CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

3.4. Performing Unattended Installations of Windows

An unattended installation (compared with an attended installation) frees you from having to be present when the installation is run. Before installation, you place all the answers to the installation questions in a text file, and the setup program reads the text file.

3.4.1. Windows 2000/XP/2003

When you need to install an OS on many computers, you can do an automated, unattended installation. You start this process by creating an answer file (also known as an unattend file) that holds all the answers to questions asked during the installation. The Windows 2000/XP/2003 setup program then uses the answers in this file instead of prompting you for each answer during installation. A typical answer file is shown in Figure 3-31.

Figure 3.31. The structure of an answer file.

The answer file is divided into different sections, indicated by square brackets. For example, see the section in Figure 3-31 labeled [UserData]. Here, you can set what you want the setup program to use for your name and organization, and the computer name of the system being installed.

[UserData]
  ComputerName=WORKSTATION1
  FullName="Glen E. Clarke"
  OrgName="CompanyABC"

In the preceding sample, ComputerName is a setting that corresponds to a question asked during the installation, and the WORKSTATION1 is the value you are assigning to that entry.

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