Solved Autounattend Install <ProductKey> Setting Cannot be Read from Answer File

harshkapadia · Mar 21, 2024

Hello,

I have been trying to do an auto-unattended Windows 11 Pro install, but am facing issues.

During the Setup phase when the screen displays 'Setup is starting', I get the following error message:

setuperr.log:

autounattend.xml located at root of ISO:

XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
    <settings pass="windowsPE">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="wow64" 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>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Setup" processorArchitecture="wow64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <DiskConfiguration>
                <Disk wcm:action="add">
                    <CreatePartitions>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                            <Size>500</Size>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <Size>100</Size>
                            <Type>EFI</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>3</Order>
                            <Size>128</Size>
                            <Type>MSR</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                        <CreatePartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <Extend>true</Extend>
                            <Type>Primary</Type>
                        </CreatePartition>
                    </CreatePartitions>
                    <ModifyPartitions>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>1</Order>
                            <PartitionID>1</PartitionID>
                            <TypeID>DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC</TypeID>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                            <Label>WinRE</Label>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Format>FAT32</Format>
                            <Label>System</Label>
                            <Order>2</Order>
                            <PartitionID>2</PartitionID>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
                            <Order>3</Order>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                        <ModifyPartition wcm:action="add">
                            <Order>4</Order>
                            <Letter>C</Letter>
                            <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                            <Label>Windows</Label>
                            <Format>NTFS</Format>
                        </ModifyPartition>
                    </ModifyPartitions>
                    <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                    <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
                </Disk>
                <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
            </DiskConfiguration>
            <ImageInstall>
                <OSImage>
                    <InstallTo>
                        <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                        <PartitionID>4</PartitionID>
                    </InstallTo>
                    <InstallFrom>
                        <MetaData wcm:action="add">
                            <Key>/IMAGE/INDEX</Key>
                            <Value>6</Value>
                        </MetaData>
                    </InstallFrom>
                    <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
                </OSImage>
            </ImageInstall>
            <UserData>
                <ProductKey>
                    <Key>W269N-WFGWX-YVC9B-4J6C9-T83GX</Key>
                    <WillShowUI>Never</WillShowUI>
                </ProductKey>
                <AcceptEula>true</AcceptEula>
                <FullName>test</FullName>
                <Organization>test</Organization>
            </UserData>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="offlineServicing">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-LUA-Settings" 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">
            <EnableLUA>false</EnableLUA>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" 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">
            <SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="specialize">
        <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>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX" 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">
            <SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
        </component>
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-SQMApi" 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">
            <CEIPEnabled>0</CEIPEnabled>
        </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">
            <ComputerName>test</ComputerName>
            <ProductKey>W269N-WFGWX-YVC9B-4J6C9-T83GX</ProductKey>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <settings pass="oobeSystem">
        <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">
            <AutoLogon>
                <Password>
                    <Value>test</Value>
                    <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                </Password>
                <Username>test</Username>
                <Enabled>false</Enabled>
            </AutoLogon>
            <OOBE>
                <VMModeOptimizations>
                    <SkipAdministratorProfileRemoval>false</SkipAdministratorProfileRemoval>
                </VMModeOptimizations>
                <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
                <HideOEMRegistrationScreen>true</HideOEMRegistrationScreen>
                <HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
                <HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
                <ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
                <UnattendEnableRetailDemo>false</UnattendEnableRetailDemo>
                <HideLocalAccountScreen>true</HideLocalAccountScreen>
            </OOBE>
            <UserAccounts>
                <LocalAccounts>
                    <LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
                        <Password>
                            <Value>test</Value>
                            <PlainText>false</PlainText>
                        </Password>
                        <Description>Primary Local Account</Description>
                        <DisplayName>test</DisplayName>
                        <Group>Administrators</Group>
                        <Name>test</Name>
                    </LocalAccount>
                </LocalAccounts>
            </UserAccounts>
        </component>
        <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>
            <UserLocale>en-US</UserLocale>
        </component>
    </settings>
    <cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="wim:c:/users/test/downloads/windows-iso-files/win11_23h2_english_x64v2-2/sources/install.wim#Windows 11 Pro" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>

The key I am using is the Windows 11 Pro generic/stock key available at Key Management Services (KMS) client activation and product keys for Windows Server and Windows .

Does anyone know what the issue is and how I can resolve it?

Thank you!

garlin · Mar 21, 2024

Do you really have a KMS server in this network? When you specify <ProductKey> in the specialize pass, Setup will immediate try to acquire a license.

If your goal is just to image a box (and worry about licensing later), W10 & 11 answer files don't actually require any products keys. The exception is if you're using a generic key to auto-select the right Windows SKU from a multi-edition ISO. But that doesn't match your case, since you're selecting a specific image number.

harshkapadia · Mar 21, 2024

Oh okay, I didn't realise that there needs to be a KMS server on the network. Sorry!

I definitely don't care about licensing the Windows 11 Pro VMs that I'm creating, because they're going to be used for relatively short durations.

I just tried three installations:
- Removed the ProductKey element from the Specialize pass but kept the one in the WindowsPE pass as is.
- Removed the ProductKey element from the Specialize pass and kept the one in the WindowsPE pass empty.
- Removed ProductKey elements from both, the Specialize pass and WindowsPE pass.

All three didn't work, so maybe I'm supposed to do something else? (I'm getting the same error as in the original post.)

garlin · Mar 21, 2024

Are you using WSIM to create this answer file, or modifying an existing file?

1. Why are there "wow64" headers? Normally it's "amd64" or "x86".

Code:

<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core-WinPE" processorArchitecture="wow64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">

2. There's no real need to repeat locale info in "specialize" pass.
3. Why did you add AutoLogon for an user, but disabled it?
4. Panther setupact.log will normally have more background info on why this failed, don't just read setuperr.log. That log only has the literal error, but no context of where in the install it failed.

I'm presume you're learning to write answer files, as this file has out-of-order lines. Windows doesn't really care; but it doesn't look like most publicly available examples, or what automated tools would write. My advice is start with a basic XML, and then keep layering on sections as your confidence in a working copy grows. There's a few errors here like passwords are provided in plain-text, but aren't marked as such.

hsehestedt · Mar 21, 2024

harshkapadia,

I'm going to repeat my suggestion to look at Kari's tutorial as I mentioned in your other thread. In that tutorial it includes the correct generic retail product keys and also has a link to an article that lists all of those keys. Again, what you want is the generic "Retail key" for the edition you wish to install (Home, Pro, etc.) and NOT the KMS key.

In the amount of time that you have spent trying to get this to work, you could have simply followed the tutorial and had this working. As noted in your other thread, you do not need to setup a reference system so completion of the autounattend.xml answer file can be accomplished very quickly.

I will also repeat that if you simply follow the steps as I have outlined I will GUARANTEE success.

Sometimes it is simply easiest (and quickest!) to just start from scratch and do it right.

The first time that you go through this, it may take you a little bit longer, but I can easily create a answer file 100% from scratch in well under 10 minutes now that I am used to the process.

harshkapadia · Apr 3, 2024

Thank you all, this worked for me. A combination of @garlin, @hsehestedt and @Kari's advice and tutorials helped.

The modified tutorial that @hsehestedt mentioned in another thread of mine: Unattend.xml Missing on Booting.

hsehestedt · Apr 3, 2024

harshkapadia said:
Thank you all, this worked for me. A combination of @garlin, @hsehestedt and @Kari's advice and tutorials helped.

The modified tutorial that @hsehestedt mentioned in another thread of mine: Unattend.xml Missing on Booting.

Fantastic! Glad to hear that you got it working. Thanks for taking the time to post your results. Please do let us know if you should need any further assistance.