Installing Windows 7 Using Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) - Part 2

In the second part of this series, you'll see the pieces necessary to build an answer file that will be used to do an automated install of the Windows 7 Client.  The steps in this video include:

1. Install.wim overview
2. Windows System Image Manager overview
3. How to create a Catalog File for Windows 7 Enterprise
4. How to create, validate and save an Answer File
5. Understanding Configuration Passes

As a reference, the following information describes the Configuration Passes a system will go through during automated installation:

1. windowsPE (runs when booting the Windows setup media or when starting Windows Setup from a previous installation)
1. Windows image is copied to the destination computer
2. Adds any boot-critical drivers
2. offlineServicing (runs automatically after the windowsPE pass)
1. applies updates, drivers and language packs
2. the Windows image is applied to a hard drive and any settings in this section are also applied to the image
3. specialize (runs automatically when the Windows image boots for the 1st time, or after sysprep /generalize has been run)
1. configures information specific to the hardware of the destination machine
2. creates unique SIDs
3. optionally: network settings, domain information, etc. can be set on this pass
4. generalize (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Generalize is configured, or when sysprep /generalize has been run)
1. removes any specific configuration information from the current install
2. allows the installed image to be captured and reapplied to different computers
5. auditSystem (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Reseal|Mode=Audit is configured or if sysprep /audit has been run)
1. used for additional configurations, such as device drivers
6. auditUser (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Reseal|Mode=Audit is configured or if sysprep /audit has been run)
    - used to run custom commands or Windows Shell options
7. oobeSystem (runs if Microsoft-Windows-Deployment|Reseal|Mode=OOBE is configured or if sysprep /OOBE has been run)
1. settings applied before the Welcome screen appears
2. used to configure Windows Shell options, create user accounts, and specify language/locale settings

In Part 3, we'll look at how the answer file we've just created can be used to automatically install Windows 7.

Reference Material Used in Creating this Blog:

• Step-by-Step: Basic Windows Deployment for IT Professionals