Create Answer File using Windows 7 AIK (Automated Installation Kit)

Learn how to create and verify an answer file using Windows 7 AIK (Automated Installation Kit)

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Closed Caption:

hello and welcome in this demonstration
I'm going to show you how to use the
windows seven automated installation kit
specifically the windows system image
manager to create a distribution share
and then an automated answer file to
help you automate the installation of
windows seven and today's automated
answer file we're going to go ahead and
modify some settings to set up a disk
partition with the appropriate partition
settings in which windows seven will be
installed
so to get started the first thing we
need to do today is launched our
microsoft windows automated installation
kit and then launch the window system
image managers so i'm going to click on
start go to all programs choose the
microsoft windows aik and then choose
the windows system image manager when
the windows system image manager is open
the next step is to create a
distribution share the distribution
share is where other computers would
access the answer file from a notice
weaving in an error message the share is
not a valid distribution share
so we need to go up to tools create a
distribution
share
and we need to create the share at the c
drive and we're just going to go ahead
and give it a name of share for now so
we'll open that up and we now have a
distribution share from here we need to
add the appropriate windows image to our
distribution share
so i'm going to go ahead and click on
file and then select windows image
I've got a 2008 r2 server over here
which has all the windows seven images
on it already and an iso format so i'm
going to use a network path to locate a
the appropriate windows image file so
i'm going to go ahead and look for / / r
WD c 0 1 which is the name of my 2008
server / downloads which is the
SharePoint or entry into that server
where the files are located
/ and then i am going to choose when
seven for all notice I've got two
options here x86 and x64 i'm going to
choose x64 because i'm working with a 60
feet 64-bit operating system but if you
have a 32-bit OS please feel free to use
the x86 files
so we're going to choose the x64 option
and then i'm going to put a slash behind
that and I want to type in sources /
install . whim
i'm going to open this up and I have to
select an image and that's okay
this is actually a good sign i'm going
to choose windows 7 professional for
this scenario but you can choose
whichever image you would like to choose
you can choose home basic home premium
professional or ultimate remember that
windows seven only has one media kit
all versions of the operating system are
on that media kit and dependent upon the
license key
that will determine which image you
install as you deploy windows seven
manually for now we're going to automate
windows 7 professional and will click on
ok so we've now just added the source
file sort of speak to our windows system
image manager
so the next step is to create a new
answer file so i'm going to click on
file new answer file
great and from here we need to browse
down into components so we'll go down
into the windows image windows 7
professional components category and now
we're looking specifically for disc so
i'm using AMD 64 which is 64-bit
processor and i'm going to scroll down
till I get to Windows setup
AMD Microsoft Windows setup and if i
expand that i can now go to disk
configuration and if i expand that i can
select disk and now you'll see I've got
create partitions and modified
partitions browsing to this area is
going to allow me to create an answer
file that will configure my disk drives
as I roll out windows seven in an
automated fashion
so the first thing i want to do is
create a partition in my fictitious
answer file so i'm going to right click
on create partition and i'm going to add
setting to pass one of windows PE
windows pc is the pre-installation
environment and I need to configure
discs and pass one you'll see that's the
only option because the windows
operating system will be well under
installation in the additional passes so
I'm going to add setting to pass one
windows PE and you'll see up here now
we've got one windows PE 64-bit OS disk
configuration dis create partitions
create partition
and i also want to modify my petitions
so i'm going to go back to my image box
and expand modified partitions and right
click on modify partition and i'm going
to add setting to pass one windows PE as
well so now my answer file
I need to start adding the appropriate
configuration settings i'm going to
start by clicking on disk and inside of
disc
I'd like to give it a disc ID of 0
so i'm going to type in 0 / that that
just means it's the first physical disk
and from here I want to set will wipe
disc too true
it's essentially saying erase the disk
before you continue on and now i want to
create my partition information so i'm
going to highlight create partition and
i need to add some additional data for
the computer here so I want to extend it
true
and then I want to set the order to one
which is essentially saying it's the
first partition and the size type or the
type i guess is just going to be primary
i'm not going to set the size and then
in the modified partition properties we
want to set it active so active
partition true form at will be ntfs
let's give it a label and we'll call it
windows
and then let's give it a drive letter of
sea and the order once again will remain
one so we'll type 1 in there and the
partition ID will remain one
so now we need to validate our answer
file so if we go up to tools validate
answer file you'll see that no warnings
or errors has shown up in my messages
box if there were anything wrong with
the settings i had just documented like
maybe they were conflicting settings or
their errors
I'd get a message here and that have to
fix it but because there are no warnings
or errors
let's continue on here so i need to
create the configuration set now which
is essentially creating the answer file
so i'm going to go ahead and go up to
tools and choose to create the
configuration set and I need to select
the target folder for the configuration
set so i'm going to go ahead and put
that in my C Drive in the folder called
share and i need to give it a folder
named let's just call it configset
and we'll open that up and we'll click
OK the folder does not exist you want to
create it
yes I do and our configuration set has
been created successfully and you can
click on OK to that message and then
that is the end of creating a answer
file using the windows system image
managers so we're going to close the
windows system image manager and one
last thing we can do to validate it
really is there if we browse our C Drive
and if we go to that share folder
there's the configset folder we just
created and inside of it here's our auto
on a 10 file
it's an xml document and if we right
click it and edit the file we can look
at some of the settings we created so
we've got create partition ad will
extend it with an order of one it's a
primary partition
it's an active partition that will be
ntfs and the label is called windows
so sure enough this is our own a tent
file that we have just created using the
windows seven automated installation kit
and the windows system image manager and
that's how you set up these utilities
and create an answer file that will be
the end of today's demonstration i
created an answer file using the windows
automated installation kit
thank you for watching this is brick
house labs . com
and I hope you enjoy future videos take
care