Automating Windows PE

Most Windows PE automation is done by customizing Unattend.xml, the Windows Vista unattended answer file. Use the Windows System Image Manager (Windows SIM) to create and edit this file. Unattend.xml allows you to control automation tasks in all the major installation passes. You can put it in the root of your Windows PE media to automate the installation process.

Automating with Unattend.xml

Windows SIM is the primary tool for creating and modifying Unattend.xml. It is designed to validate each automation step against the actual files in an image to ensure that you use proper syntax to build the automation. This provides an extra measure of assurance that unattended installations will work as planned.

When beginning the process ...

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