Automating Windows installations includes adding custom
images with preinstalled software and applying an answer
file so it can do the work for you.
I'm booting into the pre‑execution environment so I can connect
to my Windows Deployment Services server,
and we're going to see an IP address here shortly
followed by the prompt to press F12.
Then I'll connect up,
and I'm going to install Windows 10 using just the
plain standard install.wim file,
and then I'm going to go ahead and boot into it and just
confirm that that all works right.
Then I'm going to also do the same thing,
but I'm going to connect to the custom image that
already has software installed.
Here's the Windows 10.
It should now connect into Windows Deployment Services server.
You can see it's loading the files.
And this can definitely take some time.
It really depends on the speed of the server and the
computers that you're connecting to.
But typically it's anywhere from about 10 minutes
all the way up to about an hour.
Windows has been installed,
and it's now booting into Windows 10 for the first time.
And I'm now logged into Windows after answering all the
typical questions after installation.
I'm back in my Windows Deployment Services server,
and before I put into my custom installation,
I want to right‑click on the server and go to Properties.
Then I'll go over to the Client tab,
and I saved my auto unattend file inside this particular
server in my RemoteInstall folder.
So I'm going to go to the RemoteInstall folder,
which is in the root of the C drive, double‑click my WdsClientUnattend,
and grab my file and Apply.
Now any customizations that I've created inside this auto unattend,
such as turning on the firewall automatically,
putting in the username and the password,
etc, maybe even changing the name of the computer,
and hundreds of other settings that can be set up using
the Windows Automated Deployment Kit,
and they're now going to be applied to this custom image
when I boot up using the PXE boot.
So I'm going to switch back over to the client computer and get that started.
Once again,
we're going to get our IP address and then we're going to boot
into our Windows Deployment Services server.
So we should see the IP address and the option to boot using F12 here shortly.
And there it is, and now it's contacting the server.
Now I'm going to choose my Windows 2022,
and it's going to come up with the images that I've saved
in this particular group here shortly.
I'm now presented with a list of different operating systems.
I want to choose my Win22 Custom image.
Click Next, and I'll choose the Unallocated Space and click Next.
And now it's actually running the installation,
and this could take another 10 minutes up to an hour
depending on the speed of your computer.
Windows Server was installed using the custom image, and now it's booting up
for the first time. And now we're at the startup screen.
These are questions I actually did not answer in the auto unattend
answer file, but there are other questions that I did.
I'm going to skip the license for now, we're going to license that
later. Click Accept. It's adding in the personalized settings that
I had set up in my auto unattend, and soon it'll be done, I'll be
able to start using it.
One of the things I want to check is if it has the application that I
installed on the custom install that was created earlier,
which was PuTTY. If it did,
that means that any applications that you can install ahead of time
and then you can Sysprep and then custom use will then be able to be
added into a custom image that you can assign to various different
departments or by operating system.
I'll go down to the Start button, and there is PuTTY.
And I can go ahead and start using it.
Popular programs that you may want to preinstall will be Microsoft Office,
and that would include the entire Office suite and possibly any other custom
applications that you might use in your office.
Since this is a server,
you may also consider Microsoft SQL or some other server application.
Installing basic and custom operating systems using Windows Deployment Server can be a big timesaver for you and your company.