Zero Touch Install

The simplest way to zero-touch install Windows is with a web-generated answer file. Go to a site like schneegans and just create it. This removes the need for the complexity of MDS WDS SCCM etc. systems for normal deployments.

Create An Answer File

Visit schneegans, select the behavior you’d like and download the file. Use it one of the following ways;

USB

After creating the USB installer, copy the file (autounattend.xml) to the root of the USB drive (or one of these locations) and setup will automatically detect it.

Netboot

For a netboot install, copy the file to the sources folder of the Windows files.

scp autounattend.xml netboot:/var/www/html/win11/sources

Additionally, some scripting elements of the install don’t support UNC paths so we must map a drive. Back in the Windows netboot page, we created an install.bat to start the installation. Let’s modify that like so

vi /var/www/html/win11/install.bat

wpeinit

SET SERVER=netboot

:NET
net use q: \\%SERVER%\install

REM If there was a problem with the net use command, 
REM ping, pause and loop back to try again

IF %ERRORLEVEL% NEQ 0 (
  ping %SERVER%
  pause
  GOTO NET
) ELSE (
  q:
  cd win11
  setup.exe
)

Add Packages

The installer can also add 3rd party software packages by adding commands in the Run custom scripts section. The system will need to be on-line to pull from the network so we’ll run them at the initial log-in. And since some versions of windows block anonymous SMB we’ll use HTTP.

Add Package Sources

On the netboot server, create an apps folder for your files and download packages there.

mkdir /var/www/html/apps; cd /var/www/html/apps
wget https://get.videolan.org/vlc/3.0.9.2/win64/vlc-3.0.9.2-win64.msi 
wget https://statics.teams.cdn.office.net/production-windows-x64/enterprise/webview2/lkg/MSTeams-x64.msix

Add to Autounattend.xml

It’s easiest to add this in the web form rather than try and edit the XML file. Go to this section and add a line like this one to the third block of custom scripts. It must run at initial user login as the network isn’t available before that.

Navigate to the block that says:

Scripts to run when the first user logs on after Windows has been installed

For MSI Files

These and handled as .cmd files as in field 1.

msiexec /package http://netboot/apps/GoogleChromeStandaloneEnterprise64.msi /quiet
msiexec /package http://netboot/apps/vlc-3.0.9.2-win64.msi /quiet

For MSIX Files

These are handled as .ps1 files as in field 2.

Add-AppPackage -path http://netboot/apps/MSTeams-x64.msix

Notes

Windows Product Keys https://gist.github.com/rvrsh3ll/0810c6ed60e44cf7932e4fbae25880df