Generate autounattend.xml files for Windows 10/11
(schneegans.de)224 points by nixass 3 months ago
224 points by nixass 3 months ago
> My favorite trick is to install with English (World) language to avoid auto-install of all sorts of crap.
Edit: This sounded neat so I tried it. I just loaded up a physical box from a 24H2 ISO on a thumb drive (booted from Ventoy with no special options loaded to bypass the Microsoft Account requirement).
I got an oddball "Something went wrong" / "You can try again, or skip for now" / "OOBEREGION" window with a silly and wholly inappropriate for a corporate-targeted OSA depiction of a dropped ice cream cone (pink flavor, by the look of it). I've definitely never seen this one before.
I clicked "Skip" and then it proceeded thru the OOBE as I'd expect, including demanding an Internet connection.
I added "BypassNRO" to the registry, rebooted, and completed the OOBE with a local account (seeing the same silly ice cream cone again).
Once I got into Windows I found the Start menu looked a little emptier than normal. Memory usage seems a little lower than I'd expect. The running process list is still ridiculously long.
I connected the Ethernet to a network with Internet access and didn't see a huge change.
The Store app doesn't work. It returns "Sorry about that!" / "Something went wrong...".
The Co-Pilot pinned shortcut returns a blue modal error dialog in the Windows 8 style saying "Search Support" / "Something happened on our end ... 0x87E10BC6".
Installing this way definitely did something. I'm just not sure exactly what. It'll be interesting to see what happens when the machine updates. I already see it loading drivers and doing device detects.
Screenshots and step-by-step of the process also here: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-clean-install-windows-11
Update on this machine: After applying all pending updates to-date it has remained clean and runs about 2.7GB memory used at the desktop with nothing foreground open. While that offends my sensibilities in the general sense (remembering running Linux w/ X and Netscape in 8MB of RAM, or Windows XP in 128MB) that doesn't seem bad for what it is.
Yep, mostly thanks to enterprise. There's a group policy for just about anything you could ever imagine you'd want Windows to do (or not do).
Granted, a lot of it isn't super discoverable, or exposed to the user in a pretty GUI (it mostly lives deep within the registry, a good chunk undocumented), but it truly is a general purpose OS in every sense of the word.
Unlike most here I actually like and enjoy using Windows (doubly so with WSLv2 and the new windows terminal), although I'll admit since WSL I pretty much use Windows as if it were another Linux distro. But over the years I've come to learn a lot of the ins and outs of what it can do.
That said, if Microsoft continues down this MS account, consumer hostile behavior even more it's going to be time for me to say my goodbyes to windows.
The level of workarounds that windows requires never cease to amaze me.
My favorite is that even Microsoft themselves maintain MIT licensed debloat scripts of their own software.
https://github.com/microsoft/windows-dev-box-setup-scripts/b...
That's wild. They should at least give you some Microsoft dollars for their company store :)
Workarounds to what?
Windows, just like any other operating system, has its set of contrivances for different functions (in this case automated installation). Having used RedHat Kickstart I don't see it as hugely different.
Workarounds on Linux systems are necessary for possible hardware compatibility issues or bugs which are not intentional.
Workarounds for commercial OSes are necessary to avoid user-hostile behaviors that are completely intentional and likely to get worse over time.
have you tried installing win11 and creating an account without internet access?
After their most recent shenanigans, the writing is on the wall, the nails are in the coffin - https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-systems/microsoft...
They've disabled the ability to finish Windows installation without having an internet connection and connecting your Microsoft account.
> According to a Windows Insider blog post announcing Preview build 26200.5516 (KB5054687) the bypassnro.cmd script has been removed in order to "enhance security and user experience of Windows 11."
> "This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account."
lol.
Never been a better time to jump ship to Linux, honestly. I held out for ages because I was a princess and wanted everything to be perfect. I used Linux 24x7 as an admin and developer, but from afar and never locally as my daily driver. Finally bit the bullet July '23 and it has been nothing but smooth sailing.
I just deployed three new Windows 11 Pro machines yesterday (two HP, one Dell) with local accounts. The HP OEM image was pre-24H2 so it doesn't count, but the Dell machine was 24H2.
I booted to the OOBE, hit <SHIFT>-<F10>, ran:
REG ADD HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1
shutdown -r -t 1 -f
I assume this is being posted/upvoted in terms of “workaround for Microsoft Account requirement”. I actually mostly like Windows, but that particular thing they're pushing is more infuriating than any other, and there have been lots of others.
See the page's description for “Allow Windows 11 to be installed without internet connection”:
> This effectively runs the oobe\BypassNRO.cmd command, which was discovered by Reddit user AveYo. You still have to click the I don't have internet button during Windows Setup.
> Only check this option if your computer really does not have internet access. If you just want to create local (“offline”) user accounts in Windows 11, you can always do so in the _User accounts_ section of this form.
Thanks for that. I didn't even think about the whole Microsoft Account requirement in the context of unattended installs.
I like Windows quite a bit. I get unreasonably angry when the ability to see the source code would be useful, or when I can't minimize irritations by recompiling. I feel that way about all closed-source software, though. By and large I'm happy to use it for some things. I've used it a long time. I don't dislike it.
What's happening w/ Windows, though, fills me with frustration and sadness. The Microsoft Account requirement is absolutely asinine. The Windows 10 and later UI changes are ridiculous. The continued push to take away user rights on computers they own, by sinking DRM tendrils deeper into the OS, is frustrating.
It feels like developers w/ little to no real world experience using Windows and who have no ability to stand up to the whims of UI "designers" (who also don't seem to acutally use Windows), sales and marketing, and the copyright cartels have been put in charge of Windows.
I just stick to qubes, thanks but nothanks. To treat every OS as hostile seems to be the sane solution these days.
Using Qubes is orthogonal to what operating systems you're running as guests within it. Every OS is hostile, if only passively (leaking information to the network in the myriad of ways that have become acceptable today, for example).
Since i‘ve been doing this sort of thing for many years here are some basic rules: - Get LTSC (W10) or IoT/Enterprise (W11) images to begin with - Get https://www.ntlite.com/ .. you won‘t find any other tool which does a better job at removing packages, adding drivers, etc. Worth every penny with great support. - Use GroupPolicies to configure your system. Take the time and download them for Office, Edge, Chrome, Firefox and update those that come with Windows. - Integrate drivers not only for the base image but also in the recovery and setup image. - Install a firewall (binisoft is fine) - Use NextDNS - If you don’t mind the security implications: Disable Defender, SmartScreen, BootGuard and VBS (use bcdedit) - Disable Microcode loading (delete the DLL) - Disable Spectre/Meltdown mitigations - If you need Office: Use the LTSC version
Most third party tools are outdated or do stupid stuff which isn’t needed. You can silence Windows with the right GroupPolicies quite easy.
Exactly what is this trying to achieve? Running a third party tool to modify the OS, disabling security features, using "downloaded" group policies (what policies?), and sending all your DNS traffic to a third party (when on PC it's possible to just modify the etc/hosts file) -- these aren't exactly the best security practices. The only reasonable suggestion is the IoT Windows version.
Agreed with the "what does this achieve". In Corporate environments you would use SCCM or simply the Windows ADK plus WDS.
Installing a custom Firewall and Antivirus ist straight counteproductive, as ist disabling security features... obvisouly.
Downloading and installing group policies however is often required and a typical enterprise scenario.
Whenever I hear people praise these kind of things I know they don't really have any professional knowledge. It's fine to configure your own system, but suggesting these things SHOULD be done pisses me off to no end.
Seems i lack a lot of professional knowledge so please enlighten me on how you would do it.
Why use ADK or SCCM for a personal install?
The custom firewall is just a frontend for the builtin firewall.
GP reg keys are used by many third party tools to alter the system. So why use extra software if you can get this directly from the vendor?
And also a rant about anti virus: What do think is the first thing malware does? How does your system get infected if you are using an updated browser, open mails in it and use it for viewing attachments like PDF? Maybe there is even malware out there that does take advantage of high jacking the anti virus and its system priviliges? But who knows… it always depends on the user and the use case.
Make the system need way less ressouces and get way more raw compute power.
There‘s a reason i wrote a hint about the security. If you keep this in mind and know what you are doing (like take such a setup as a base for VMs) this totally fine.
I am also not aware of any Spectre/Meltdown exploits ever to be found in the wild. If you are not running on a shared system i don’t see a need for those mitigations.
Regarding the third party tool: NTlite uses `dism` under the hood with which you can achieve the same results. You are already sending your DNS to a third party (like your ISP).
You also should never ever alter the hosts file and abuse it for ad blocking and such.
Microsoft supplies the latest group policies for their software. Or how else do you handle those on a local system?
I never said my post was about security but on how to alter your local system in a „more correct“ way with a clear hint about security. If you don’t know what you are doing then you should think twice when touching your system.
> Always show file extensions; Use classic context (right-click) menu; Show End task command in the taskbar; Hide search box; Do not show Bing results when searching; Enable long paths; Prevent Windows Update from rebooting your computer; ...
I'd definitely love a .reg file generator website like this one, to apply some of these settings after the fact!
You could achieve this with the “Run Custom Scripts” option and the appropriate Registry values:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys\Flags="506"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\MouseKeys\Flags="58"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys\Flags="58"
For Debian it's trivial to do so. `debconf-set-selections` is your friend, if you want something for unattended installations you can embed that into `live-boot` or into FAI.
[1] https://manpages.debian.org/testing/debconf/debconf-set-sele...
So have I, having failed to manage installing Win 11 without a MS account in the end. Actually I only wanted to complete a dual-boot Win 10/11 setup without having to haphazardly install Win 11 on top later, not actually use Win 11.
I could have used it a decade ago!
Now could someone please fix the BCD store mess?
Unattend has been part of windows setup for way longer than a decade.
The current form of it was introduced in Vista.
The same concept existed before, but I know less about how it worked back then.
Even without unattend, something I think people don't realize is that you can install windows on the command line. Diskpart to partition, dism /apply-image to extract files, then bcdboot to install the bootloader.
I've used unattend.xml to put C:\Users on a hard drive, leaving the rest on a SSD, so I don't need to think about what files go where. Documentation specifically warns against doing it that way, but I ran Windows 7 and 10 that way for over 12 years with precisely 0 issues with it.
Now I run Linux with / on a hard drive and /usr on SSD.
GP's just returning to the Unix style, though they typically had /usr on NAS (which is why some things were in /bin instead of /usr/bin, for example.)
My favorite trick is to install with English (World) language to avoid auto-install of all sorts of crap. Windows Store won't work in this mode, but it's just a matter of reverting to your preferred language after first boot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/15gk07n/english_...
Edit: in my experience, changing the language to something else immediately after install is done still adds the crapware automatically. I think I needed to reboot once or twice for whatever post-install service Windows runs to no longer get executed.