Why is my Windows 11 deployment not reading or using the unattend.xml file?

Question

I created and sysprepped/captured a Windows 11 image. When I went to deploy it, instead of sitting on "Getting ready" and rebooting into "Just a moment..." and "Please keep your PC on and plugged in.", it rebooted straight into the OS (meaning it seems to have skipped something in the Task Sequence). When it did reboot into the OS, it did not proceed with application install, and did not have the right computer name (even though it had, correctly, joined the domain).

As a test, I used dism to extract the Windows 11 Enterprise .wim from the stock install.wim for Windows 11 22H2 and used it as my OS on the same deployment share. That one ran through "Getting Ready", "Just a moment...", and "Please keep your PC on and plugged in." and DID come up with the right name.

So something is different between the stock image and the recaptured image that's causing some part of the task sequence to not work properly.

I've been looking over the logs, but haven't seen any errors that jump out at me (not even sure which log to look at for issues at that point in the task sequence).

Has anyone else had this issue? Is it something with the standard unattend.xml that needs to change for more complex images, or is there something I need to do when I sysprep?

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query.

Kindly follow the steps provided below to resolve your query.

Answer files (or Unattend files) can be used to modify Windows settings in your images during Setup. You can also create settings that trigger scripts in your images that run after the first user creates their account and picks their default language.

Windows Setup will automatically search for answer files in certain locations, or you can specify an unattend file to use by using the /unattend: option when running Windows Setup (setup.exe).

Go to this link for your reference and additional troubleshooting procedures https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/update-windows-settings-and-scripts-create-your-own-answer-file-sxs

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/windows-setup-automation-overview

If the answer is helpful kindly click "ACCEPT AS ANSWER" and up vote it

Answer 2

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Q&A forum.

1,Please help check the netsetup.log, smsts.log, setupact.log on the client to see if there is any useful information.

2,If possible, we can download the Windows 11 OS image from Microsoft volume center and build a reference workgroup computer, then re-capture a reference image to have a try.

3.Also make sure do not skip OOBE steps in your CustomSettings.ini.

Thanks for your time. Have a nice day!

Best regards,

Simon

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Answer 3

Hi,

Thanks very much for your information.

1,If you are using a virtual machine to sysprep and capture, please make sure the virtual machine does not have Internet access during the build and capture process.

2,If possible, we can use a Windows 11 21H2 OS to check if it can work fine.

Refer to: Building a Windows 11 21H2 Reference Image using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

Best regards,

Simon