[HN Gopher] Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11
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Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11
Author : nixass
Score : 105 points
Date : 2025-03-29 20:44 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (schneegans.de)
(TXT) w3m dump (schneegans.de)
| _JamesA_ wrote:
| I recently used this generator to deploy a fleet of Windows 11
| Enterprise virtual machines in VMWare Workstation. Very nice.
| juujian wrote:
| The level of workarounds that windows requires never cease to
| amaze me.
| dylan604 wrote:
| it's not just windows. every OS has "secret" options that a
| power user can use if only they knew about them.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| Definitely. I have a script I run on new Macs to turn on/off
| various features, mostly using "defaults write".
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Workarounds to what?
|
| Windows, just like any other operating system, has its set of
| contrivances for different functions (in this case automated
| installation). Having used RedHat Kickstart I don't see it as
| hugely different.
| Lammy wrote:
| I assume this is being posted/upvoted in terms of "workaround
| for Microsoft Account requirement". I actually mostly like
| Windows, but that particular thing they're pushing is more
| infuriating than any other, and there have been lots of
| others.
|
| See the page's description for "Allow Windows 11 to be
| installed without internet connection":
|
| > This effectively runs the oobe\BypassNRO.cmd command, which
| was discovered by Reddit user AveYo. You still have to click
| the I don't have internet button during Windows Setup.
|
| > Only check this option if your computer really does not
| have internet access. If you just want to create local
| ("offline") user accounts in Windows 11, you can always do so
| in the _User accounts_ section of this form.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Thanks for that. I didn't even think about the whole
| Microsoft Account requirement in the context of unattended
| installs.
|
| I like Windows quite a bit. I get unreasonably angry when
| the ability to see the source code would be useful, or when
| I can't minimize irritations by recompiling. I feel that
| way about all closed-source software, though. By and large
| I'm happy to use it for some things. I've used it a long
| time. I don't dislike it.
|
| What's happening w/ Windows, though, fills me with
| frustration and sadness. The Microsoft Account requirement
| is absolutely asinine. The Windows 10 and later UI changes
| are ridiculous. The continued push to take away user rights
| on computers they own, by sinking DRM tendrils deeper into
| the OS, is frustrating.
|
| It feels like developers w/ little to no real world
| experience using Windows and who have no ability to stand
| up to the whims of UI "designers" (who also don't seem to
| acutally use Windows), sales and marketing, and the
| copyright cartels have been put in charge of Windows.
| toyg wrote:
| These are commercial decisions, taken way above product
| people in most cases. Exploitative and user-hostile
| management occasionally drops their mask of serene and
| paternalistic benevolence, revealing the ugly truth of
| cut-throat corporate life.
| whalesalad wrote:
| have you tried installing win11 and creating an account
| without internet access?
|
| After their most recent shenanigans, the writing is on the
| wall, the nails are in the coffin -
| https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-
| systems/microsoft...
|
| They've disabled the ability to finish Windows installation
| without having an internet connection and connecting your
| Microsoft account.
|
| > According to a Windows Insider blog post announcing Preview
| build 26200.5516 (KB5054687) the bypassnro.cmd script has
| been removed in order to "enhance security and user
| experience of Windows 11."
|
| > "This change ensures that all users exit setup with
| internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account."
|
| lol.
|
| Never been a better time to jump ship to Linux, honestly. I
| held out for ages because I was a princess and wanted
| everything to be perfect. I used Linux 24x7 as an admin and
| developer, but from afar and never locally as my daily
| driver. Finally bit the bullet July '23 and it has been
| nothing but smooth sailing.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| I just deployed three new Windows 11 Pro machines yesterday
| (two HP, one Dell) with local accounts. The HP OEM image
| was pre-24H2 so it doesn't count, but the Dell machine was
| 24H2.
|
| I booted to the OOBE, hit <SHIFT>-<F10>, ran:
| REG ADD HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE
| /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 shutdown -r -t 1
| -f
|
| Waited for the machine to reboot and ran thru the OOBE w/o
| connecting to a network. Once I got logged-on w/ my local
| account connected to the Wi-Fi and joined the Active
| Directory domain.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Sorry to be blunt, but if this is not a workaround, then
| I don't know what is.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Yes-- that particular procedure is a workaround. My first
| post was asking why unattended installation, arguably a
| feature, is some kind of "workaround".
| easton wrote:
| Does pro not have the "domain join instead" option in
| OOBE anymore? It definitely used to, and Enterprise does.
|
| I don't understand how you'd domain join otherwise.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| Pro doesn't have an option to join a domain in the
| default OOBE. I think that went away in some iteration of
| 10.
|
| Pro definitely doesn't because the above procedure is
| what I always have to do to get joined to a domain
| without creating or using a Microsoft Account. (And then
| I've got a local account to clean up.)
| preciousoo wrote:
| you can also do ipconfig /release in some contexts (works
| in hyperv but never in the real world for some reason
| sigh)
| w4rh4wk5 wrote:
| Yeah, but it's a breeze compared to making GNOME usable;
| hamburger menus everywhere!!11!
| XorNot wrote:
| Wait is there a way to turn those back into regular menu
| bars?
| whalesalad wrote:
| ya it's called KDE
| universa1 wrote:
| Hmm, I've a deja-vu... My mind tells me I've read these
| three comments before on a different topic... If I don't
| forget, I'll have to check tomorrow on a real PC.
| nullwarp wrote:
| I could have definitely used this a few weeks ago! Very nice.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| I could have used it a decade ago!
|
| Now could someone please fix the BCD store mess?
| tannhaeuser wrote:
| So have I, having failed to manage installing Win 11 without a
| MS account in the end. Actually I only wanted to complete a
| dual-boot Win 10/11 setup without having to haphazardly install
| Win 11 on top later, not actually use Win 11.
| cwillu wrote:
| Hmm, no way to turn off the sticky keys shortcuts and similar; I
| hit those by accident _constantly_ on new machines.
| Lammy wrote:
| You could achieve this with the "Run Custom Scripts" option and
| the appropriate Registry values:
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
| Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys\Flags="506"
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
| Panel\Accessibility\MouseKeys\Flags="58"
| HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
| Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys\Flags="58"
|
| See here for more a much more detailed example:
| https://github.com/dreikanter/win-tweaks/blob/master/complet...
| chem83 wrote:
| My favorite trick is to install with English (World) language to
| avoid auto-install of all sorts of crap. Windows Store won't work
| in this mode, but it's just a matter of reverting to your
| preferred language after first boot.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/15gk07n/english_...
|
| Edit: in my experience, changing the language to something else
| immediately after install is done still adds the crapware
| automatically. I think I needed to reboot once or twice for
| whatever post-install service Windows runs to no longer get
| executed.
| accrual wrote:
| For all of Windows faults, one thing I love about it is that
| (with persistence and skill) you can usually bang and hammer it
| into whatever shape you need it to be. Someone got XP running
| on a 486 using only a handful of MB memory recently.
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| > My favorite trick is to install with English (World) language
| to avoid auto-install of all sorts of crap.
|
| Edit: This sounded neat so I tried it. I just loaded up a
| physical box from a 24H2 ISO on a thumb drive (booted from
| Ventoy with no special options loaded to bypass the Microsoft
| Account requirement).
|
| I got an oddball "Something went wrong" / "You can try again,
| or skip for now" / "OOBEREGION" window with a silly and wholly
| inappropriate for a corporate-targeted OSA depiction of a
| dropped ice cream cone (pink flavor, by the look of it). I've
| definitely never seen this one before.
|
| I clicked "Skip" and then it proceeded thru the OOBE as I'd
| expect, including demanding an Internet connection.
|
| I added "BypassNRO" to the registry, rebooted, and completed
| the OOBE with a local account (seeing the same silly ice cream
| cone again).
|
| Once I got into Windows I found the Start menu looked a little
| emptier than normal. Memory usage seems a little lower than I'd
| expect. The running process list is still ridiculously long.
|
| I connected the Ethernet to a network with Internet access and
| didn't see a huge change.
|
| The Store app doesn't work. It returns "Sorry about that!" /
| "Something went wrong...".
|
| The Co-Pilot pinned shortcut returns a blue modal error dialog
| in the Windows 8 style saying "Search Support" / "Something
| happened on our end ... 0x87E10BC6".
|
| Installing this way definitely did something. I'm just not sure
| exactly what. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the
| machine updates. I already see it loading drivers and doing
| device detects.
| kalev wrote:
| Does anyone know if it's possible to disable autopilot/mdm with
| this?
| teknopaul wrote:
| We need one of these for .debs. The answer files are easy to
| generate after installing once but it would be better to have an
| HTML ui that catered for every annoying .deb that can't think up
| sensible defaults for itself.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| For Debian it's _trivial_ to do so. `debconf-set-selections` is
| your friend, if you want something for unattended installations
| you can embed that into `live-boot` or into FAI.
|
| [1] https://manpages.debian.org/testing/debconf/debconf-set-
| sele...
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| I've used unattend.xml to put C:\Users on a hard drive, leaving
| the rest on a SSD, so I don't need to think about what files go
| where. Documentation specifically warns against doing it that
| way, but I ran Windows 7 and 10 that way for over 12 years with
| precisely 0 issues with it.
|
| Now I run Linux with / on a hard drive and /usr on SSD.
| thwarted wrote:
| Normally on Linux you'd put /home on a different
| drive/partition, which I do mainly for upgrade purposes (I
| upgrade my root filesystem to a new distro/distro version and
| then mount my home dir on the fresh install)
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(page generated 2025-04-01 23:00 UTC)