Anyone playing with Sysprep and 24H2?

hsehestedt · Jul 20, 2024

I'm just curious to know if anyone else is playing with unattended setup and Sysprep on 24H2. For the life of me I cannot get this to work properly.

To explain this in a little detail, here is my workflow:

Boot from Windows 24H2 26100.1150 media and begin installation.

Once I reach OOBE, I press CTRL + SHIFT + F3 to enter into Audit mode.

Once in audit mode I customize Windows. To make this a simple test, pretty much the only thing that I do is change the theme to dark and change my desktop background to a solid color.

I use a "runonce.bat" and an "unattend.xml" answer file and place in the appropriate location. These are proven and tested files that have worked fine previously (prior to 24H2).

I run sysprep, create an image, and replace the Install.wim on my Windows media with the new one created by imaging the system after sysprep. I also add an autounattend.xml answer file.

I try to install Windows with that updated installation media. I get to a point where Windows is about to perform a reboot and installation simply fails at that point with no meaningful error, not even an error as you can see below.

Note that I repeated this test using no autounattend.xml or unattend.xml answer files with the same result. The only difference is that this is now a manual installation rather than unattended but the error is exactly the same. So, I at least now know that the issue is not related to the answer files.

Has anyone else been experimenting with this? If so, what kind of results have you seen?

garlin · Jul 20, 2024

Did you follow the normal advice to disable networking, so WU can't refresh UWP apps in the background?

hsehestedt · Jul 20, 2024

garlin said:
Did you follow the normal advice to disable networking, so WU can't refresh UWP apps in the background?

Yes

hsehestedt · Jul 20, 2024

Oh, one additional data point that I forgot.

After syspreping and then creating the image, if I reboot the system that was syspreped normally, it will come up fine.

garlin · Jul 20, 2024

Whenever an install fails, you should try to boot from an alternate source and preserve the \Windows\Panther logs. A lot of the logging might be verbose noise as the install tries to unroll itself, but you might get useful clues. I normally start at the end of the setupact/setuperr logs and work backwards.

hsehestedt · Jul 21, 2024

Thanks for the suggestion, Garlin. I will try that tomorrow.

cereberus · Jul 26, 2024

Windows 10/11 is far superior in driver handling that one rarely needs sysprep anymore. I have not used it for many years.

garlin · Jul 26, 2024

Some users do sysprep to pre-install all their apps & customizations.

Technology goes in cycles. Some think it's better to deploy a "pre-made" image, others prefer customizing it after the image's been installed. You can make valid arguments for either case.

DMD · Oct 2, 2024

hsehestedt said:
Nest using no autounattend.xml or unattend.xml answer files with the same result. The only difference is that this is now a manual installation rather than unattended but the error is exactly the same. So, I at least now know that the issue is not related to the answer files.

Has anyone else been experimenting with this? If so, what kind of results have you seen?

That error message is also generated by me and it depends on the autounattend.xml file used for version 23H2, I need to figure out how to correct it.
The dfiscussion was posted here

DMD · Oct 4, 2024

Unfortunately, I also detected the same error, even excluding with autounattend.xml file that works.
Particularly in audit mode, the captured vim file, even without any processing inside it and reinserted into the ISO, during the installation attempt generates the same type of error with a percentage of 75%.
Specifically I am using ISO 24H2b26100.1742 downloaded from Media creation Tool.

hsehestedt · Oct 4, 2024

I have a collection of roughly a dozen different answer files and I managed to get all of them working perfectly with 24H2.

Below is a sample of one. Maybe you can use it to see what I am doing differently.

This answer file performs a fully unattended installation and creates the partitions manually to ensure that we end up with the recovery partition last.

Make sure to read the comments in the answer to get a better understanding of what I am doing.

XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!--

Last updated Aug 23, 2024

Notes about this answer file:

This answer file is for UEFI based systems only.

It includes a Windows 10 / 11 Pro key.

It creates an Admin level user named "WinUser", full name "Windows User" with an initial password of "Password1".

IMPORTANT: If you wish to alter the user name, make sure to change both the short name (WinUser) as well as the
full user name (Windows User). Also, be aware that the short name appears a second time in the autologon block.
Make sure to change that entry as well. Put another way, there are 3 lines that need to be modified to change the
user name.

Locale settings are set to United States English.

Time zone is set to US Central Time.

It includes settings to bypass Windows 11 system requirements.

The size of the Recovery Tools partition created by this answer will be larger than normal at 2 GB. Change this if you are very
short on space or prefer a smaller Recovery Tools partition.

It will install automatically to disk 0 and creates the recovery partition last, as Microsoft recommends. To accomplish this,
we do not use the standard method of specifying the disk configuration information, but we create a diskpart script to
configure the disk.

This answer file can be used with both Windows 10 and 11. The settings to bypass
Windows 11 system requirement checks will have no effect on Windows 10.

END OF NOTES

-->

<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <SetupUILanguage>
                <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            </SetupUILanguage>
            <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <Compact>false</Compact>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T</Key>
                </ProductKey>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
            </UserData>
            <!--
The first 3 Synchronous Commands below bypass the Windows 11 system requirement checks. The checks that are bypassed are:

TPM Check
Secure Boot Check
RAM Check

The remaining Synchronous Commands will partition the hard disk with the following settings:

NOTE: Synchronous Command #4 selects disk 0. If disk 0 is not the disk you need to use, change this to the correct disk number.

Partion Type   |     Size (in MB)       | Format
================================================
    EFI        |            260         | FAT32
    MSR        |            128         | NONE
  Windows      | Remaining Space - 2 GB | NTFS
  Recovery     |           2,048        | NTFS
================================================
-->
            <RunSynchronous>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>1</Order>
                    <Path>reg add HKLM\System\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassTPMCheck /t reg_dword /d 0x00000001 /f</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>2</Order>
                    <Path>reg add HKLM\System\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassSecureBootCheck /t reg_dword /d 0x00000001 /f</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>3</Order>
                    <Path>reg add HKLM\System\Setup\LabConfig /v BypassRAMCheck /t reg_dword /d 0x00000001 /f</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>4</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo select disk 0 &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>5</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo clean &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>6</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo convert gpt &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>7</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo create partition efi size=260 &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>8</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo format fs=fat32 quick label=&quot;System&quot; &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>9</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo create partition msr size=128 &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>10</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo create partition primary &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>11</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo shrink desired=2048 minimum=2048  &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>12</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo format fs=ntfs quick label=&quot;Windows&quot; &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>13</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo assign letter=W &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>14</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo create partition primary &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>15</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo format fs=ntfs quick label=&quot;Recovery&quot; &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>16</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo set id=&quot;de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac&quot; &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>17</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001 &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>18</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c echo exit &gt;&gt; X:\diskpartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <Order>19</Order>
                    <Path>cmd.exe /c diskpart.exe /s X:\DiskPartUEFI.txt</Path>
                </RunSynchronousCommand>
            </RunSynchronous>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <InputLocale>en-US</InputLocale>
            <SystemLocale>en-US</SystemLocale>
            <UILanguage>en-US</UILanguage>
            <UILanguageFallback>en-US</UILanguageFallback>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OOBE>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
                <UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>UABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkADEAUABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <DisplayName>Windows User</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>WinUser</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
            <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
            <FirstLogonCommands>
                <SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
                    <CommandLine>reg add &quot;HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon&quot; /v AutoLogonCount /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f</CommandLine>
                    <Order>1</Order>
                </SynchronousCommand>
            </FirstLogonCommands>
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>UABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkADEAUABhAHMAcwB3AG8AcgBkAA==</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Username>WinUser</Username>
                <Enabled>true</Enabled>
                <LogonCount>1</LogonCount>
            </AutoLogon>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <OEMInformation>
                <Manufacturer></Manufacturer>
                <SupportHours></SupportHours>
                <SupportPhone></SupportPhone>
                <SupportURL></SupportURL>
            </OEMInformation>
            <OEMName></OEMName>
            <TimeZone>Central Standard Time</TimeZone>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog://prime/my softwaremy data/01 - software/05 - windows images and deployment tools/03 - installation and deployment tools/catalog files for windows sim/windows 11 pro 24h2 catalog file/install_windows 11 pro.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

garlin · Oct 4, 2024

I've looked into the possibility of externally validating an unattended file for errors, and the results look poor.

The "gold standard" for creating a custom Unattended file is Windows ADK's Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) tool. WISM is a fairly old tool designed to create install images. The reason it's considered the standard is well, because it's provided by MS. Unfortunately, WSIM is kinda clunky and is a "paint by numbers" solution to most problems.

Other experienced devs have discussed the use of exporting WSIM's internal XSD, or XML Schema Definition, as the basis for validating unattended files. The XSD defines the formal structure of how specific XML blocks are to be formatted.

There's two methods out there. One exports the XSD from WSIM, another executes a PS script to borrow one of WSIM's DLL's to run a validation check.

Where can i find the latest unattended.xml schema (xsd)?

I'm working with Windows Server 2012, Windows Deployment Service (WDS), and Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK). I created a base unattended.xml file. When I go to edit in an xml editor it's

serverfault.com

The results? Well, basically they're not any better than doing basic syntax checks. They don't do any real validation, like for example "ab-CD" is not a recognized Windows locale. With this conclusion, I can say the only real way to test an unattended file is to feed into Windows install and see if it works or not. That's a terrible answer, but just because my previous experience tells me I can do "XYZ" doesn't mean 24H2 will accept the same instructions.

pseymour · Oct 4, 2024

I was able to re-create this a few times, with Microsoft media, no unattends involved. Capturing and deploying a sysprepped image seems to be just fine.... if you delete that pesky Windows.old folder that gets created.

antspants · Oct 4, 2024

pseymour said:
I was able to re-create this a few times, with Microsoft media, no unattends involved. Capturing and deploying a sysprepped image seems to be just fine.... if you delete that pesky Windows.old folder that gets created.

For whatever reason, Disk Cleanup wouldn’t remove windows old for me. However Storage Sense did.

One would think that they did the same thing.

pseymour · Oct 4, 2024

I don't see anything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches that includes Windows.old.

garlin · Oct 7, 2024

pseymour said:
I was able to re-create this a few times, with Microsoft media, no unattends involved. Capturing and deploying a sysprepped image seems to be just fine.... if you delete that pesky Windows.old folder that gets created.

Someone made the same comment on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1fwnnyg/windows_11_24h2_setup_error_with_sysprepd_image

andrew129260 · Jan 10, 2025

I had issues getting 24h2 to work as well.

Apparently 24h2 changed something with the disks setup in the answer file (which I read on here a few times), so I was having trouble getting Kari tutorial to work for me (something that always worked perfectly)

I ended up using the unattended from here and then deleting the windows.old and then combining that with the install.wim from the custom image made in hyper v to get it all working.

That took a little bit to figure out, but glad it works now.

pseymour · Jan 10, 2025

Ah maybe that’s why my unattends kept working. I don’t put disk-related elements in there. I keep that part manual for the most part, and I have some go-to diskpart scripts for common setups I run. But that’s not totally automated, which some folks want.

andrew129260 · Jan 10, 2025

pseymour said:
Ah maybe that’s why my unattends kept working. I don’t put disk-related elements in there. I keep that part manual for the most part, and I have some go-to diskpart scripts for common setups I run. But that’s not totally automated, which some folks want.

yeah probably. The 24h2 new setup process stinks too. The new way the disks work sucks. The old setup was much better.

garlin · Jan 10, 2025

Remember kids, all your 24H2 clean installs are "upgrades". Thank you Redmond!

Mount boot.wim, integrate the CmdLine reg key to the image, and pretend like 24H2 never happened.

Code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
"CmdLine"="cmd /c start /min wpeinit &amp;&amp; \\sources\\setup"

Anyone playing with Sysprep and 24H2?

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