Since my last post about the Windows Deployment Service (wds) I have been using it a little. Partly because the legacy images would no longer update the precompiled INF files and partly because I thought I should move the images I use to the current version.

When I first configured the server I was a little confused on how to get the images to install in an unattended mode. I was still needing to install Windows Server 2003 images and everything I had read said that you cannot use unattended mode with XP or 2003.

Eventually I found some other guys who had managed to deploy Windows XP. The information they had helped me a lot. So I thought I would add them here for anyone else who is having similar issues.

How to Deploy Windows XP Professional Using Windows Deployment Services (WDS)

Unattended XP Installs With Windows Deployment Services

These helped me a lot. But I still didn’t quite understand one aspect. That was where exactly the unattend.xml was configured. Eventually it clicked.

wdsmmc

Now I have the server imaging correctly using unattended installations of Windows Server 2003. It works quite well.

Don’t forget if you have any questions ask away and I’ll try and help you.

Hope it helps.