I am looking for a way to apply an autounattend.xml/unattend.xml after the image has been deployed with Dism to bypass OOBE:

• I have deployed a Windows image with Dism, adding the autoattend.xml to Windows\Panther, as well as Windows/System32/sysprep, but neither of these worked
• If I make a bootable USB and paste the autounattend.xml in the USB's root before installation, it works

1 Answer

You can't, as the unattend.xml is used by Windows Setup, not Dism:

• Windows is installed in seven phases (incl. generalize), with the answer file being applied to the offline image during offlineServicing and specialize, which occurs before auditSystem, auditUser, and oobeSystem:
  • Upon selecting Install: windowsPE
  • Setup boots to WinPE: offlineServicing, specialize
  • Setup boots to applied image: auditSystem, auditUser, oobeSystem

What you're attempting to do is called an LTI/ZTI [Lite/Zero Touch Install]:

1. Mount the WinPE boot.wim → Copy unatennd.xml to Windows\Panther → Unmount image
2. Boot the boot.wim either:
   • via external media [USB]
   • by creating a WinPE boot partition on the HDD

     MakeWinPEMedia /Ufd "C:\WinPE\MountDirectory" F:

     • configure the removal of this partition in the answer file during auditSystem
       ^{(possibly during oobeSystem, but I can't recall)}

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