Customize windows 10 for deployment

Question

Hello,

I am deploying windows 10 and I have used MDT for customise my image.
I need to remove ceratin things such as the background that appears during the installation (see images below), remove the "we are getting things ready", etc.. and just have the company wallpaper background with the microsoft installation info as well as add a wallpaper for lock screen and desktop environment.Also some support for install some apps such as Virtual Box, Adobe reader, OpenVPN and Putty.

These apps must be installed in the background and silently without any user interaction. Could you help me on this? Your support is much appreciated.

]7

Answer 1

Hi, @Ed7
Thank you for posting in Microsoft Q&A forum.

I haven't tried this but I think we can edit its answer file Unattend.xml to customize a deployment task and the related image, Right-click the deployment task sequence, select Properties, select the OS Info tab, and then click Edit Unattend.xml to open it in the Windows System Image Manager (WSIM).
For your reference:
https://win10.guru/windows-deployment-with-mdt-part-3-customize-deployment/
(Please note: Information posted in the given link is hosted by a third party. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy and effectiveness of information.)

For what you can do with an answer file and a more complete reference on this key deployment element, we may refer to:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/unattend/components-b-unattend

For the application installation, return code 1639 means invalid command line argument.

---

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

Hi @Ed7

So, there looks to be two areas you need help with, and lets start here: Are you creating your image in audit mode? If not, I would suggest starting there and installing applications and doing customizations there. You can go into audit mode two ways: via the command line (sysprep /audit) or, preferably, hitting ctrl+shift+F3 on the initial options screen after installing windows. For 21H1 it was the choose language menu, but in previous versions it has been different. I have to do HEAVY customization of my images and I build/install everything in audit mode, capture via MDT, then edit the unattend.xml file (via WSIM in the deployment task in MDT) to copy the administrator profile over the default one. This will allow your specific customizations to stick through the image and apply to everyone. Even if you don't use the CopyProfile feature, you're getting your software installed pre-deployment so that you can customize it per-user if that's what you need to do.

Alternatively, you can go into phase 7 and look at the synchronous installs in the FirstLogonCommands under Microsoft-Windows-shell-setup_neutral. There you can script installs and other things to run on the first logon after coming out of OOBE. I use this to do things like activate windows, office, and run some other processes. You will see that the LTIbootstrap is the first thing in that list, and it needs to stay there, just make your stuff run after that. This isn't the BEST way to deploy software, but it's a way. You can also do it via MDT as part of the imaging process, but I haven't done that successfully.

For your desktop background, you can just use a GPO to assign a background to individuals or groups (or everyone) and it will automatically set it at login. You will have to put it in a shareable space, otherwise the GPO can't apply it.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Answer 3

@Alex Warren It is the first time I am doing this.

I am a bit confused now.
Could you explain the phase 7 you did mention? Are there any tuturial on this as I am confused now.

@AllenLiu-MSFT I have seen those instructions and I have followed those instructions before. Thank you for your help.