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In addition to one of my previous questions how to make an Unattended Windows 8.1 installation ISO, I had the following thought; lets say, your wanting to make a custom Windows installation for a company.

The problem is, in that company they have 5 different models of computers, wich all require different drivers. Can you make some kind of condition to check for the PC model and then install that driver for this specific PC? Or do I then need 5 different images?

You also dont wan't to have any user account on this computer, that's for the user to make one. Is this possible to delete all user's before you sysprep your computer and run WinPE on it?

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Bas
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2 Answers2

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I used to do this all the time. You don't need 5 different images although if you have the storage space, it would be simpler and time effective to just make the image and have that be that.

Assuming that you go with the former option I recommend a variation of what was mentioned before. Setup a local server/storage medium that your WinPE can access. This way each computer (WinPE) can have it's own folder for it's specific drivers.

From here it's quite simple if you are familiar with various parts of WinPE and it sounds like you are. Add drivers to an image using the following commands.

Use DoubleDriver to backup any Microsoft or Non-Microsoft drivers. This is super simple and allows you to extract all drivers in the required .inf format.

Mount the install.wim you want to alter:
Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"C:\path\to\install.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:"C:\path\to\MountFolder"

Inject the specific drivers folder:
Dism /Add-Driver /Image:"C:\path\to\MountFolder" /Driver:"C:\path\to\DriverFolder /Recurse"

(If you want to add just one, then point directly to the .inf file and remove /Recurse flag)

Unmount and save your work:
Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:"C:\path\to\MountFolder" /commit

This can easily be added to the unattended.xml process, via bootable command line or the startnet.cmd which is one of the first scripts to be executed during the installation.

Alternatively, you can install a new image to a computer. Press CTRLSHIFTF3 when you're brought to the Windows Setup prompts (Computer name, user name, etc...) and you will be booted into sysprep. From here you can just Restore the drivers file using the first initial DoubleDriver prog. This method may be easier but is has significantly less potential to be automated.

Full documentation on the above suggestion, adding custom commands to startnet.cmd and other WAIK goodies.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824972.aspx

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The idea with imaging multiple pcs with different model numbers and hardware is to using imaging software like SCCM. With that, you can create a single image that then, through task sequences, grabs additional drivers as it detects what's needed during install. It also installs applications, updates, and a bunch of other stuff like joining to a domain during install. It's a fantastic tool.

Does your company have access to SCCM? If not, you can use WDS (Windows Deployment Services and MDT (Microsoft Deployment Toolkit) to create a similar setup. For free (assuming you already have a Windows 2008 server or higher)

** EDIT **

I don't understand all the down voting. SCCM and WDS/MDT are both legimate and arguably the most Microsoft approved methods for achieving this.

Geruta
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