Unattended Windows XP Installation
The following provides a quick guide to creating a project in Setup Studio to install Windows XP. Once created, this Windows installation project can be left to run attended, thereby installing Windows XP – as per your specific requirements – without you needing to be there.
Installing Windows XP Using Setup Studio
When you start Setup Studio, you will initially see a list of projects you previously created. Either select an existing one or create a new one using the Open or New buttons respectively. As you can see below, I’ve only created one project imaginatively called “Install 1″.
Let’s create a new project. The first panel we must deal with is the Windows Setup panel.
Use the browse button to navigate to where your installation media is and select it. Once selected, Setup Studio confirms the installation’s identity.
Only then will the options running down the left hand side be enabled for you to select. Setup Studio copies the installation media, and because Windows XP is a sizeable install, this may take several minutes to complete.
When the disc has been copied, all the details that you would normally expect to enter when installing Windows must be supplied. These details include:
- acceptance of the EULA
- Product registration key
- Computer name
- Owner
- Organisation
- Administrator Password
Next, click on the Service Packs & Hotfixes option on the left and add them to the list. You have a choice of specifying a location on your hard drive for these service packs/hotfixes, or downloading them from the internet. There is one tab to add service packs:
There is another tab to add hotfixes:
Once service pack and hotfixes have been included click on the Drivers category on the left. If you need to add drivers to this installation, you can:
- add a single driver
- search for available drivers ins a specified location on your hard drive
- add drivers from DriverPack
Note the tabs for mass storage drivers and executable drivers that are displayed in addition to the initial standard (inf) drivers tab.
The user interface is fairly intuitive, so you can probably work out what to do with the remaining panels, but they’re included here for completeness.
Add programs in the programs panel:
Specify the required Windows configuration settings:
The configuration settings you can change here are the ones you have access to when opening the control panel. For example, if you want to change the folder settings, double click on Folder Options and the following panel opens.
Many settings can be changed in the Tweaks panel:
More advanced settings such as those relating to (partition management, reboot settings) can be modified on the Advanced Tasks panel:
The next window allows you to restore data on the installing PC. This is a very useful feature for distributing data to all those PCs requiring the installation. The following image includes folders selected for restore:
The Finalisation panel allows you to select which format you’d like to use for the installation. The choices are:
- burning the project to a CD
- creating an ISO image
When ready, click Burn.
