Unattended Installation (Automated installation)

What Is Unattended Installation?                                                                                     Unattended installation is an automated installation technology in Microsoft Windows that you can use to install or upgrade an operating system with minimal user interaction. Unattended installation is typically used during large-scale rollouts when it would be too slow and costly to have administrators or technicians interactively install the operating system on individual computers.

Answer File

                               One of the essential components of an unattended installation is an answer file. An answer file is a simple text file that instructs the Windows Setup program how to install and configure the operating system.

Comparison of Unattended Installation and Interactive Setup

Benefits of Automated Installation (Unattended Installation)

1. Fewer errors during installation
2. Greater consistency during a rollout
3. Shorter installation times
4. Lower support costs

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How to perform an unattended installation of Windows from a CD-ROM

To perform an unattended installation from a CD-ROM, the following conditions must be met:
To prepare your computer for an unattended installation from a CD-ROM, follow these steps:

1. Create an unattended answer file by using the Setup Manager utility included with the Microsoft Windows XP CD. To install Setup Manager, follow these steps:

• Open My Computer, and then go to Windows XP CD-ROM, go to Support > Tools folder.
• In Tools folder Double-click the DEPLOY.CAB file to open it.
• On the Edit menu, click Select All.
• On the Edit menu, click Copy To Folder.
• Click Make New Folder. Type the name that you want for the Setup Manager folder, and then press ENTER. For example, type setup manager, and then press ENTER.
• Click Copy.
• Open the new folder that you created, and then double-click the setupmgr.exe file. The Windows Setup Manager Wizard starts. Follow the instructions in the wizard to create an answer file.

Give the instruction similar to those which we enter while installation of a window to your PC. For example Time, CD key, User name and Password etc.

If you want Windows Setup to delete all partitions on the hard disk and to create a new partition, type the following:
Repartition=Yes
Finally an Answer File is created with name of  "Unattended.txt".

Save the unattended answer file with Winnt.sif by renaming. This Winnt.sif is used to boot disc from cd room. Restart your computer. When Setup is started from the CD-ROM, the Winnt.sif file located on the floppy disk will be used to complete the unattended installation.

We may Attatch this answer file with image of any window(xp) by using Ultra Iso.