Need help with WDS unattended install and license key

[Joy]

I am learning to use WDS to deploy WinXP to computers in an
organization where I volunteer. So far I’ve managed to install and
configure WDS, capture an image, and deploy an image.

I’ve run into two issues that I don’t understand, despite a lot of
searching. 1) how do I perform an unattended installation, and 2)
what license key do I use in the answer file? This organization does
not have a volume license.

The organization uses HP laptops which all have the same hardware.
The laptops were purchased with WinXP Pro installed, and then reimaged
with Windows Table PC. The employee who did this imaging is gone, and
left no notes on how he handled the license key. I captured an image
from one of these laptops. Now we want to be able to reimage laptops
as needed, for example if a laptop is found to be infected.

Thank you.

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

WDS handles legacy operating systems diffently, you have to create a
folder structure containing sysprep.inf manually (and specify the
product key in it)

Check the "Known issues performing an unattended installation" in this
article

Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Deployment Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766320.aspx

As for licesning, XP has "reimaging rights", meaning, if you have a
volume license media (and key), you are allowed to count your oem
licenses as well... talk with your local microsoft representative and
they can help you.

Regards

Johan Arwidmark
Microsoft MVP - Setup / Deployment
http://www.deployvista.com'

 

[Joy]

WDS handles legacy operating systems diffently, you have to create a
folder structure containing sysprep.inf manually (and specify the
product key in it)

Check the "Known issues performing an unattended installation" in this
article

Step-by-Step Guide for Windows Deployment Serviceshttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766320.aspx

As for licesning, XP has "reimaging rights", meaning, if you have a
volume license media (and key), you are allowed to count your oem
licenses as well... talk with your local microsoft representative and
they can help you.

Regards

Johan Arwidmark
Microsoft MVP - Setup / Deploymenthttp://www.deployvista.com'








- Show quoted text -

Thank you for your response. I have created the sysprep.inf file. In
the strucure "D:\RemoteInstall\Images\Windows XP\winxpsp2\$OEM$\
$1\sysprep\sysprep.inf)", what do I put in place of "$OEM$" and
"$1"?

In the absense of a volume license, what can put as a license key in
the sysprep.inf file?

Thanks again,
Joy

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

$1 and $OEM$ are named like that...

As for the license, if you want to deploy a new VLK image you need to
provide it when creating that image (unattend.txt), and normally you
provide it in sysprep.inf when deploying the image as well....

Regards

Johan Arwidmark
Microsoft MVP - Setup / Deployment
http://www.deployvista.com