Unattended problem with W11 25H2 sysprep image

[koolkevbo]

Perhaps I'm missing something -- maybe there's a sticky somewhere but no matter what I do with the unattend section in ntlite, the oobe always asks me to set up a user, password questions, yes to location , yes to find my, require and no etc etc... but on my older 23h2 images, it would just show me the partition in winpe and the next screen I'd see would be the login page...

So yeah... or maybe there is a better way than what I'm doing:

1. install vanilla 25h2 in VM/test-machine
2. install my apps -- I have an application that is installed via a script from a vendor that actually installs 10-15 programs and does some trusted zone sites and a few other settings
3. sysprep and dism to get install.wim
4. use anyburn to implant this custom install.wim into a vanilla 25h2 and save as new 25h2_custom.iso
5. use ntlite to set up a few items:
- show file exts
- disable service for network connected device auto setup (prevents automatic install of wsd printers on the networks)
- load software packages from a folder called _admin to c:\_admin for software that gets installed that I can't generalize
- set high/best performance power plan (or just disable sleep on AC)
- unattend: create user admin with password.... skip eulas and input region etc... skipoobe etc.... (25h2 just skips the xml.... )
6. output iso and burn to USB with rufus (I never remove TPM or use the auto user creation in rufus)

The problem I have with this process, especially since microsoft broke 24h2 and then extra broke 25h2, is that I won't know if the installer is broken until step 6 which is like 4 hours after step 1. If I don't get a copy error during winpe then I get oobe.... just a waste of time when installing to hundreds of PCs.

Then don't get me started on the recent big monthly updates which I then want to make a new image so I can save hours of updates on every windows install.

Maybe this should be a new thread.

 

[garlin]

Maybe this should be a new thread.

It deserves to be.

W11 24H2 introduced a new Setup client, which treats every clean install as an "upgrade". One the side effects can be sysprepped images that always worked before 24H2 now fail for unexplained reasons. But if you invoke the legacy Setup client, they finish installing.

To invoke the legacy Setup client, from the Settings screen select:
Tweaks / System / Boot/Setup - Legacy -> Legacy (boot.wim)

Create your base ISO using this setup, install Windows and then perform sysprep as you normally do. Capture the image and import it to NTLite. When building the final image, don't forget to include the legacy Setup client setting one more time.

This approach appears to fix a multitude of weird sysprep errors in 24H2/25H2. MS has never documented why they made the change, nor how do you keep your images compatible with the new Setup client.

 

[koolkevbo]

It deserves to be.

W11 24H2 introduced a new Setup client, which treats every clean install as an "upgrade". One the side effects can be sysprepped images that always worked before 24H2 now fail for unexplained reasons. But if you invoke the legacy Setup client, they finish installing.

To invoke the legacy Setup client, from the Settings screen select:
Tweaks / System / Boot/Setup - Legacy -> Legacy (boot.wim)

Create your base ISO using this setup, install Windows and then perform sysprep as you normally do. Capture the image and import it to NTLite. When building the final image, don't forget to include the legacy Setup client setting one more time.

This approach appears to fix a multitude of weird sysprep errors in 24H2/25H2. MS has never documented why they made the change, nor how do you keep your images compatible with the new Setup client.

I'll give that a try.... will report back... if no work, I will do a new thread.

 

[koolkevbo]

It deserves to be.

W11 24H2 introduced a new Setup client, which treats every clean install as an "upgrade". One the side effects can be sysprepped images that always worked before 24H2 now fail for unexplained reasons. But if you invoke the legacy Setup client, they finish installing.

To invoke the legacy Setup client, from the Settings screen select:
Tweaks / System / Boot/Setup - Legacy -> Legacy (boot.wim)

Create your base ISO using this setup, install Windows and then perform sysprep as you normally do. Capture the image and import it to NTLite. When building the final image, don't forget to include the legacy Setup client setting one more time.

This approach appears to fix a multitude of weird sysprep errors in 24H2/25H2. MS has never documented why they made the change, nor how do you keep your images compatible with the new Setup client.

So I did this:

1. vanilla iso modified with legacy (boot.wim) via ntlite... saved as new iso
2. installed windows and apps and sysprep and dism to capture image
3. extracted the custom iso from step #1, replaced install.wim captured in #2... then used ntlite to configure
4. made sure legacy (boot.wim) and skipoobe options were in unattended.
5. made new iso and burned with rufus (2 checks turned off)
6. oobe still comes up and forces me to make a new user (admin as username is unavaible because it exists)... so unattend is adding the admin account but since oobe is running, it forces me to make a new admin account.... not a huge deal, I guess since I can just remove later but annoying.
6a. prompting for pc name works... finally
7. started from step 3, with autosaved settings.... but removed admin from the unattend... (oobe is Country, input method, skip second layout, checking for updates (takes like 2 mins and reboots a few times)... make user account, make password, setup hint questions x3, yes loc, yes find my, required only, no to the rest).... I really want to skip all this but nothing I do works.


8. ok... #7 doesn't work as the admin account still exists even without unattend and oobe still requires me to make a new user account even though there is an existing account already...

it must be coming in with the install.wim from step 2. is there something I can do to prevent this issue? OOBE is so annoying....


edit -- i offered a new thread but this is really related.

 

[koolkevbo]

Hmm... maybe I should be using audit mode (ctrl-shift-f3) in step 2.... then it won't have the user profile and I can fix my unattend