Why does enabling the "Unattended" section remove the option to Repair Windows during setup process?

[AsadAlrafidain]

I've been wanting to ask this for a while, even just toggling Unattended section to "Enabled" without any further modification, makes the option disappear during Windows Setup:




any way to apply modifications in unattended section while preserving ability to repair windows ?

 

[garlin]

The same behavior happens to a clean ISO, so it's not NTLite-specific.

The shortest working file is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
        <settings pass="windowsPE">
                <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
                        <UserData>
                                <ProductKey>
                                        <Key></Key>
                                </ProductKey>
                        </UserData>
                </component>
        </settings>
</unattend>

 

[garlin]

OK. I found a loophole.

1. You cannot have an unattended file that's found in the normal places.

2. You can have a \sources\$OEM$\$$\Panther\unattend.xml (just like Rufus). The big catch is this unattended file only takes effect in the specialize and later passes, and cannot be used for WinPE. But if that's not a problem, then you can keep "Repair My PC" as an option.

If you had to script something for WinPE, one workaround is editing startnet.cmd, and running your own commands or a script from it before calling Setup.exe.

 

[AsadAlrafidain]

so no way for a full unattended section + preserved repair option...it's a shame

 

[AsadAlrafidain]

You can have a \sources\$OEM$\$$\Panther\unattend.xml (just like Rufus). The big catch is this unattended file only takes effect in the specialize and later passes, and cannot be used for WinPE. But if that's not a problem, then you can keep "Repair My PC" as an option.

thanks for the tip

 

[garlin]

Repair My PC stopped working in all WinPE's since May 2026. This impacts all Windows release channels.

MS transferred the cloud-supported WinRE version of it to WinPE, but forgot to include two network DLL's that are required for operation.

I have a script which takes your finished USB, and inserts the two missing files into boot.wim. It uses the USB's install image as a source, so the DLL's will always match your Windows version.

powershell -ep bypass -f Repair_My_BootWIM.ps1 E: