autounattend.xml generator

Christoph Schneegans has a good script generator for quickly making an autounattend.xml

I know it can be done manually but it is a bit pernickety!


It can set partitions, create user accounts, log in to wifi and remove bloatware. One XML file can be used for multiple architectures

I gave *great support for your use of the word “pernickety”

What about the application of autoattend.xml with future in-place build upgrades? Someone mentioned that I rename the autoattend.xml to unattend.xml and import it in the Windows\System32\Sysprep\ folder of the ISO build (using Anyburn) before doing an in-place upgrade with the newer build ISO. Would this work from preventing future in-place Win11 build upgrades from modifying Win11 from the clean installation state of Win11 that was initially set by the clean-install autoattend.xml ?

PlateauRealm said:

What about the application of autoattend.xml with future in-place build upgrades?

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Help me understand - why would you want to use an answer file for an in-place upgrade? An answer file is intended for a clean installation of Windows, not an upgrade.

With an answer file, you provide all the details to setup that you would normally supply manually. For example, what language do you want to use, what keyboard layout do you wish to use, what is your time zone, what is the name of the user account that you want to create, etc.

With an upgrade, none of that information is needed because it has already been supplied and Windows has been installed with those options. When performing an upgrade, Windows will simply carry-over those existing options so there is no need to supply that information once again using an answer file.

If I'm misunderstanding, please do let me know.

You answered my question perfectly. Thank you. I was concerned that performing a later in-place upgrade to a later build would install a good deal of the bloat back which was blocked by the initial boot installation autounattend.xml file.

PlateauRealm said:

You answered my question perfectly. Thank you. I was concerned that performing a later in-place upgrade to a later build would install a good deal of the bloat back which was blocked by the initial boot installation autounattend.xml file.

Click to expand...

That may still happen, but it should take mere seconds to uninstall those few items that it adds.