Solved Clean install probs with preview release 26100.560 unless I use "Previous Version of Setup". How to do that in unattended setup?

hsehestedt · May 26, 2024

Tagging @garlin on this post. Garlin, I suspect that you are one of the few who may have some insight this with your unattended installation experience.

I'm experiencing some odd difficulties with both manual and unattended setup on Windows 11 24H2.

Let me give you all the symptoms and information that I have thus far to see if any of this gives you any ideas.

First, let's put unattended setup aside because I suspect that this symptom has something to do with the problem.

If I attempt to install Windows 24H2 manually, without unattended setup by booting from my USB Flash Drive, I will see the first screen that asks for the language and the time and currency format. The second screen asks for keyboard settings. On the third screen I have to select whether I want to install Windows or repair my PC. Also on that same screen is an option "Previous Version of Setup". The next screen asks for the product key (I select "I don't have a product key"), I select Windows 11 Pro as the edition to be installed, accept the license key, and finally select the disk to install to. A recap screen is shown, and I click on "Install".

At this point I get a couple of messages such as one telling me to wait while setup gets everything ready. Finally, the screen where files start getting copied pops up for a fraction of second and I get a popup that simply says that installation failed.

Remember that option that says "Previous Version of Setup"? If I select that, then installation proceeds just fine with no problem whatsoever.

Now let's add unattended setup to the mix...

If I try to use unattended setup on a physical machine, it won't work. I get the "installation failed" message.

On a VM, I also get the that message but I did find a workaround.

To explain this, you need to know that I use two different options.

<InstallTo>
<DiskID>0</DiskID>
<PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
</InstallTo>

OR

<InstallFrom>
<MetaData wcm:action="add">
<Key>/IMAGE/INDEX</Key>
<Value>6</Value>
</MetaData>
</InstallFrom>

If I specify an "InstallTo" it will fail. It works on 23H2. If I leave that off and use the "InstallFrom" by itself, I am prompted to select the disk to install to (I want this to happen), then unattended setup will proceed fine. On a physical machine (tried 3 machines), even this option fails.

Note first that this only works in a VM, not on a physical machine. Second, I have 100% verified that disk 0 is the correct disk in each of these scenarios.

Any thoughts on this?

I still plan to do additional testing so if that yields any new info I'll add it to this thread.

garlin · May 26, 2024

I haven't tried installing any of the 24H2 images, but my experience is a bare-bones XML which uses InstallTo / InstallFrom, requires a blank or populated ProductKey to pass Setup's muster.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
        <settings pass="windowsPE">
                <component name="Microsoft-Windows-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">
                        <ImageInstall>
                                <OSImage>
                                        <InstallTo>
                                                <DiskID>0</DiskID>
                                                <PartitionID>3</PartitionID>
                                        </InstallTo>
                                </OSImage>
                        </ImageInstall>
                        <UserData>
                                <ProductKey>
                                        <Key></Key>
                                </ProductKey>
                        </UserData>
                </component>
        </settings>
</unattend>

If Setup failed, you can still open a CMD window and browse the X:\Windows\Panther and Panther\UnattendGC logs. Sometimes it's just easier to copy those logs from X: back to the USB drive, and read them in a normal Windows environment.

hsehestedt · May 26, 2024

Ah, yes. I wasn't sure where logs were located. I'll take a look at that.

BTW, I do have the key in my answer file. Bear in mind that the exact same answer file works fine in 23H2.

Thanks for the suggestion.

hsehestedt · May 26, 2024

Garlin, this is very interesting.

Nothing useful there, but I did find another log file, X:\Windows\setupact.log. This is the entire contents of that log:

2024-05-26 19:23:10, Info UI Determining whether we should run ConX or legacy setup
2024-05-26 19:23:10, Info UI Will launch ConX setup experience
2024-05-26 19:23:11, Info [setup.exe] UnattendSearchExplicitPath: Found unattend file at [D:\autounattend.xml]; examining for applicability.
2024-05-26 19:23:11, Info [setup.exe] UnattendSearchExplicitPath: Found usable unattend file for pass [windowsPE] at [D:\autounattend.xml].
2024-05-26 19:23:11, Info UI Initializing Media class driver for audio support
2024-05-26 19:23:12, Info UI Initializing media class driver status: 0
2024-05-26 19:23:12, Info UI Launching ConX setup experience
2024-05-26 19:23:12, Info UI Inspecting ConX Setup Cmdline
2024-05-26 19:23:12, Info UI Launching X:\Sources\SetupPrep.exe /boot

So, I'm starting to think that I am correct. Remember how I said that even a manual install fails if I use that new setup experience? Apparently, unattended setup is using that experience. I would imagine that the new ADK must have a switch to tell it to use "legacy setup". Now I just have to figure out if this exists somewhere and what it is.

hsehestedt · May 26, 2024

Follow up: Looks like I may be wrong. Found logs on the internet way back in 2015 with Windows 10 where it also references this ConX setup experience.

I may just have to be patient and wait for final release as I'm sure other people will eventually run into this issue as well.

garlin · May 26, 2024

ConX is some Compatibility mode, for running Setup.exe as an in-place upgrade.

Log files and resolving upgrade errors - Windows Deployment

Learn how to interpret and analyze the log files that are generated during the Windows upgrade process.

learn.microsoft.com

hsehestedt · May 26, 2024

Thanks Garlin. Only problem is that all f those logs, except the setupact.log, are specifically related to upgrades, not clean install, so I don't have those log files.

hsehestedt · May 26, 2024

Okay, I'm going wrap this up and wait until final release to see if anything changes. In the meantime, two more interesting pieces of info to share before I wrap up:

1) I just performed a clean install of Windows 11 24H2 26100.560 preview release on a machine that does not meet Win 11 requirements. I did this as a normal install (not unattended) by booting from a USB flash drive and choosing that option called "Previous Version of Setup". The part that is interesting is that it never complained that I am running on unsupported hardware. I'm sure that will change by the time we hit final release, but for now, no need to work around unsupported hardware.

NOTE: In my case the only thing non-compliant about my system is that it uses a 7th gen Intel CPU rather than the minimum requirement of 8th gen.

2) I have more info about what ConX is. Conx is short for the "Connected Experience" during OOBE. So, when you create a local user account by running "oobe\bypassnro", you are effectively bypassing ConX (at least partially) by running that command.

garlin · May 26, 2024

I think Connected Experience refers to the Connected Devices Platform (CDP), which is required for OOBE. The bypass code probably lives somewhere inside that OOBE workflow.