steps: