Help to Customize Windows 11 Install

Good morning everyone, I would like to thank anyone who can shed some light on the problems I am having.

I am trying to customize a W11 installation completely. For that I have two files, autounattend and unattend. It goes ahead that both one and the other in Windows 10 there was no problem for it to work correctly. The problem has come to me, at the time of doing it under Windows 11 24H2.

When in the installation of Windows 11, I do the sysprep with the unattend.xml, the system does what I indicate without any problem. By means of powershell I capture the vhdx of Windows 11 24H2, to turn it into a file .WIM, that later I integrate in an iso to deploy it. As indicated, the file autounattend.xml the file must be in the root of the ISO, so that it does everything necessary to install windows at the beginning (basically I use it to partition the hard disk, the serial number, and little else).

The installation proceeds, and once the system is installed, and OOBE is done, the system does everything I have told it both in autounattend and unattend, but, and I emphasize that but, once I get to the login of the user that has been created, it goes into a continuous buble of autologin and logout.

I would be grateful to anyone who controls the windows customizations, because I, honestly, I do not know where to go, and I am lost.

Thank you in advanced.

Off the top of head I'm not spotting anything that stands out. But a question to help me narrow the focus:

On the reference system, after you created the new install.wim image, did you boot the reference system normally without the autounattend.xml? If so, did it experience that loop or does that happen only with the autounattend.xml in place?

The loop has started to play, when we decided to change the image on which it was made. As they have already decided to migrate to windows 11 (big mistake, they should have done it before), I migrate the image I had of windows 10, and perform the step I indicated above. Doing a test in the virtual machine, the system deploys it, but I got that error. I decide to create the model again from 0, installing Windows 11 and perform the same process and that is where it fails.

Last night I did a test, modifying these parameters in unattend.xml.
<SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>.
<SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>

Putting both in false, the installation of windows completes, and when finishing in the OOBE process, it asks me the name of the machine and user, so it is correct, but I also observe that the user that I indicate to be created, is created, but I can not login in that user (it gives the famous error), but, if I start the virtual machine that I used to capture that sysprep, the machine starts correctly with that user that gives error.

Any suggestions?

Than you in advance

SkipMachineOOBE & SkipUserOOBE are deprecated in W10 & 11, but still work.

You should avoid using them, because in some instances when you don't specify all the OOBE details, it will result in a "broken" setup where you can't logon. Anything that isn't properly listed in the unattended file, OOBE will stop and ask you to provide the details. Skipping it means you completely understand what's needed and take full responsibility for finishing what OOBE would have done with user provisioning.

If both parameters, as you indicate are being depreciated in Windows 10 & Windows 11, what parameters should I set to create a local user, automatically, without having to enter the data myself?

I find it strange, because as I indicated in W10 or W11, they work, but if I create an answer file with Windows ADK, the parameters of which we are talking about, it has them and allows to assign them.

So I come to another crossroads, which way should I go?

Once again, Than you in advance.

The point of an unattended file is you can configure as much as you want, or as little as you want. If you don't explicitly create a local user, OOBE will be forced to follow the user account creation process.

Now WSIM from the ADK is a different problem, it has a "set" way of doing things. I don't use it because I've learned to build unattended files by hand. There's nothing wrong with Skip*OOBE if you're aware of what's going on. Sometimes if you're not generalizing (resetting the user profiles), Skip can be used because your capture contains a working user profile.

I'll defer to someone else, since I don't use WSIM.

But I know Skip can be more harmful than helpful. More setup errors are visible when you don't use it.

I know that the unattend.xml file is correct, and I reason it, in my old job, the images and deployments were done with Ivanti, so what I had to do was little less than capture the image and create the user, everything else was done with deployment, so all the parameters of the XML, were more than controlled (whether or not I had knowledge). What I found strange, is that the user that remains created after the sysprep, gives error (now), if it has the same parameters the xml, what reason is there for it to fail in W11 24h2 and not in W1022H2.

For the rest, I can only thank you for your words and attentions. Unfortunately, as I indicated yesterday, by changing the parameters I can create a new user, so I will redo the capture entering the sysprep in audit mode and deleting the old user and letting it create the new user, to see what happens.....

Thanks a lot.

@garniz Can you help me to create autounattend and unattend to install Windows whitout problems/errors?.

I've been testing for two weeks now, and I keep having problems.

When it automatically formats the disk and starts to install, when it gets to the OOBE point, it asks for machine and user name.

In others it does everything and when it gets to the last reboot at 94%, which is when it is going to start the final process with the OOBE, it tells you that there has been an error and that it cannot install.

I don't even know what to do or what to touch. I would appreciate any help that could help me to get to the right place.

Why don't you post your current unattended file, so everyone can review it. Are you sysprepping the image, or using a non-sysprepped image?

Sorry for the delay, I've been trying things out all day, and the closest I'm getting is right now.

Let me explain where I am.

With autounattend, the system installs windows and partitions the hard disk, and starts to install it.
Everything goes correctly until the time comes to log in with the user I create, and the session starts, and automatically closes (in a loop).

The autounattend file is the one I put in the root of the installation media and the sysprep_IEF.xml file is the one I used as the answer file in the sysprep.

Than you in advance.

There's a number of 24H2 workarounds for a broken sysprep (one or more might solve your problems).

1. Delete \Windows\Panther\unattend*xml, before you perform the capture.

2. Disable BitLocker in the autounattend.xml:

3. Revert WinPE Setup to the legacy client.

As always, thank you all for your invaluable help.

Let's go by parts.

1º I doubt that there is something in the route you indicate, since it is a completely new installation. Install O.S., insert software and capture.
2º Before capturing the image, I disable bitlocker with Disable-BitLocker -MountPoint “C:” and until with manage-bde -status, does not reach 0% I do not get to capture it. I know that with the xml, you can disable it, but I am classic for some things and I like to do it old school.

3º I will see how this affects me, since my installation does not inherit anything.

In this video, i will guide you through the process of automating the installation of Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Got it!!!

And I obfuscated in doing it with sysprep, and then formatting with autounattend, and I could have done it exclusively with autounattend.......

Here is a sample file I use, please refer to it.

[EN] Windows 11 24H2 Previous Version Setup autounattend.xml