Unattend.txt and winnt.sif
Devilsbane
Member Posts: 4,214 ■■■■■■■■□□
Taking the exam tomorrow and I still have some doubts on my installing xp section.
It is my understanding, that if you use winnt.sif when you have your xp cd (or your network share) and you want to easily change the install parameters. So you can create several of these files, and then just stick the correct floppy in to customize the install.
The other option, is to include unattend.txt in the i386 folder (on the cd/share) and then the install will take its parameters from there. If there is also a floppy with winnt.sif in the computer, then the unattend.txt file will be ignored.
Also I believe that the syntax used for these files, the difference is the location.
Can someone let me know if I am barking up the right tree here? The only installs I have ever done was using manual installs off CD's or using disk imaging to deploy computers. I have never used an answer file before.
Also, since were on the subject... why not include UDF's in this conversation. I understand the concept, to deploy a customized image so that not every one of your computers is named computer 1. Where does this file get placed and what is the name. (Back when I used disk imaging, I included a script in the runonce part of the registry of my reference computer that would read the mac address and then use if then statements to assign the appropriate computer name. This wasn't such a big deal because it was always the same 20 computers that I imaged. This method would have proved unacceptable if I was deploying 500 new computers.)
Thanks all for clarifying some of this for me.
It is my understanding, that if you use winnt.sif when you have your xp cd (or your network share) and you want to easily change the install parameters. So you can create several of these files, and then just stick the correct floppy in to customize the install.
The other option, is to include unattend.txt in the i386 folder (on the cd/share) and then the install will take its parameters from there. If there is also a floppy with winnt.sif in the computer, then the unattend.txt file will be ignored.
Also I believe that the syntax used for these files, the difference is the location.
Can someone let me know if I am barking up the right tree here? The only installs I have ever done was using manual installs off CD's or using disk imaging to deploy computers. I have never used an answer file before.
Also, since were on the subject... why not include UDF's in this conversation. I understand the concept, to deploy a customized image so that not every one of your computers is named computer 1. Where does this file get placed and what is the name. (Back when I used disk imaging, I included a script in the runonce part of the registry of my reference computer that would read the mac address and then use if then statements to assign the appropriate computer name. This wasn't such a big deal because it was always the same 20 computers that I imaged. This method would have proved unacceptable if I was deploying 500 new computers.)
Thanks all for clarifying some of this for me.
Decide what to be and go be it.
Comments
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Devilsbane
Member Posts: 4,214 ■■■■■■■■□□
There is also a sysprep.sif answer file as well.Decide what to be and go be it.
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earweed
Member Posts: 5,192 ■■■■■■■■■□
Sounds like you know your stuff pretty well. Good luck on the exam.No longer work in IT. Play around with stuff sometimes still and fix stuff for friends and relatives.