Hi Guys, I have my Win8 with all the tools/programs to auto install from DVD/USB and would like to choose from multiple answer files, how can this be achieved? Lets say - option to choose from regular, audit and customized. Testing Anarethos, Mr Jinge and my custom files and would like to have all this on one USB key. Changes are a lot easier from usb key. Just need a simple boot menu pointing to the answer file for a particular Win8 install. Thanks!!
The easiest for me is to boot to WinPE and run the setup from command prompt. My USB key has both 32 & 64bit WinPE. Here is my BIOS_Install_Win8_Pro.cmd contents: Code: @echo off Title Installing Windows 8 Pro BIOS Mode set PTH=%~dp0 DiskPart /s %PTH%Files\CreatePartitions-BIOS.txt if %processor_architecture% == AMD64 \Source.x64\setup /unattend:%PTH%Files\Unattend_Win8_Pro-BIOS.xml if %processor_architecture% == x86 \Source.x86\setup /unattend:%PTH%Files\Unattend_Win8_Pro-BIOS.xml
Flipp3r, thanks for replying back but i'm looking more in the lines of having 6 answer files at boot prompt: 1 - x86 Standard 2 - x86 Audit 3 - x86 Customized 4 - x64 Standard 5 - x64 Audit 6 - x64 Customized Choose option and run setup, I know winpe is nice but I wan't a more direct approach. Just so you know, my Wim image has all versions so its up to me to choose the correct answer file at boot prompt. Thanks!!
Not sure what you mean. Unattend_Win8_Pro-BIOS.xml is combined with x86 & x64. If I boot 32bit WinPE, the x86 edition is installed, boot 64bit WinPE & x64 is installed... Or do you mean combining the Install.wim's to 1 container? Nah, not interested in an all-in-1...
Ok, i'm going the winpe boot rout. Modifying boot.wim index 2 and adding winpeshl.ini with instructions to run a batch file from root of USB stick, i'm stuck creating a simple batch menu with options and choices. This is what I have in mind: Menu: [1] CUSTOM_x86 [2] AUDIT_x86 [3] CUSTOM_x64 [4] AUDIT_x64 [0] None (don't use an answer file) When selecting an option execute something like this: X:\sources\setup.exe /unattend:%answ% Any help would be really appreciated in creating this simple menu.
It's easy to make a frontend menu.exe with autoit but how would you find the drive letter of your usb key? X: is your WinPE ramdrive, your source\install.wim is on another drive letter. I tried searching for my key & it did find the drive letter & all worked, until I tried it on a system with a card reader. If you seek the drive that's a card reader then you get prompted to retry/continue/cancel. I gave up on the idea... Maybe someone here knows how to do it?
HALIKUS. I'm away from my testing computer until Monday, but I'll try your suggestion. Right now, when I select my xml files when setup runs I get an error xml not found. My xml files are in root inside xml folder, maybe i need to move these outside the folder. Thanks!!
I did what HALIKUS suggested and it didn't work, here's what I have: winpeshl.ini (inside boot.win>>windows>>system32): [LaunchApps] Run.cmd x:\setup.exe Startsetup.cmd (same location as winpeshl.ini): @echo off title Scanning... set marker=Run.cmd for %%I in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%I:\%marker% set StartSetup=%%I:\Run.cmd & goto :strt echo. echo FILES NOT FOUND, EXITING...) pause exit :strt %StartSetup% exit Run.cmd (in root of USB key): @echo off title Windows 8 AIO Setup set answ=none cls echo [X:] [ ANSWER FILES ] echo. echo 1) Customized_x86 echo 2) Audit_x86 echo 3) Customized_x64 echo 4) Audit_x64 echo 0) none (don't use an answer file) echo. set /P slct= Select: if "%slct%"=="1" set answ=X:\Sources\Customized_x86.xml & goto :unstp if "%slct%"=="2" set answ=X:\Sources\Audit_x86.xml & goto :unstp if "%slct%"=="3" set answ=X:\Sources\Customized_x64.xml & goto :unstp if "%slct%"=="4" set answ=X:\Sources\Audit_x64.xml & goto :unstp if "%slct%"=="0" set answ=none & goto :rnstp echo. :rnstp cls echo. echo Answer file: [ %answ% ] if not "%answ%"=="none" goto :unstp X:\sources\setup.exe exit :unstp cls echo. X:\sources\setup.exe /unattend:%answ% exit pause All the xml's inside x:\sources\ When I boot I get to the menu but when I select and continue I get the following error message inside "setup is starting" screen: "Windows could not parse or process unatend answer file [x:\Audit_x86.xml]. Looks like its not finding in the right drive letter the answer file, any ideas? Thanks!!
Finally!! Got it to work, a few tweaks to my run command and presto - it works. Was missing the following command in my Run.cmd: for %%i in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%i:\USBMultiWIMSetup.cmd set USBKEY=%%i: echo Found USB Installation source as drive %USBKEY% I'll post later my complete results. Note: credits to POMAH-PRESS for the original scripts designed for Win7. Found these online and tweak to my specific needs. Thanks!!