How to do an Unattended Installation 4 Admins

Unattended Installation of Windows 2000 Server or Professional Operating System


Unattended installation is a practical method of automatic deployment, when you have a large number of clients (or servers) to install. Today, you will create an unattended installation disk and use it to perform unattended installation of Windows 2000 Server/Professional operating system.

The Windows 2000 Deployment Tools include the Setup Manager utility for creating unattended answer files, as well as the System Preparation Tool utility for creating disk images. The Deployment Tools are stored on the Windows 2000 Professional/Server CD, in the \Support\Tools folder, in the Deploy.cab file.

The following steps are used to extract the Windows 2000 Deployment Tools:

1. Log on to your Windows 2000 computer as Administrator.

2. Use Windows Explorer to create a folder named Deployment Tools on the root folder of your C: drive.

3. Insert the Windows 2000 Professional/Server CD (hold down the Shift key if you want to bypass the auto-play feature). Using Windows Explorer copy the \Support\Tools\Deploy file (the .cab extension is hidden by default) to the C:\Deployment Tools folder.


4. Double-click the Deploy.cab file to display its contents.

5. In Windows Explorer, select Edit > Select All. Then right click on the selection and click on Extract.

6. The Browse for Folder dialog box appears. Select Local Disk (C: and then Deployment Tools. Click the OK button to extract the files to the specified folder.


7. Verify that the Deployment Tools were extracted to C:\Deployment Tools. There should be eight items (including the Deploy.cab file).


8. Close Windows Explorer.


Using Setup Manager to Create Unattended Answer Files

After you have extracted the Windows 2000 Deployment Tools from the Windows 2000 Professional / Server CD, you can run the Setup Manager utility to create a new answer file, create an answer file that <b>duplicates the current computerÆs configuration</b>, or edit answer existing answer files.

Note: Duplication of current computer's configurations, this means time-saving unattended installs are hardware dependant. The scanario is a group of computers that have been purchased all of which have identical hardware. Very Important.

The following steps describe how to create a new installation script. In this example, the instructions describe how to create an answer file for a Windows 2000 Unattended installation that provides default answers, uses the default display configuration, configures typical network settings, and does not edit any additional options.

1. Select Start > Run and click the Browse button in the Run dialog box. Double-click the Deployment Tools folder, double-click the Setupmgr program, and then click the OK button.

2. The Windows 2000 Setup Manager Wizard starts, it says "Welcome to the Windows 2000 Setup Manager Wizard.


Click the Next button and follow the instructions given below, click next after each selection:

1) Radiobox: Create a new answer file.
2) Radiobox: Windows 2000 Unattended Installation.
3) Radiobox: Either Windows 2000 Server or Professional,

Note: Radiobox 3 depends on what your installing.

In case of Windows 2000 server, you will get additional screen. Choose Per server and 20.

The User Interaction Level dialog box appears, as shown in the following screen shot. This dialog box offers the following options

The Provide Defaults option allows you to configure default answers that will be displayed. The user is prompted to review the default answer and can change the answer if desired.

The Fully Automated option uses all of the answers in the answer file and will not prompt the user for any interaction.

The Hide Pages option hides the Wizard page from the user, if you have supplied all of the answers on the Windows Setup Wizard page

The Read Only option allows the user to see the Setup Wizard display page, but not to make any changes to it (this option is used if the Setup Wizard display page is shown to the user).

The GUI Attended option allows only the text-mode portion of the Windows Setup program to be automated

Select the Fully automated option and click the Next button to continue.

Accept the license agreement and click the Next button to continue.

Customize the software: As usual enter your name and organization and click the Next button to continue.

Computer names, enter the name of the computer your installing to, e.g Computer1, Computer2 etc and click the Next button to continue.

Enter your hard to quess password and click the Next button to continue.

You can customize the Display settings, if you are sure about it or want to experiment and click the Next button to continue.

In the network settings dialog, click Typical Setting and the click the Next button to continue.

In the Workgroup or Domain, click workgroup unless you know otherwise and then click the Next button to continue.

Select your timezone and then and then click the Next button to continue.

In the Additional Settings dialog click No, do not edit the additional setting and then click the Next button to continue.

In the Ditribution Folder dialog, click No, this answer file will be used to install from CD and then click the Next button to continue.


Insert a formatted floppy disk into floppy disk drive.
Windows will copy winnt.sif and winnt.bat to the A:drive.
Then click the Next button to continue.

Your all done. Click the Finish button to continue.

Unattended Installation:

Insert the floppy disk containing unattended Installation answer files (you just created) into the floppy disk drive. Put windows 2000 Server or Professional CD into CD-ROM drive. Restart your computer and boot it from CD-ROM drive. It will install windows 2000 operating system unattended.