Just realized how important the Control folder was

[thadkew]

So i'm looking in the DeploymentShare/Control folder and i see the folder for win Windows 7 Pro image. And in that, there is the Unattend.xml file

This is a great discovery, because I've come against a problem.

My Win7 image will put them image down, but i will get a box like the one attached that requires the user to press NEXT

Is there any way to add something to the unattend.xml file to skip this? We use an MAK license, and when i put that in the unattend, i get an error stating that the key is invalid.

 

Keep in mind that I did put the key in when i built the initial image. So it's not being saved. In my task sequence, there is a spot that will add the proper key.

[thadkew]

So i'm looking in the DeploymentShare/Control folder and i see the folder for win Windows 7 Pro image. And in that, there is the Unattend.xml file

This is a great discovery, because I've come against a problem.

My Win7 image will put them image down, but i will get a box like the one attached that requires the user to press NEXT

Is there any way to add something to the unattend.xml file to skip this? We use an MAK license, and when i put that in the unattend, i get an error stating that the key is invalid.

 

Keep in mind that I did put the key in when i built the initial image. So it's not being saved. In my task sequence, there is a spot that will add the proper key.

 

So here's what I did:

In the unattended.XML file that was located in that contol folder, I added a product key from one of the numerous PCs we get. Because the task sequence puts in the MAK key during the imaging process, this key is overwritten later. So, I no longer have that screen and my deployments are more "lite" than before.

I verified that the key was being overwritten by using magicbean key finder and scheduling the output. All "B's" mean that the OS has a MAK product key.

I know this probably isn't "best practice" but I did what I had to do.

[aaronfenwick]

You can add this into your task sequence....

 

I dont specify my product key in the actual built in task sequence, instead I add 2 tasks below the Tattoo section of the State Restore Phase.

 

Add - command line

Name - Register Windows Product Key

Command Line - cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX (Where XXXX etc is your product key)

 

Add another below that:

 

Add - command line

Name - Activate Windows

Command Line - cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato

 

So not only do I specify a product key, I also activate it as part of the state restore phase.

 

Hope this helps!

Aaron.